A sign to Indian Township, one of the reservations of the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine. Photo from Maine Encyclopedia
The Portland Press Herald continues its Unsettled series with Chapter 26 about business deals involving leaders of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township:
In one of the poorest communities in the state, senior officials often draw comfortable salaries. At Indian Township, the reservation budget shows, the governor’s base salary in 2010 was $102,500, significantly more than the current salary of the governor of Maine ($70,000) or the governor of Pleasant Point (reportedly in the low $60,000s). The median household income in Washington County is $36,486. Many of these problems had emerged during Bobby Newell’s administration. By numerous accounts, all of them continued under the man who was elected to the governor’s post in 2006, Billy Nicholas. The lease or sale of tribal land to outsiders is an extremely emotive issue for the Passamaquoddy, whose civil rights and land claims struggles of the 1960s and ’70s focused on the improper purchase or seizure of tribal lands by whites. Though the tribe doesn’t have a unifying constitution, both individual reservation constitutions forbid the lease of tribal land to nonmembers without a referendum (in the case of Indian Township’s constitution) or public hearing (in Pleasant Point’s). But shortly after Nicholas was elected governor, the tribal forestry department overstepped its authority, granting a lease of a prime camp lot on a coveted beach on tribal trust land at Junior Stream near Springfield to one of the new governor’s friends, his soon-to-be business partner Brian Souers. In exchange, Souers, a non-Indian, upgraded the road to the area. Souers also set up a camp and boathouse on the prime plot, part of a site designated a public campground for the tribe. Nicholas built a camp on the next lot. Indian Township Police Chief Alex Nicholas, his brother, built another a few hundred yards away. Although few knew it at the time, state corporate filings show that Billy, in the following summer, also became a silent partner in Souers’ new logging firm, BWB LLC, a venture that included another Junior Stream camp owner, Tribal Councilor Wade Lola. (The firm’s initials stood for “Brian-Wade-Billy.”) Adding to the controversy, tribal member Kani Malsom had applied for a lease for the very lot Souers had been leased back in 2004, but Malsom said his application kept getting lost – five times altogether, he later said. He was flabbergasted when the forestry department instead claimed the lot on Souers’ behalf.Get the Story:
Unsettled Chapter 26: Tribe’s dealings cloaked in secrecy, and distrust festers (The Portland Press Herald 7/24) Related Stories:
Unsettled: Free speech costs dearly at Passamaquoddy Tribe (7/23)
Unsettled: Questions linger on Passamaquoddy leadership (7/22)
Unsettled Ch. 23: Passamaquoddy leader indicted for stealing (7/21)
Unsettled Ch. 20: Passamaquoddy Tribe still lacks constitution (7/18)
Unsettled Ch. 19: Passamaquoddy Tribe restricts right to vote (7/17)
Report faults Maine over dealings with Passamaquoddy Tribe (7/16)
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