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Abstract

This Remonstrance presents a counter-cultural narrative and analysis of Maine’s legal, political, economic, and social interactions with the Wabanaki people. Although contemporary indicia of abuses by the State are glaringly obvious, a cohesive modern narrative that incorporates Maine’s history of predation upon and mistreatment of the tribes has remained poorly defined from an historico-legal perspective. Presenting its analysis through an historic, legal, political, economic, and social nexus, this Remonstrance traces the ontogeny of control exerted by the State of Maine over the Wabanaki tribes and endeavors to excavate the hidden historical narrative of the calculated politico-legal regime that has for two-hundred years driven the State’s coercive policies. In so doing, this Remonstrance examines the economic imperatives of the early American and Maine governments and the outgrowth of policies aimed at generating wealth from the stolen resources of Wabanaki tribal lands through an in-depth analysis of the transcripts of the legislative hearings (referred to here as the “Indian Papers”) that led to the commissioning of the Proctor Report of 1942.These Indian Papers are undeniable primary evidence memorializing the strategy the State undertook to affect a regime of isolation, control, and elimination of the tribes. The Authors believe that the Indian Papers and other documents analyzed herein have been heretofore neglected as competent evidence of Maine’s conscious orchestration of coercive policies carried out and retroactively legitimized through fraudulent jurisprudence. Through critical analysis, the Authors arrive at the conclusion that not only did the State of Maine have actual knowledge and intent to thrust an illegitimate politico-legal regime of suppression upon the tribes, but—despite acknowledging its past bad acts—it consciously chose to adopt many of these same tactics more than one hundred years later.

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