Preserving Heritage: MITSC's Commitment to Sustaining Wabanaki Cultures

The Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC) is dedicated to safeguarding and promoting Wabanaki cultural heritage, ensuring its preservation for future generations. Through collaborative efforts and strategic initiatives, MITSC supports the vitality of Wabanaki traditions, languages, and practices.

Key actions include:

• Promoting Wabanaki inclusion in state land decision-making processes to honor their historical and cultural connection to the land.
• Expanding opportunities for the preservation and sharing of Wabanaki culture and language.
• Ensuring the proper repatriation of Wabanaki lands, ancestral remains, funerary objects, and items of cultural heritage.
• Advocating for an expanded tribal role in the management of Baxter State Park to reflect traditional stewardship principles.
• Supporting efforts to repatriate cultural artifacts and remains as needed.
• Encouraging voluntary landowner agreements to allow tribal access to cultural resources for traditional practices.
• Actively supporting tribal language preservation initiatives to sustain linguistic heritage.
• Partnering with the Permanent Commission on Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations (PCRITP) to advance the Place Justice Initiative, fostering equitable cultural recognition and access.

By championing these efforts, MITSC works to ensure the integrity of Wabanaki cultural heritage while fostering deeper understanding and collaboration between tribal and state communities.

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