ts instead of Maine because of certain procedural laws. Three days after the filing, Gellen was arrested for possession of marijuana and the case did not make it to court (Brooks 5).Later in the 1960's, the Georgia Pacific limber company began cutting timber form Passamaquoddy land with state approval, but without tribal consent. The Passamaquoddy Tribe appealed to the company and to its crews, but they were not successful. Some of the Passamaquoddy dressed up in traditional war attire and staged an attack on the crews. The cutting crew ran away in fear, leaving thousands of dollars in cutting equipment behind. The Tribe confiscated the equipment and Georgia Pacific was forced into negotiations. The result of this surprising confrontation was a resurgence of tribal self-respect and pride. Congress passed the Indian Civil Right Act in 1968. This act gave Indians the same rights that non-Indian Americans had under the Bill of Rights. In 1970, President Nixon issued a statement that allowed tribes to manage their own affairs with the greatest degree of self government possible. The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 allowed tribes to administer federal Indian programs themselves.The state of Maine cut off aid for the Passamaquoddy Tribe in 1969. The Passamaquoddy retaliated by blocking off Route One through Indian Township and charging fees for cars and trucks to pass by. The blockade ended when state aid was restored to the Passamaquoddy. By the 1970's, only a few hundred of the Passamaquoddy's 2,300 member tribe remained on the Pleasant Point reservation, a 400 acre peninsula on the Bay of Fundy. A few hundred more inhabited the tribe's other reservation, Indian Township (Waldman 1).After Gellers' representation of the tribe ended, the tribe hired attorney Tom Turner, who was fresh out of law school. Turner believed that the 1794 treaty was null and void. He wanted to base the tribe's claim on t...
