|
Salt Water and the Settlement Act
Author Unknown
A long festering distrust of Maine’s Governor Angus King recently
surfaced when several Passamaquoddy fisherman were harassed for hunting
porpoise in their ancestral waters. Although the controlling laws governing
the harvest of marine mammals is the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) it
is not the Federal agents which the tribe holds responsible for the recent
and sudden interest in stopping Passamaquoddy from hunting porpoise.
Frederick J. Moore III, one of the fishermen suggests that is the
Maine State Wardens that shadow the fisherman and call in the Federal Marine
Control officers. This harassment did not start until 1995 and the election
of King as Maine Governor.
According to both Moore and tribal Lt. Governor, the Maine Governor
stated a willingness to support an amendment to the MMPA provided the tribe
can show evidence that the practice has continued from antiquity until the
present.
For the tribe this offer has two major flaws. Altvater points out
that if King believes that the Federal law should be amended it is he who
should initiate such a request through the Maine Congressional delegation.
Any request by the tribe for such an amendment would, in itself, be tribal
recognition of Maine State sovereignty over traditional salt water hunting
and fishing rights.
The other flaw which eighty year old David Francis and Abanaki
Museum Director Joseph Nicholas recognized was that archaeological remains
predating the European migration and subsequent theft of territory would
never be possible. Tradition has dictated that the carcass be cut and boned
on the beach and only those parts to be used removed. According to Nicholas
the fins were often cooked at the beach. The only bones which would have
made it into the household were those used for tools or decoration.
Even though the archeologists cannot support the measure of
traditional use which King seems to need the details of such hunts were
recorded as early as
1880 in such
commercial magazines as Scribner’s Monthly.
The overall consensus among the Passamaquoddy leadership is that the
State of Maine appears to have an agenda which includes the assimilation of
the tribe into the non Indian culture. A direct by product of that would be
the demise of traditional Passamaquoddy culture. This is but the latest of
several initiatives which have been aimed at the tribe. A permit request
that the tribe maintain a small casino in the border town of Calais was
opposed by them gubernatorial candidate King and later denied. This past
summer a Maine Patrol Warden seized more than 200 lobsters at the
Maine-Canada border, after clearing customs, and allowed them to die in the
summer sun while state officials pondered an appropriate authority for
seizure. Those lobsters were legal according to both tribal and Canadian
measures and were to be used in the 32nd annual Indian Day
celebrations with the Mic Macs which this year were to accompany a trade
agreement to be signed by several Chiefs.
The state’s position has consistently been that the Land Claims
Settlement Act (LCSA) of 1980 and in particular section 6204 effectively
gives the state jurisdiction over "all Indians, Indian nations, and tribes
and band of Indians in the State." In each instance the LCSA spells out the
interest of both State and tribe in detail except for the issues related to
salt water. Salt water areas were excluded from the agreement because the
State wanted to clarify title of inland territories and it was agreed that
salt water issues were to be dealt with at a later time.
The porpoise is universally seen among the Passamaquoddy as an
enduring component of their traditional culture. Its’ oils have been used
for medicine and lubricants and the flesh is relished as a dietary staple.
Hunters share with less able members of the community, barter with others,
and in the past have sold the meat to non Indian neighbors.
Both Nicholas and Francis reminisced about the state of abject
poverty in which their people lived while bordered by more affluent
neighbors and how their very survival depended upon the porpoise. Francis, a
formally trained linguistic expert, claims that the phrases, "I am hungry"
and "I am going hunting" are virtually identical. In Nicholas’s youth he
recalled being taught the art of cleaning and cutting porpoise on the beach
and then regarded by cooking and tasting the fresh kill before leaving for
home.
The Passamaquoddy are environmental activists and strictly enforce
rules far more restrictive on tribal lands than the State forces upon
industry, agriculture, or any other segment of the State’s population. There
is no evidence that amending the MMPA would have any negative impact upon
the ecosystem of Funny Bay.
University of Maine at Machias Professor of Marine Biology Gayle
Krauss admits that, although she would not eat one, the porpoise is not an
endangered species. She estimated that more are killed by entanglement in
commercial fishery nets and lines than would ever be taken by the tribe.
Krauss raised yet another insidious but silent threat to the
Passamaquoddy. Porpoise eat fish in the bay, often those fish which spawn
and live near the fresh water outlets. As one of the final links in the
ocean food chain the toxins which Maine has continually allowed to be dumped
into the rivers by paper companies, agriculture, and private septic systems
become magnified in the porpoise. Krauss suggested that there was not a
great deal of research on the porpoise either in terms of population or
general health.
Altvater acknowledged that the liver, a long prized part of the
animal, is no longer eaten. Most have abnormal spots and growths. Since the
liver is the organ most responsible for cleaning the animal of such toxins
it is natural that the liver would be the first organ to show disease. The
extent of this disease is so great that beached whales among the St. Croix
River are treated as toxic waste.
Both Moore and Altvater agreed that hunters would willingly supply
tissue samples, teeth, and bone samples to persons such as Krauss for
testing and in the past have agreed to do so but cannot when arrest and
harassment await them as reward for cooperation. |
