Tag: Penobscot Nation

RadioActive 6/1/17

Guest Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Juniper Ridge Landfill Expansion Approved by BEP; Trump Withdraws from Paris Climate Agreement

-Today the Maine Board of Environmental Protection approved the expansion of the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town.
-Local activists have strongly opposed the expansion, underlining the amount of out of state waste that is reclassified as “in-state waste” and disposed at Juniper Ridge, which is state owned, but privately operated by Casella Waste Management. Opponents, including members of the Penobscot Nation, are alarmed by potential impacts on ground water and the continued dumping of leachate by product into the Penobscot River.
-We also examine Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord

Guests:
Ed Spencer, Old Town resident and intervenor in Juniper Ridge Landfill Expansion
Erika Lennon, senior attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law

This program was produced in partnership with the Sunlight Media Collective.

Wabanaki Windows 9/20/16

Producer/Host: Donna Loring
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: North Dakota Access Pipeline part 2

Program Topic: Largest gathering of Tribes in 100 years

Key Discussion Points:
a) Any new developments in the courts
b) Corporate Oil and it’s destruction of Native Land?
c) Attempt to cover up its use of force against Native people at site
d) What can we do to support the Human and Civil Rights of the Tribes?

Guests:
Sherri Mitchell, Esq.Director of the Land Peace Foundation. she is a Native Rights and Environmental Activist and a Penobscot Nation Tribal Member
Former Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative Matt Dana just back from Standing Rock
Tara Houska, Tribal Rights Attorney and National Campaigns Director for Honor the Earth working closely with Winona LaDuke. Tara is at the Standing Rock Camp site.

Wabanaki Windows Special Report 9/12/16

Producer/Host: Donna Loring
Studio Engineers: Amy Browne & Matt Murphy

Issue: North Dakota Access Pipeline– Largest gathering of Tribes in 100 years

Key Discussion Points:
a) Corporate Oil and it’s destruction of Native Land?
b) Attempt to cover up its use of force against Native people at site
c) What can we do to support the Human and Civil Rights of the Tribes?

Guests:
Sherri Mitchell, Esq., Director of the Land Peace Foundation. she is a Native Rights and Environmental Activist and a Penobscot Nation Tribal Member
Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson University of Alberta, Penobscot Nation Tribal Member
Chief Kirk Francis, Chief of the Penobscot Nation

FMI:
http://www.seveneaglesmedia.org/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.honorearth.org/
http://www.btlonline.org/2016/seg/160916bf-btl-hall.html
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RedWarriorCamp

Wabanaki Windows 7/19/16

Producer/Host: Donna Loring

Issue: River case, East West Highway and the Settlement Act

Program Topic: River Case/Environment

Key Discussion Points:
a) Where are we now with the River Case?
b) How does the East West Highway issue connect with the River Case?
c) How does the Settlement Act affect the case?

Guest: Sherri Mitchell, Director of the Land Peace Foundation

Wabanaki Windows 6/21/16

Producer/Host: Donna Loring

Issue: River case update/ Tribal Representatives

Program Topic: River case and Tribal State issues

Key Discussion Points:
a) What is the current status of the River case?
b) What is the current status of the Tribal Representatives
c) How will the Tribes move forward outside of the State Legislature

Guests:
Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation

Maine Currents 2/3/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio contributed by John Greenman

Segment 1: Bill Farrell, a University of Maine Ph.D. Candidate and Senior Advisor on Special Projects, for the international nonprofit Mercy Corps. speaking at the University last week on “The Syrian Refugee Crisis”.

Segment 2: We bring you to last week’s town council meeting in Bucksport, where a vote was held on withdrawing the town’s legal support of the state in Penobscot Nation v Mills, a lawsuit between the state and the Penobscot Nation.

RadioActive 12/17/15

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Penobscot Nation v Mills : Decision at US District Court

Key Discussion Points:

1) Yesterday, US District Court Judge George Singal ruled that the Penosbcot Nation’s reservation does not include the river waters flowing through it.
2) While Judge Singal affirmed the right of individual tribal members to sustenance fishing in the main stem of the Penosbcot River, he sided with the State of Maine in ruling that the Penobscot flowing through tribal territory is not part of the reservation. He based his decision on the State’s interpretation of the controversial Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act,saying if the Act did not explicitly mention the water as part of the territory, then the water is not included. The Tribe holds if they did not explicitly give up their rights to the waterway in the Settlement Act, they did not give it up.
3) In the landmark case, Penobscot Nation v Maine Attornay General Janet Mills, The Penobscot Nation opposed 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 has argued this amounts to a territorial taking by the state and erases their inherent, treaty reserved sustenance fishing rights.

In October, Judge Singal heard oral arguments from Penobscot Nation counsel, counsel for the US Dept of Justice, 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.

Guest: Sherri Mitchell, member of the Penobscot Tribe, indigenous rights attorney

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