Tribes feud with Janet Mills on nominees to state body overseeing historic settlement

AUGUSTA, Maine — Members of a Maine commission on state-tribal relations took offense Thursday to Gov. Janet Mills nominating three people to the panel over their preferred candidates.

That opposition, expressed in a letter from several members of the Maine-Indian Tribal State Commission , was “extraordinary” and unusual, the Democratic governor’s top attorney said Thursday during a confirmation hearing for the three nominees — Lloyd Cuttler of Carrabassett Valley, Gordon Kramer of Enfield and Richard Bronson Jr. of Bangor.

On Thursday, members of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee delayed action on Cuttler and Bronson’s nominations while unanimously approving Kramer, a retired fisheries biologist .

The tension during what is normally a straightforward confirmation process was the latest example of how Mills and the state’s four federally recognized tribes have sparred for years, mostly over tribal sovereignty efforts opposed by the governor . Mills is supporting a proposal this session to expand tribal court jurisdiction but only after again opposing a more sweeping plan to rework a landmark 1980 settlement that saw tribes become regulated like towns.

The Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseets and Mi’kmaq have argued the settlement has kept them from receiving federal benefits available to tribes throughout the U.S. covering areas such as health care , land acquisition and disaster assistance , and the alliance has also pointed to a Harvard University report finding they lag economically behind tribes in other states.

The Maine-Indian Tribal State Commission formed as part of the 1980 deal, and its 13 members are primarily tasked with continually reviewing the settlement’s effectiveness along with the social, economic, and legal relationship between the state and tribes. (The Mi’kmaq are covered under a separate agreement and not represented on the commission.)

The tribes and state appoint six members each. Those members then select a chair as the 13th member. Mills has been replacing the state’s contingent after five members did not seek reappointment, but commission members weighed in ahead of Thursday’s Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings by providing several names of preferred candidates.

Gerry Reid, the governor’s chief counsel, said the state “seriously considered” the two to three suggestions but in the end had concerns the unnamed people were outspoken tribal advocates who would “not differ in any way from the tribal representatives.”

“We didn’t think that was a productive contribution to the commission,” Reid said.

Jill Tompkins, the commission’s executive director, said the body finds fault with the picks mainly because members did not meet them first. That prompted Rep. Matt Moonen, D-Portland, to question Tompkins whether the governor needs to run all nominees by them first.

“It’s respectful,” Tompkins replied.

The commission’s preferred nominees are not members of tribes, nor are the governor’s proposed candidates, Reid said. Bronson, the Lincoln town manager, and Cuttler, a Carrabassett Valley select board member, took questions Thursday on how their past opposition to sovereignty proposals supported by the tribes, including last year’s bill that Mills vetoed, and on how they would manage their different “hats” on the commission.

Cuttler said he has tried for years to communicate with the Penobscot Nation, which acquired 24,000 acres of “fee land” in Carrabassett Valley under the 1980 settlement. Cuttler has opposed amending the settlement that currently requires towns to approve a move by tribes to place acquired land into federal trust.

“I would not be self-serving,” Cuttler said of his role on the panel, while Bronson said he would have “an open mind.”

Penobscot Nation Ambassador Maulian Bryant, who is also president of the Wabanaki Alliance , said Cuttler has said the Penobscots may try to make a “land grab,” which Bryant called a “scare tactic.” Bryant said Bronson’s past statements against sovereignty also included “falsehoods.”