PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 15, 2025
A new report from a left-leaning think tank suggests the state should return land — including Acadia National Park, Baxter State Park, and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument — to the Wabanaki Nations. To do so, the Maine Center for Economic Policy suggests deploying a statewide property tax targeted at large landowners, a sales tax on tourists or issuing bonds. The center’s new report says there is a need for a dramatic restructuring in state-tribal relations to facilitate the return of stolen land and compensation for lost revenue to the Wabanaki Nations because a 1980 settlement has failed to make the tribes whole.