Archives for Passamaquoddy

Talk of the Towns 1/9/15

Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: The Abbe Museum—Bridging Wabanaki and White People and Cultures

Key Discussion Points:
• What were the origins of the Abbe and what is it’s current mission?
• Big step to create its downtown location… what is the relationship between the museum in Acadia and the downtown museum?
• What were the potentials you saw when you came… what continues to excite you?
• How has the role of the Abbe to bridge “white” and Wabanaki people and cultures evolved, perhaps using Twisted Path as an example?
• What is the role of “museum educator”? What do you enjoy about your work in schools, or when school and other groups visit the Abbe?
• George brings so much to his role… what are some of the obvious and not-so-obvious contributions from your Passamaquoddy/Wabanaki culture, your education?
• How do you see the Abbe helping to bridge Wabanaki and “white” people and cultures?
• One of the planks in that bridge might be basket-making… talk about the art and artistry of basketmaking in Wabanaki culture… historical and current context
• Describe the role of the museum to help “build community” in Bar Harbor, and Mount Desert Island… what do you do to foster those connections, to build community capacity?
• Talk about the new exhibit inspired by the women of Indian Township and the effects of
substance abuse on the community… what questions would you like visitors to ponder?
• What else should we look for at the Abbe in coming months? What are some of the other staff working on?
• How has your affiliation with the Smithsonian affected your programming and recognition?

Guests:
Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, President, Abbe Museum
George Neptune, Museum Educator, Abbe Museum

Wabanaki Windows 10/21/14

Producer/Host: Donna Loring
Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Fifty Years of history and injustice for Passamaquoddy Tribe

Program Topic: Passamaquoddy history mid 1960’s

Key Discussion Points:

a) Woodard”s series of 29 chapters of Unsettled in the Portland Press Herald/ Racism in the surrounding community
b) Fairness in law enforcement/emergency services/judicial system
c) Will there ever be justice for this community?

Guest:
Colin Woodard, award winning writer and journalist for the Portland Press Hareld

RadioActive 8/7/14

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: The Penobscot Nation’s Proposed Water Quality Standards Hearing and Interview with Chief Kirk Francis

Key Discussion Points:

a) We hear some of the testimony at the Penobscot Nation’s public hearing on it’s proposed Surface Water Quality Standards.The tribe wishes to strengthen current standards for the waters within Penobscot tribal territories, most specifically to address the health of fish consumed by tribal members. Following public input, the Penobscot Nation will present their standards to the US Environmental Protection Agency for approval, as allowed under the federal Clean Water Act for federally recognized tribes.
b) We also speak with Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis on the water quality standards and on the current legal challenges. (We continue our interview with Chief Francis in next week’s program on 8-14-14)
c) Earlier this month, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and Maine Dept of Environmental Protection Commissioner, Patrica Aho, filed suit against the US EPA in attempts to establish jurisdiction. The Penobsacot Nation also currently has a case against the Maine Attorney General’s Office to likewise establish he definition of tribal waters and the tribe’s sovereign right to control water quality.

Guests:
A) Jean Lewey, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Tribal member
B) Reena Loure (sp?), Penobscot Tribal member
C) Reuben “Butch” Phillips, Penobscot Tribal member
D) James Sappier, former Chief of Penobscot Nation
E)Sherri Mitchell, Penobscot Tribal member
F) Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation

RadioActive 3/27/14

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Program Topic: Tour to raise federal minimum wage to $10.10; Wabanaki Tribes continuing struggle to maintain sovereignty and fishing rights

Key Discussion Points:
a) We look at the movement to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. A bus tour promoting the passage of the Fair Minimum Wage Act stopped in Bangor. Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant of Bangor has just raised their minimum wage to $10.10.
b) We speak with Maine Congressional Representative and gubernatorial candidate, Mike Michaud about the minimum wage and the realities for low income Mainers
c) Passamquoddy tribal member, Vera Francis speaks on state opposition to tribal sovereignty and fishing rights,
specifically around the elver fishery. After long negotiations to come to an agreement that involved recognizing that tribal elver regulations were protective of the fishery and allowed tribal autonomy, Maine’s State Attorney General shut down the process in the 11th hour. The Passamquoddy Tribes own management plan puts a limit on total tribal catch, but allows anyone in the tribe to fish. They argue that this management system is more protective then the state’s permit system.

Guests:
Congressman Mike Michaud
Laura Fortman, US Dept of Labor
Sean Garceau , manager at Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant, Bangor
Rev. Becky Gunn, Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor
Vera Francis, Passamaquoddy tribal member, Passamaquoddy Fisheries Committee

RadioActive 7/15/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topics: EPA formulates Clean Water Act Permits required for pesticide applications;  Calais LNG is granted postponement of BEP permitting hearings

What are some of the concerns of Canada concerning LNG tankers in Passamaquoddy Bay?  What is Calais LNG’s connection to Goldman Sachs?  What are some of the areas EPA is still solidifying in it’s NPDES permitting requirements for pesticide applicators?

Guests: Sylvia Broude, Toxics Action Center; Elizabeth Martin-Craig, Pesticides Watch;  Bob Godfrey, Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3-Nation Alliance

RadioActive 6/18/09

Producers/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco and Amy Browne

(NOTE: This is a “fixed” version of the program, with the technical glitches edited out, and the complete first interview included)

Segment 1: We talk with a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point about their council’s recent vote to terminate their relationship with the company who has been trying to build a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal there. It has been close to five years since plans for a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal were first visited upon the Passamquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, also known as Pleasant Point. It immediately sparked a controversy in which many tribal members felt Passamaquoddy history culture, environment and safety were being ignored by tribal, state and federal officials. The company Quoddy Bay , LLC, later named Quoddy Bay LNG, created by a large Oklahoma based company CEO, Donald Smith, who spear headed the LNG terminal plans with his son Brian Smith as project manager.
We covered this proposed project and the resistance against it over the years, from the beginning of the project, through public hearings, demonstrations, council votes, a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and many discussions on the significance such a project would have on the small piece of residential land where the Passamaquoddy tribe has lived on the Maine coast from time immemorial.
Though the last tribal governor and tribal council supported the Quoddy Bay LNG proposal and their payments, and though the company lobbied Pleasant Point and neighboring towns very hard, in October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dismissed Quoddy Bay LNG application to contruct an LNG terminal on grounds that incomplete information had been provided on their proposed operation and technology. Earlier this year, the company Quoddy Bay LNG had hired to perform engineering work on its pipeline sued the company for failure to pay. Last July the company stopped its quarterly payments to the tribe.
On June 9th, the Sipayik tribal council voted to end the project with Quoddy Bay LNG. This included vocal proponents of the project , including former tribal representative Fred Moore who helped to bring the project to the tribe originally.
We spoke with Madonna Soctomah. She is a Passamaquoddy tribal member at Sipayik, a former tribal representative to the Maine legislature, and a member of the Passamaquoddy organization Nulankeyutomonen Nkihtahkomikumon (“We Take Care of Our Land”), as well as the 3 Nation Alliance www.savepassamaquoddybay.org

Segment 2: On October 2007, a Peruvian Indigenous federation, representing 350,000 people in the Amazon region wrote a letter to the United States Congress urging them not to pass the US Peru Free Trade Agreement. In part, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon wrote : “We are convinced that the Free Trade Agreement would give incentives for further irreversible destruction of virgin rainforest, which will in turn increase global warming and displace our communities from their home territories” . The letter also underlined the increased power the Free Trade Agreement would give to oil, gas and mining companies, including so called “investor rights”, which allow foreign companies to sue the Peruvian government if they perceive the governments laws hinder company business and future profits. This could include policies pertaining to sustainable development, which indigenous groups have been working on for years. Following the negotiation for the FTA, Peru opened massive tracts of land in the Amazon for oil, gas and mining exploration, including previously “protected areas” belonging to indigenous peoples. Over the past decades indigenous communities have suffered from massive pollution and health problems as a result of oil operations, most recently emphasized in a lawsuit against Los Angeles based Occidental Petroleum. Now 70% of Peru’s Amazon is zoned for oil, gas and mining.
Regardless of massive campaigning and demonstration, the Free Trade Agreement was passed by Peru and by the United States Congress. Peruvian President Alan Garcia in turn passed a number of governmental decrees specifically aimed at adhering to the Free Trade Agreement ‘s stipulations and opening up the country to foreign investment.
This is the backdrop and instigation for the past more then 2 months of peaceful protests by over 30,000 indigenous people on the roads and waterways in the Amazon; And now, two weeks ago, the government’s attack, killing at least 60, and by some reports 250 demonstrators. Indigenous protestors have been demanding the repeal of president Garcia’s decrees, which also according to national and international organizations violates the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the ILO Convention.
We have with us today by phone Andrew Miller, the environmental and human rights coordinator for Amazon Watch. Thank you for coming on the program.

RadioActive 10/23/08

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco & Amy Browne

Topics:

Segment 1: This past Friday, October the 17th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, announced that it had dismissed energy developer Quoddy Bay LNG’s application fro a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy tribe’s residential land at Pleasant Point.  FERC stated the company had still not provided them with the information they had requested, which had prompted them to suspend review in April. FERC’s letter states the dimissal is without prejudice, if Quoddy Bay LNG re files an application with complete information.  The Save Passamaquoddy bay 3-Nation Alliance , comprised of organized residents of the Passamaquoddy tribe, the US (in Maine) and Canada, have strongly opposed Quoddy bay LNG’s proposed terminal for its’ precarious siting and for safety, environmental and cultural reasons. In Tuesday, the 3 Nation Alliance filed a request to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection asking that the states dismiss Quoddy BayLNG’s pending application with the BEP, as well.
We will follow up on this story in greater detail in the following weeks. We spoke briefly before air time with Robert Godfrey of the Save Passamquoddy Bay 3 Nation Alliance

Segment 2: On October 27th, 2006, New York City based activist and independent journalist Brad Will was shot and killed in Oaxaca City, Mexico. He was covering the popular uprising born out of the suppression of teacher demonstrations in Oaxaca by Governor Ulisis Ruiz.  Two others were shot and killed by paramilitaries the same day; 5 others were wounded, and another disappeared. Despite the documentation of paramilitaries from the local police and municipal government, the Mexican government immediately blamed the death of US resident brad Will on the activists. Now, 2 years later, the Mexican government has not investigated the paramilitaries, and instead, on October 16th, arrested members of the Oaxacan social movement for will’s murder.  This follows on the heels of the US Congress summer passage of the Merida Initiative, also known as Plan Mexico, which will provide at least $1.6 billion to Mexico, for armaments, training and resources for Mexican police and military under the mantle of the War on Drugs.
We spoke yesterday with independent journalist John Gibler, who has been following issues in Oaxaca closely over the past 3 years. He is a Global Exchange Media Fellow. His latest article was published in the New York paper The Indypendent. It’s title-“The Rule of Impunity: Mexican Government Ignores Overwhelming Evidence, Charges Oaxacan Activists with Brad Will’s Murder.”  Later we’ll get an update from Rob Jerewski, a friend of Brad’s who, along with others, is engaged in a fast and protest at Senator Hillary Clinton’s New York office.

For more information on Oaxaca and the Brad Will case, and to read John Gibler’s October 21st article published by The Indypendent, go to www.indypendent.org. Links to a number of John Gibler’s published articles can be found at the Global Exchange website, www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/mexico/dispatches . Gibler’s book Mexico Unconquered : Chronicles of Power and Revolt, will be published by City Light Books in January.
For more information on the movement to bring justice for the murders of Brad Will and Oaxacan activists, you can go to .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } americas.irc-online.org/am/5118  or  www.friendsofbradwill.org