Re: “Appeals court finds Maine can regulate hunting, fishing on Penobscot River” (June 30):
Underlying the federal appeals court’s rejection of legal arguments made by the Penobscot Nation is the continued refusal of the state of Maine to recognize the sovereignty of the Penobscot Nation. It is beyond sad that after so many years of broken promises, the appeals court affirms the state of Maine’s contention that waters of the Penobscot River are not part of the Penobscot Reservation.
The river is an integral part of who the Penobscot people are. May the injustice of the state’s assertion and the court’s decision call Mainers to deepen our recognition of the sovereignty of the Penobscot Nation. Never did it relinquish rights to the river and its fisheries, which are essential to Penobscot understanding of a relationship to nature that humanity so desperately needs to learn.
Rabbi Joshua Chasan
Portland
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