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Christopher M. Groden lives in Belfast and works with The Aroostook Treaty Education Center.
Soon Maine voters will have an opportunity to express themselves on a number of referendum issues. In making such choices, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of each question and the effects it will have. Concerning Question 6 — whether to republish articles of the Maine Constitution that were “hidden” by the Legislature in 1876 — I would like to offer some background and explanation. I hope that this will help voters more fully understand the issue and what is at stake.
The articles in question say that, on becoming a state in 1820, Maine must honor the treaties with the Wabanaki Nations and include them in its Constitution. These treaties were entered into by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, while it administered the territory of Maine from 1668 to 1820. Most of the treaties were with Great Britain, as Massachusetts was a British Colony.
The exception was (and is) the Treaty of Watertown 1776, which was entered into with the 13 colonies then in rebellion against the Crown. This treaty was requested by General George Washington, empowered by the 2nd Continental Congress and executed by the Massachusetts Provincial Council, acting on behalf of all 13 colonies. This occurred at a conference held in the Revolutionary capital of Watertown on the Charles River. At that time a copy of the newly passed Declaration of Independence arrived and was read to the Wabanaki delegates. The Maliseet delegate, Ambrose Bear, declared “We like it well.” He and the other Wabanakis went on to sign the Treaty of Watertown on July 19th,1776.
Let’s agree on an understanding of our common history. In the beginning was the Declaration of Independence. It was just that, a declaration, without any intrinsic legal power. The colonies lacked an international treaty to recognize them as a member of the family of sovereign nations. The Treaty of Watertown 1776 is that vessel of nationhood for the United States. The Vatican, France, and England had already recognized the inherent sovereignty of the Wabanaki Nations in earlier treaties. The Wabanaki, by making a treaty with the former colonies, passed sovereignty along to them.
One hundred years later, in the U.S. centennial year of 1876, the government of Maine stopped publishing those articles that refer to Maine’s responsibility to honor Massachusetts Bay’s treaties with the Wabanaki Nations. Maine claimed that this action was taken in order to make the Maine Constitution ” more concise and better organized.”
In Centennial America the situation of indigenous people was bleak. The “Doctrine of Manifest Destiny” and the “Vanishing Race Syndrome” were combined with various “Indian Wars” and religious boarding schools, as well as rampant exploitation and theft of indigenous lands. Upon hearing of the defeat and death of General George Custer and his men on July 25, 1876, inflammatory newspaper columns appeared nationwide calling for the extermination of all indigenous people. Those columns led to many violent actions against indigenous individuals and communities. Therefore it comes as no surprise, during those times, that the State of Maine would want to hide the fact that their Constitution obliged them to honor “Indian treaties.”
At the time of the signing of the Treaty of Watertown 1776, there were no “federally recognized tribes” in the United States. Eventually, 570 indigenous groups made treaties with the U.S. government. These were basically treaties of submission and subjugation, often involving the surrender of lands, sometimes even the relocation of entire communities and nations.
However, Maine has no such treaties with the Wabanaki, including the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, which some contend was not legally enacted. The Wabanaki have a unique federal treaty relationship which supersedes any attempts by the state to legislate on the matter.
I propose that the state of Maine publish the hidden articles, then recognize and honor the treaties to which the articles oblige them. Further, the state should declare July 19 as Watertown Treaty Day with appropriate ceremonies and celebrations, as it has been since 1995 in the Town of Watertown, Massachusetts. I urge you to vote yes on Question 6 on Nov. 7.
