Artist Credit: James Francis, a multimedia artist, citizen of the Penobscot Nation and Director of the Penobscot Nation Cultural Historic Preservation Center.
Wabanaki Windows is a monthly podcast hosted by Donna Loring, a Penobscot Nation Elder and Vice President of the Wabanaki Alliance. The show airs on WERU Community Radio and features topics of interest from a Wabanaki perspective.
We curate specific episodes that may be of interest, including this one on federal and state tribal recognition and the effects of creating new tribes. Find other curated episodes of the Wabanaki Windows podcast on our website here.
Federal and State Tribal Recognition & The Effects of Creating New Tribes
Original air date March 25, 2025
This episode features a discussion about the federal and state processes for tribal recognition. A bill currently in the Maine Legislature would allow a group of people to be recognized by the state of Maine as a tribe. Program guests discussed the implications of this and how that process would differ from the federal deep-dive into hisoric background and ancestry required for consideration of federal recognition. We start to address the question of what harm does that do? Harald Prins, professor emeritus at Kansas State University; Darren Ranco, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation and professor of anthropology and chair of Native American Studies at the University of Maine; and Mali Obomsawin, an Abenaki and a citizen of the Odanak Nation and internationally renowned musician recently nominated for her work in the film Sugar Cane. Mali is also a social justice activist who is working to bring to light issues that stem from the state recognition of four Tribes in Vermont.
Listen to the program here or download the podcast from the WERU website here.
