Paul Bisulca, a member of the Penobscot Nation, will no longer be serving as chair of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission.

Bisulca took the volunteer, unpaid post four years ago. He hoped to ensure the state lives up to the terms of land claim settlements with the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point and the Penobscot Nation.

But Bisulca said the state has ignored the commission's recommendations and won't acknowledge tribal sovereignty. In recent years, the state and federal courts have slowly chipped away at the tribes' inherent rights.

Bisulca also said the state lacks a clear tribal policy. “Compounding my disappointment with this meeting is the growing difficulty of knowing who is really in charge of Indian relations on the state side with no one seemingly able to deliver solutions to the substantive issues blocking normalization in Indian relations. It also appears that Indian issues are being ‘pushed down’ and are not being considered at the highest levels of leadership,” he wrote in a letter to the commission, Indian Country Today reported.

Get the Story:
Tribal commission leader resigns, cites state failures (The Bangor Daily News 1/22)
MITSC chair’s departure ‘a great loss’ (Indian Country Today 1/20)
Chair of Tribal-State Commission Leaving Post (Maine Public Broadcasting Network 1/20)