Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Issue: Environmental and Social Justice
Program Topic: Penobscot Nation v Mills : Reactions to Court Hearing
Key Discussion Points:
1) Yesterday, US District Court Judge George Singal heard oral arguments for Penobscot Nation v Mills in Portland. The Penobscot Nation is opposing the Maine Attorney General’s Office 2012 opinion that the Penobscot Indian reservation, which includes more than 200 islands in the Penobscot River, does not include any portion of the water. The Penobscot Nation argues this amounts to a territorial taking by the state and erases their inherent, treaty reserved sustenance fishing rights.
2) Judge Singal heard oral arguments from Penobscot Nation counsel, counsel for the US Dept of Justice. which is intervening in the case on behalf of the Penobscot Nation, the Attorney General’s Office’s, and Pierce Atwood counsel which is representing a consortium of pollution dischargers intervening on behalf of the state. Both sides have asked the judge for a summary judgement.
3) We also speak with Hugh Curran about the annual Estia Conference on October 23rd at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast. This year the theme is Deep Ecology. Keynotes speakers include Darren Ranco, Maria Girouard and Sherri Mitchell. www.estiamaine.org
Guests:
Kathy Paul, Penobscot
Sherri Mitchell, Penobscot indigenous rights attorney
Chief Kirk Francis, Penobscot Nation
Maria Girouard, Penobscot historian, Dawnland Environmental Defense
Hugh Curran, University of Maine Peace and Reconciliation Studies, Estia Conference organizer