Veazie, Maine – The Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC) released an audiobook version of Sea Run, a report that examines the factors that have limited and continue to block tribal peoples’ access to sea-run fisheries and contributed to the severe decline in the fisheries themselves, and offers recommendations to bolster Wabanaki sustenance fishing and restore once abundant fish species. MITSC held the event at the Veazie Salmon Club, site of the now demolished Veazie Dam, formerly the initial obstacle on the Penobscot River to sea-run fish.    

Protecting Maine’s fishing heritage is a frequent topic in the news and an article of faith in the Maine Legislature and executive branch of state government, yet how we collectively protect and support the fishing heritages of the Wabanaki Peoples is rarely addressed. Sea Run provides an analysis of historical and contemporary Wabanaki sustenance fishing termed “Wabanaki sustenance lifeways practice” in the report spanning the period from first contact between Europeans and the Wabanaki Nations to the present.    

The report also addresses how the Wabanaki were systematically separated from the fisheries by colonial governments targeting their fishing villages and later by Maine as it appropriated Wabanaki lands and waters for the development of the waterways for industrial use. The effect on Wabanaki fishing heritage has been profound in restricting available species, access to fisheries, and a role in fisheries management.    

“For the Penobscot people, we are one with the Penobscot River. This river and all the waters in this region have sustained us for thousands of years. We as the Penobscot people have taken our responsibility to care for our relative, the Penobscot River, and all creation as a sacred duty,” declared Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis.      

“But as the Sea Run report documents public and private actions have interfered with our connection to this environment and thwarted our access to sea-run fish. I hope all people living in the State of Maine will join with me to dedicate ourselves to the recovery of these fish species and to restore everyone’s right to fish, especially the sustenance fishing rights of Wabanaki Peoples,” added Chief Francis.    

The 1980 Maine Implementing Act (MIA), which confirmed settlement of the land claims case between the State and three of the Wabanaki Nations, provides that “members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation may take fish, within the boundaries of their respective Indian reservations, for their individual sustenance.” As Sea Run notes, when the MIA was passed, this promise was largely illusory because of the decline in the quantity of sea-run fish and the level of pollutants that rendered any remaining fish a hazard to health if eaten in quantity.    

A 2022 report from the Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance and Development noted that in trying to position the Wabanaki Nations more like municipalities than federally recognized tribes, the MIA not only adversely impacted tribal economies, but the whole State of Maine. Sea Run builds on this insight by illustrating how State policy limited not only the quality and quantity of fish available for Wabanaki sustenance lifeways practice, but also the very forms of traditional Wabanaki food security, which involved widespread sharing and distribution of food within the community.    

“When asked to help draft Sea Run, I didn’t realize that in fact I would be re-learning Maine history through a lens I had never looked through; it is the story of what happened to our sea-run fish, to our ecology, and to the Wabanaki people and their lifeways. It is a story we should all know; it is a story that Wabanaki people have always known,” stated Judd Esty-Kendall, co-author of Sea Run.    

A constant thread throughout Maine’s history has been Wabanaki persistence in revitalizing riverways and fisheries, not just for Indigenous people, but for all Mainers. Sea Run describes how current projects on the Penobscot, St. Croix, and Meduxnekeag rivers create spaces where State, Federal, and Wabanaki governments can work on revitalization side by side.    

The Report emphasizes progress in the restoration of sea-run fish migrations including a clear state policy favoring restoration, the removal of several major dams and other impediments to fish passage, and successful efforts to improve policy on water quality standards. Finally, the Report recommends ways Maine and the Wabanaki Nations can foster traditional Wabanaki practices while enhancing the State policy of restoring sea run fish to their historic place in Maine’s ecology.    

The audiobook version of Sea Run is narrated by four Wabanaki citizens, Dawn Neptune Adams, Penobscot; Sue Desiderio, Maliseet; Dale Lolar, Penobscot; and Dwayne Tomah, Passamaquoddy. Sea Run in audio format can be downloaded at https://mitsc.org/sea- run-audiobook. The full published report can be accessed at https://www.mitsc.org/library/sea-run.    

MITSC is an intergovernmental body comprising six Wabanaki representatives and six representatives from the State of Maine who elect a 13th individual as chair. The Commission is tasked in part with conducting studies on the implementation of fish and wildlife management policies on non-Indian lands to protect fish and wildlife stocks on tribal lands and waters.

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