And the best news of the day… JM [Governor Janet Mills] signed onto Indigenous People’s Day, making it a statewide holiday. Thanks to all those who worked so hard to make this happen at the municipal level to get the ball rolling and beyond. JM gets all the credit for a swipe of the pen but we know how much work and heart went into this from indigenous leaders and their supporters, etc. ;). I’m also pasting Maria Girouard’s post below too for those who don’t use FB. I appreciated it!
Love,
jacqui
In a Machiavellian plot twist the perpetrator of Penobscot territorial theft is now a hero (?) for tossing us a bone. Holding in my heart our ancestral River and the struggles of countless ancestors before me who fought and died for their rights to their ancestral river, I’m not letting her off the hook.
Nothing short of dropping the state’s position in our 6 year long legal battle, Penobscot Nation v. Janet Mills will change my opinion of that woman. The same woman who is championing the destruction of thousands of acres of Maine land to make way for the CMP corridor to benefit Massachusetts energy needs. The same woman who sat before judiciary committee in 2015 and said that the Penobscot Nation did not have the right to protect their women from violence under the VAWA Re-authorization Act because of the Maine Indian Land Claims – the State’s handy pocket tool for keeping the Tribes oppressed and under their thumb. And another time before the judiciary stated that “there are NO treaties”. In my eyes she is a disgrace no matter what the second Monday in October is called.
Yay! Now we no longer celebrate a genocidal maniac. That is the right thing to do for sure. Now will the State stop acting like a genocidal maniac and drop their stance that the ancient Penobscot Nation contains no portion of our ancestral river. This remains to be seen. N’telnapemnawak.