PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2025
Reuben Elliot “Butch” Phillips, a Penobscot elder, artist, culture-bearer and the former lieutenant governor of the tribe, died Sunday at the age of 85. In the 1970s, Philips was one of the Penobscot representatives on the team that negotiated the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement of 1980. The legislation was viewed by many as the only way for tribes to secure limited compensation for stolen land. It also subjected tribal nations to state government control and excepted them from the sovereignty all other federally recognized tribes have. Its impacts have shaped the work of Maulian Bryant, who served as Penobscot tribal ambassador before she became executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance in January. Bryant’s work today is largely dedicated to unraveling many of the restrictions imposed by the settlement act. Conversations with her great-uncle caused her to shift her thinking. “I never wanted those tribal leaders to feel ashamed or that they did a bad thing, because it was a historic thing and there were good things for the tribe and they were between a rock and a hard place,” she said.