Maine: state treaties violating the Nonintercourse Act and the 1980 settlement

What happened

The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations' claim began with a 1794 land treaty with Massachusetts, which then governed Maine. The Christian Science Monitor reports that under the 1790 Indian Nonintercourse Act "all land deals between whites and Indians in the Eastern United States had to be ratified by Congress." The tribes argued that the deals they had made with Massachusetts and Maine were never ratified.

The Monitor says the case began in 1957 when a Passamaquoddy woman found a 1794 land treaty with Massachusetts. In April 1980 it described a proposed out-of-court settlement. Over eight years of negotiations the tribes might have sued for return of 12.5 million acres and $25 billion in trespassing damages, a threat that hung over Maine's property owners. President Carter wrote that the claims had clouded title to some two-thirds of the State.

President Carter signed the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act in October 1980. The Monitor described the deal the tribes had agreed to as a "$27 million development fund and $54.5 million to buy land from willing private land owners," with 300,000 acres to be returned to the tribes, in exchange for giving up their claim to two-thirds of Maine. The National Library of Medicine timeline records "an out-of-court settlement of $81.5 million in reparation for land taken from tribes." Tribal counsel Thomas Tureen said, "The slate is effectively wiped clean."

Good to know. Whether the 1980 settlement limited tribal sovereignty is contested.

Summarized with AI assistance from 2 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error