AUGUSTA, Maine — Henry John Bear, a member of both the Houlton and Tobique bands of Maliseet Indians in northern Maine and New Brunswick was sworn into office by Gov. Paul LePage Jan. 8 as the newest Maliseet Tribal Representative to the Maine Legislature.
In a historic event, Bear won an election on Dec. 22, besting two other Maliseet candidates. He replaces an appointed Tribal Representative, David Slagger of Kenduskeag, who held the office until the tribal election. Bear was approached by Maliseet leaders and asked to run in the election. Whereupon, he accepted and campaigned for the job in November and December, promoting unity and close communication with Maliseet members and leaders.
“We’re in a transition right now,” Bear said. “First people needed to learn more about the office and how my legal and political background prepares me for the job, and then we were able to communicate that through meetings with Maliseet Elders and door-to-door campaigning.”
The Office of Maliseet Tribal Representative is a two-year term, which seeks to actively participate in the Government of Maine’s House of Representatives to advocate the Maliseet tribal perspective to that government. While, as a Tribal Representative, Bear takes no issue with the fact that he will not be able to vote in the Legislature, as he understands the job as a way to directly learn about and, wherever necessary, to be persuasive of Maliseet interests and concerns in communicating with the other elected legislators who do have a vote at the state level.
“It is a non issue to me,” he said. “It is just as likely that voting would compromise our unique legal and political standing under our 1776 Watertown Treaty with the United States government and international law. My task is to make sure that our Maliseet voice is clearly heard and understood by the people and government of Maine.”
Humble beginnings
Bear was born in Lewiston to a full-blooded, Maliseet father and part Algonquin and part French Acadian mother. His family stretches back to Ambrose Bear, who organized Maliseets and other tribes to join with the American rebels in the Revolutionary War against England. Yet, in his youth, he lived a meager existence. After a short life on the Maliseet reservation at Tobique after his birth, his family was torn apart by the impact of alcohol. Struggling to raise Bear and his several siblings on her own, his mother suffered a depression and the young Maliseet was sent to a series of foster homes around Maine.
“We lived on food stamps, got what we could from the Salvation Army and never had a car or working television while growing up, so I had to learn survival skills in the white people’s world,” Bear said.
A fairly good grade and high school student, even after he left his last foster home on Taylor Pond at the age of 16 and was living on his own on River Street in Lewiston’s “Little Canada”, Bear enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at the age of 17. He met fellow Coast Guard cadet Violet Dotson of Virginia while they were both in military training near San Francisco and, once married, the couple shared Coast Guard assignments from San Diego, Boston, New York City, Alaska and back to the coast of Maine at Portland and Southwest Harbor.
The Bears now have four grown children and eight grandchildren. All are members of the Maliseet Tribe. Henry and Violet now reside in Houlton, on Elm Street near the technical nursing aid school they both are very proud to say they are attending with members of the local Houlton community. The Bears own a Maliseet respite care facility, which they operate out of their home in Houlton; a home-care business called, “Mother Bear Respite Care,” which is under contract with “Living Innovations” in Bangor.
A leader emerges
When Bear returned to his Maliseet people in the Aroostook (Wulustuk) region after 15 years in the Coast Guard he earned a university degree in communications and business from the University of Maine at Presque Isle and later a law degree from the University of New Brunswick.
“Our Maliseet people currently number more than 30,000 and our traditional tribal lands are greater than 10 million acres and stretch from Quebec and New Brunswick to Maine, but, today, are centered mostly around the 600-mile long St. John River system, including its many tributaries,” said Rep. Bear. “So, as my ancestors before me, Houlton seemed like one of several natural places to resettle among members of my extended Maliseet family, and raise a family and retire after all my previous travels.”
Making history
With the election behind him, Rep. Bear sees his life work now beginning in earnest. The first item on his agenda is to work to unify his people both within the Houlton Band of Maliseets and throughout the Maliseet Nation. It is his intent that the government of Maine hears the Maliseet people speak “with one voice.” The Maliseets have always been a collection of large extended families, many Bear knows quite well as a result of his having resided on and near many Maliseet Bands.
“At key points in Maliseet history, including the 1760 negotiations in St. John and, when those agreements were ignored by the British, at Watertown, Massachusetts with the newly formed ‘United States of America’ in 1776, we have been able to present a unified position to the governments of the world, including the French, English, British and, later, the United States and Canadian governments” Bear said. “We will now focus fully on relations with Maine’s people and government.”
“The problems we face now are large ones such as accessing economic resources, land, commercial fish and forest-based resources, addressing unjustified income and property taxation, unemployment, health care, cross-border travel within traditional Maliseet territories, gaming accommodation and other new business development in the areas of manufacturing food supplements, herbal and traditional medicines, alternative energy development and forging an identity, based on our own unique, culture, where we can all find a renewed confidence, security and comfort as Maliseet people.”
“In this specific, new forum”, Rep. Bear said, “the only way for us to get anywhere is to keep close, two-way communication and trust between our Maliseet leaders and Maine’s leaders in Augusta.”
