The Penobscot are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.
The Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatikuk, straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine in a region called Dawnland. They are one of the constituent nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The Maine State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. The legislature convenes at the State House in Augusta, where it has met since 1832.
In government, several constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of women, minorities or other segments of society, or preserving a political balance of power.
The Wolastoqiyik, also Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite or Maliseet are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Wolastoq valley and its tributaries. Their territory extends across the current borders of New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and parts of Maine in the United States.
Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives are representatives of their territory in the House of Representatives, who do not have a right to vote on legislation in the full House but nevertheless have floor privileges and are able to participate in certain other House functions. Non-voting members may introduce legislation and may vote in a House committee of which they are a member.
Guam elects on the territorial level a governor and a legislature with the governor elected for a four-year term by the people. The Legislature of Guam has fifteen members elected at large in an open primary for two year terms.
John Eder is an American activist and politician from Maine. Eder lives in Waterboro. He is a former member of the Maine Green Independent Party and the Maine Democratic Party. He served in the Maine House of Representatives as the legislature's first member of the Green Party for two terms and was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2004. Until his defeat in 2006 Eder was one of only a handful of independent or third party state legislators in the country and was the highest-ranking elected Green official in the United States. Eder ran for Mayor of Portland, Maine in 2011. In 2014, Eder won a race for an at-large seat on the Portland Board of Education.
The Wabanaki Confederacy is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) and Penobscot.
Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton, 528 F.2d 370, was a landmark decision regarding aboriginal title in the United States. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the Nonintercourse Act applied to the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, then non-federally-recognized Indian tribes, and established a trust relationship between those tribes and the federal government that the State of Maine could not terminate.
David Slagger is a Maliseet politician in Maine. Slagger served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives, representing the newly recognized Maliseet Tribe. Slagger was sworn-in as the appointed representative to the House of Representatives on January 4, 2012. He held the seat temporarily until a tribal election could be conducted to elect a Maliseet Tribal Representative, which the Maliseet Tribe then did on December 22, 2012 when tribal members elected Henry John Bear as their first elected Tribal Representative to the Maine House of Representatives. Slagger did not seek another term as Maliseet representative.
The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians of Maine (HBMI) is a federally recognized tribe of Maliseet, whose land is along the Meduxnekeag River in Maine, United States. They are headquartered in Littleton, Maine, located in Aroostook County.
Henry John Bear is a Maliseet politician from Maine. In January 2013, he was sworn in as the first elected member of the Maine House of Representatives representing the Maliseet people. He replaced David Slagger, who was appointed to the Maine House.
The 2018 Maine House of Representatives elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Maine voters elected state representatives in all 151 of the state house's districts, as well as non-voting members from the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. State representatives serve two-year terms in the Maine State House.
Maulian Bryant is a Penobscot activist and political figure. A former member of the Penobscot Nation Tribal Council, she was appointed the Penobscot Nation's first tribal ambassador in 2017 and continued in that role until 2024. In September of that year, she accepted a position as executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance, representing the four Indigenous Nations in Maine.
Rena D. Newell is a Passamaquoddy politician who is serving as the incumbent chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik. Previously, she was the Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the Maine House of Representatives during the 129th and 130th legislatures. During her two terms, she was the only tribal representative in the Maine House.
The 2020 Maine House of Representatives elections took place on November 3, 2020, alongside the biennial United States elections. Maine voters elected members of the Maine House of Representatives via plurality voting in all 151 of the state house's districts, as well as a non-voting member from the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
Heidi Hilgartner Sampson is an American politician and anti-vaccine activist. A member of the Republican Party, she has served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives since 2016, representing the 136th district since 2022.
The 2022 Maine House of Representatives elections took place on November 8, 2022, alongside the biennial United States elections. Maine voters elected members of the Maine House of Representatives via instant-runoff voting in all 151 of the state house's districts, as well as a non-voting member from the Passamaquoddy Tribe. These were the first elections in Maine following the 2020 United States redistricting cycle, which resulted in nearly all members being assigned to new districts.
The Cherokee delegate to the United States House of Representatives is an office established via the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. The office was intended to represent the Cherokee people and was instrumental in negotiations of land transfer and sovereignty in the Treaty. The office went vacant until 2019, with the appointment of Kimberly Teehee of the Cherokee Nation. Teehee and tribal leadership attempted to get her seated in the 116th and 117th United States Congresses. In 2021, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians designated their own delegate, lawyer Victoria Holland.
