Maine proposal OKs Native American casinos

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s legislature approved the initial proposal that would allow four Native American tribes to build gambling businesses on their lands, in reversal from years of resistance and laws that opposed Native ownership of casinos in the state.

Breaking years of opposition against the bill, the House and Senate approved it with an overwhelming majority on Thursday, reported the Portland Press Herald.

Rep. Rena Newell, a nonvoting member of the legislature who represents the Passamaquoddy Tribe, gave a speech following the approval of the bill.

Newell pushed the legislators to advance the bill forward. The bill was only a small part of what the state could do for the tribes in Maine, she said.

“Our ancestors watched from inside the bounds of our reservation as nontribal members got rich from cutting down our trees on our land, leaving us with little,” Newell said.

The gambling legislation is one part of a series of changes the legislature wants to amend the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. If these amendments are enacted, the revisions would restore some of the sovereignty that tribal leaders say they lost years ago, the newspaper said.