Pre-contact Indigenous peoples are thought to have inhabited Maine and surrounding areas for at least 11,000 years. They had a hunting-gathering society, with the men hunting beaver, otters, moose, bears, caribou, fish, seafood (clams, mussels, fish), birds, and possibly marine mammals such as seals. The women gathered and processed bird eggs, berries, nuts, and roots, all of which were found locally. People on the present-day Maine coast practiced some agriculture, but not to the same extent as that of Indigenous peoples in southern
New England, where the climate was more temperate. Food was potentially scarce only toward the end of the winter, in February and March. For the rest of the year, the Penobscot and other Wabanaki likely had little difficulty surviving because the land and ocean waters offered much bounty, and the number of people was sustainable. As contact became more permanent, after about 1675, conflicts arose through differences in cultures, conceptions of property, and competition for resources. Along the Atlantic Coast in present-day Canada, most settlers were French; in New England they were generally English speaking. The Penobscot sided with the French during the
French and Indian War in the mid-18th century (the North American front of the
Seven Years' War) after British colonists demanded the Penobscot join their side or be considered hostile. In 1755,
governor of Massachusetts Spencer Phips placed a
scalp bounty on Penobscot. With a smaller population and greater acceptance of intermarriage, the French posed a lesser threat to the Penobscots' land and way of life. Because it is a federally recognized sovereign nation with direct relations with the federal government, the Penobscot have disagreed with state assertions that it has the power to regulate hunting and fishing by tribal members. The Nation filed suit against the state in August 2012, contending in
Penobscot Nation v. State of Maine, that the 1980 MICSA settlement gave the Nation jurisdiction and regulatory authority over hunting and fishing in the "Main Stem" of the Penobscot River as well as on its reservation. At the request of the Nation, the US Department of Justice has joined the suit on behalf of the tribe. In addition, in an unprecedented step, five members of the Congressional Native American Caucus representing other jurisdictions filed an
amici curiae brief in support of the Penobscot in this case. In addition to its reservation, the Nation owns islands in the river extending upriver; it also acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of land elsewhere in the state, as a result of the 1980 settlement of its land claim. Some analysts predict that this case will be as significant to
Indian law and sovereignty as the fishing rights cases of Native American tribes in the
Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, which resulted in the
1974 Boldt decision affirming their rights to fishing and hunting in their former territories. The five members of the Congressional Native American Caucus who filed are
Betty McCollum (D-MN), co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus with
Tom Cole (R-OK) (
Chickasaw);
Raúl Grijalva, (D-AZ), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus;
Ron Kind (D-WI), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus; and
Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus. ==Language==