Tribal leaders tell story of push for sovereignty in new Maine-made podcast

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 7, 2021

Decades after a settlement act in Maine gave native peoples the means to potentially buy land but took away many rights, a new Maine-made podcast told through interviews with Wabanaki tribal leaders explains the circumstances behind a long push for self-governance, which may finally be realized in 2022. “Sovereign,” a four-episode podcast, has been released as state legislators prepare to revisit a bill that could restore self-governance to the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy. For decades, tribal leaders have called the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act “a colossal failure.”