Pine Tree Legal's Native American Unit Restructured

Some organizational changes have been made at our Native American Unit. Our goal is to provide accessible and high quality legal services for low-income Indian people in Maine.

We have added a new NAU Toll Free phone number. (1-877-213-5630)  It goes directly to our Machias Office. But you can also reach us toll free at our Bangor office by calling 1-800-879-7463. Or you can call one of our local office numbers. You can find all of our locations and phone numbers at our website: www.ptla.org .

We provide free legal services for low-income members of the Micmac, Maliseet, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Tribes and for other low-income Indians. We publish the Wabanaki Legal News. We work closely with Pine Tree Legal's Farmworker Unit. They often represent Native people from Maine and the Maritimes who do agricultural work.

The Native American Unit focuses on legal problems involving a person's status as an Indian. These legal problems include but are not limited to race discrimination, the Indian Child Welfare Act, border crossing rights, Indian Education and other programs and benefits for Indians.

However, Indian people are encouraged to contact us with any type of legal problem. The Native American Unit is also part of the statewide network of legal services programs including the Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Legal Services for the Elderly, the Disability Rights Center, and the Volunteer Lawyers Project.

In our new structure one experienced attorney, Paul Thibeault, will spend 100% of his time working in the Native American Unit. Paul has been an attorney for almost 35 years. He has been representing Native people in Indian Country for more than 26 years. Paul's home office is in our Machias office. But he will make regular outreach trips to tribal communities.

We will continue to have very experienced and capable part-time NAU staff in our other offices in northern Maine. In Bangor our Directing Attorney Eric Nelson and our Paralegal Danny Mills, will handle legal work for Native Americans. Attorney Mike Guare will continue to be a valuable resource to Native clients and NAU staff on border crossing issues. In our Presque Isle office our very experienced attorney, Jeff Ashby will continue to do some of the NAU work for Natives in Aroostook County. We hope that the changes we are making will be effective. We welcome comments from the Native community.