The Chief of the Houlton Band of Malisseet Indians, Brenda Commander, says the new legislation makes a number of things that already exist official.  The tribe  has a working police department, created in conjunction with police departments in local towns, and two of its members have already been attending Maine Indian Tribal State Commission meetings, but the changes in law give them an actual voice.

"We felt it was important now. I mean, we've been down in Augusta, we've been proposing legislation to the Settlement Act since 2000. We felt it was time for us to be represented there."

The legislation is actually an amendment to the Maine Implementing Act of 1980, which is linked to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. The Maine Indian Tribal State Commission now consists of the state and the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet Tribes and oversees the application of the settlement act.

"Principally we are all about relationships. Relationships between the tribes and the state and trying to give both the state and tribal sides the best advice as to what they should do to have a healthy relationship."

Paul Bisulca is Chair of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission and a member of the Penobscot Nation.

"This was truly a substantive change which recognizes the growth of the Maliseet Tribe and the need for a different sort of relationship between the state and that particular tribe."

The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians is a federally recognized tribe comprised of about 800 members. The tribe owns 177 acres of land, with a tribal office, health department and administrative buildings. The tribe's newly appointed Court Administrator, Stephen Brimley, says  tribal government plays an important role in establishing sovereignty. Tribal court, for example,  is where the tribe can protect and exert its rights. He says the court plans to take over child welfare cases which, until now, have been handled by the state.

"The tribal court and the tribe has chosen to focus initially just on child welfare cases within the tribe. Unfortunately the tribe has an incredibly high proportion of child welfare cases. Currently the tribe has over 25 open child welfare cases. So hopefully when the court is up and running the court can assume jurisdiction over some of those cases."

Brimley says he hopes the new court system can apply the tribe's wholistic, cultural approach to child welfare cases, which he says involves healing families rather than focusing on one problematic adult-child relationship within a family.

Chief Brenda Commander says confusion, politics and dissatisfaction from the tribe, state officials and local towns was the reason it took so long to amend the Maine Implementing Act. In the end, she says the tribe simplified legislation so that its basic needs were recognized.

"We really tried to get this pretty close to the same rights as the Passamaquoddy and Penobscots and to a lot of individuals such as the town officials or some of the Legislature, it was very complicated. So we pretty  much identified what was important to start with and it was policing and courts."

The Houlton Band of Malisseets has also just received $2 million dollars in stimulus funding for housing and another $2 million for a new health center that will bring all its health departments together under one roof and expand services and programs.