Maulian Bryant speaks at a rally on Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the Maine State House in Augusta on Oct. 9, 2023. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
Maulian Bryant has her eye on more than state-level politics in the fight for the recognition of the Wabanaki Nations’ inherent sovereignty as she prepares to assume the top role of the Wabanaki Alliance, a nonprofit charged with advocating for that goal.
The Wabanaki Alliance announced Wednesday that Bryant, currently president of the group’s board, will be the organization’s next executive director. Bryant will begin training for the role in the coming weeks as the current executive director, John Dieffenbacher-Krall, prepares for his retirement at the end of the year.
“I think there’s space for greater federal engagement and really looking at our relationship with the federal government,” Bryant said. “We know we’re held back in some ways, but also maybe there’s other places to connect and take advantage of that relationship as an alliance.”
The Wabanaki Nations do not have the same rights as the other 570 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. as a result of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, which has resulted in the Wabanaki Nations being treated more like municipalities than independent nations.
Re-examining the relationship the four tribes of the Wabanaki Nations — the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe — have with the federal government could include re-exploring federal legislation.
Bryant pointed to the proposal from U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine in 2022 to give the Wabanaki Nations access to future beneficial federal laws, which passed the House but not the Senate. Advancing another such reform would largely hinge on how the November election impacts the currently slim Republican majority in the U.S. House, Bryant said, though she noted that on the state level, bipartisan support for tribal sovereignty has been slowly growing.
This support is exemplified in chamber votes for the expansion of tribal authority to prosecute crimes passed this last legislative session, as well as the Wabanaki Alliance’s bipartisan endorsements for legislative candidates running in the November election. And beyond the Maine Legislature, the alliance has grown into a coalition of more than 300 businesses and organizations across the state of Maine, Bryant confirmed as of Wednesday.
Bryant attributes the growing bipartisan support on the issue to education, another key charge of the alliance.
“When we were making inroads with Republicans,” Bryant explained, “a lot of them were saying, ‘I do care about this. I haven’t known how to learn about it, or I haven’t had those connections or those relationships.’”
Bryant hopes to expand education by hosting events with caucuses and presenting lawmakers with research, as was done in 2022 with a report by the Harvard Kennedy School that found the Wabanaki Nations’ inability to self-govern has stunted economic growth, both their own as well as neighboring communities’.
“We have a new Legislature we’re working with every two years, so I think increasing the baseline knowledge that lawmakers have about tribal issues is really important,” Bryant said.
Vice Chief of the Mi’kmaq Nation Richard Silliboy, who also serves as vice president of the alliance’s board, praised the selection of Bryant in a statement on Wednesday, writing she has the temperament and experience to build on progress that has been made in the last several years.
“We have always been sovereign Wabanaki Nations,” Silliboy wrote. “Our struggle has been compelling the State of Maine and many settler institutions to recognize and respect our sovereignty.”
The third attempt at sweeping sovereignty legislation languished this year in favor of the pared back criminal prosecution law, but tribal chiefs have started to strategize for what legislative action they’ll back next session.
The expanded authority to prosecute crimes was one of several recommendations that came from a bipartisan group of state legislators and tribal chiefs the Legislature convened in 2019 to suggest changes to the Settlement Act. Bryant hopes to see more progress toward implementing these recommendations next session, particularly when it comes to federal Indian law.
Having served as the Penobscot Nation Tribal Ambassador since 2017, Bryant had a pivotal role in pushing for state policy change and hopes to bring those skills with her into the executive director position.
“I hope to still be a real presence around legislation and advocating for tribal bills,” Bryant said. “I am used to being there — definitely supporting the alliance and promoting that work — but more representing the Penobscot Nation. So I’m excited to think about being able to testify in support of bills and really carrying a message for all the tribal communities, because our work is so deeply collaborative in the alliance.”
It is not yet known who will fill the remaining two years left in her ambassador term, which coincides with the chief’s term.
Bryant also wants to create opportunities for tribal citizens to more directly engage with the alliance to provide input on legislation as well as the organization’s work more broadly. Since the alliance’s founding in 2020, it has leaned heavily for decision making on its board members, who represent the distinct communities within the Wabanaki Nations, Bryant said, “but there hasn’t been a direct interface with our citizens in a big way.”
Bryant envisions hosting forums reminiscent of the representative democracy of the Grand Council in Canada, attributing the idea to Tribal Ambassador for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Osihkiyol (Zeke) Crofton-Macdonald, who also has ties to the Maliseet community in Canada.
While each of the Wabanaki Nations have their own annual gatherings to hear from their citizens, Bryant said, “I would love to see a larger scale listening session and information-gathering process with the Wabanaki Alliance and tribal communities.”
Personally, Bryant is also eager to lead the alliance grounded in her own lived-experience and culture.
“A fertile environment for getting to know each other as human beings — that’s really the key of so much of this work,” Bryant said. “When you understand the humanity of somebody else, it makes some of the policy and legal things a lot easier, because you’re breaking down a lot of that fear of the unknown.”
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