The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission) led a truth-seeking process from February 2013 to June 2015 to uncover the truth about child-welfare practice with Maine’s Native people.
Wabanaki REACH supports the self-determination of Wabanaki people through education, truth-telling, restorative justice, and restorative practices in Wabanaki and Maine communities.
From the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, indigenous children across the country were placed in boarding schools meant to assimilate them into white culture, a practice that proliferated throughout the country. Abuse was common practice in these institutions.
Maine tribal representatives said they are encouraged by a United Nations investigator's apparent interest in Maine tribes' concerns about inequities that have "risen to the level of human rights violations," according to the head of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission.
The Episcopal Diocese of Maine Committee on Indian Relations has filed a hard-hitting critique with the United Nations Human Rights Council on Maine's human rights record against the Wabanaki nations and the federal government's failure to rein in state violations of domestic and international laws and standards meant to protect indigenous peoples.
