Funny how those empty campaign promises that come back to bite you are made all the more painful when your own party goes south on your false claims.
Just ask Janet Mills, who when running against her Republican predecessor complained he wasn’t doing enough for Native Americans.
The governor has left unfilled four seats on the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission.
The board, which is supposed to report to the Legislature on state-tribal affairs and provide feedback on issues that concern the Wabanaki Nations, is also charged with regulating fishing in certain waters and approving additions to reservations.
Mills, who controls six of the 13 seats, vowed on the campaign trail to restore the commission, which she said had been “too long neglected” under former Gov. Paul LePage.
“I will work to enhance the Commission’s authority and responsibilities, making that body a forum for real communication and real problem solving and dispute resolution,” Mills wrote on her 2018 campaign website.
What a difference eight years make.
If the state’s two largest – and Mills-friendly – papers curiously both lead their front pages with your Achilles heel, then you must really have a problem.
“Gov. Mills pledged to revive Maine’s tribal relations board. Most state seats are empty” – a Portland Press Herald headline relayed on Tuesday.
“The Democrats trying to replace Janet Mills run away from her on tribal rights” – reads a Bangor Daily News headline also on August 26.
“Gov. Janet Mills has repeatedly clashed with legislative Democrats on tribal rights,” Bangor Daily reports. “The party’s 2026 gubernatorial candidates are also breaking with her on the issue.“
The split on the sensitive topic shows clear differences between the 77-year-old Mills and younger crop of politicians looking to replace her.
“That field includes her former policy chief and the son of U.S. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and a former governor who has shared the skepticism of sweeping concessions to tribes.”
The four federally recognized tribes have made repeated efforts to let them benefit from federal laws that do not currently apply to them under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, a landmark 1980 settlement that gave tribes in Maine about $81.5 million in exchange for regulating them essentially like cities and towns.
Mills has previously vetoed a sovereignty effort that drew bipartisan support, and the Legislature has failed to override the governor’s moves due to Republican legislators largely siding with Mills.
She argued the proposed changes could lead to legal issues, with the governor’s office saying she has been willing to instead work with the Wabanaki tribes on a narrower, case-by-case basis to change laws.
Mills is apparently still miffed that her Democrat friends helped usher in the Settlement Act (think President Jimmy Carter) to resolve one of the biggest land disputes in U.S. history.
During the time from the separation of Maine from Massachusetts in 1820 until the 1970s the federal government and Maine refused to treat the Wabanaki Tribes within the state’s boundaries as sovereign Indian tribes.
The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Indians had claimed 12.5 million acres in the easternmost part of the state, saying the land was taken in violation of a 1790 Nonintercourse Act, a federal law prohibiting land deals with Indians unless ratified by Congress.
Once again with Mills, Native Americans take a back seat to New Americans, the latter even having a special seat in the Cabinet Room thanks to Janet called “Office of New Americans.”
Term-limited Janet may be a lame duck in the Blaine House but a key question is whether distancing herself from a key demographic could hurt her – especially in Maine’s northern congressional district – if she decides to take on Republican Susan Collins in the 2026 U.S. Senate race.
