Polchies died Oct. 15 at his home in Bangor at the age of 74. He was born Nov. 21, 1941 in Woodstock, New Brunswick to Alexander and Grace (Saulis) Polchies.
“Terry loved his community and worked hard throughout his life to improve the living situation for his fellow Tribal members and Native Americans in the state,” said Brenda Commander, current chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. “He was deeply involved as a member of the tribal negotiating committee during the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act.”
Polchies graduated from Houlton High School in 1960 and attended Ricker College in Houlton for two years, studying business administration.
“Terry became a trusted and good friend and my mentor and guide in all of my work as our Tribal Representative to the Maine Government,” said Henry Bear of Houlton. “Many do not know this, but Chief Polchies was also a ‘Ford Fellow’ for one year, studying and working to acquire familiarity with Indian affairs throughout North America, including federal, state and provincial issues and the common problems and strategies used by Native people. He had an extensive history of working with these issues on the state and national level and has made major contributions to the relationships between the Maliseets, the Wabanaki Tribes and to other governments, including Maine and the United States.”
Polchies was also the executive director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Houlton Regional Office, the director of the Central Maine Indian Association and retired from University of Maine – Orono after 10 years.
“He is to be remembered for his lifelong commitment to promoting the common good of our Maliseet People and other Indian organizations and tribes in the United States and Canada,” Bear said. “He worked as a coordinator for the Department of Indian Affairs in Maine and was President of the Association of Aroostook Indians (AAI).
“Chief Polchies, while fighting tremendous pressure to keep Maliseets completely out of the so-called land claim settlement by Maine’s Attorney General, helped secure a settlement that brought $40 million to each of the two southern tribes, the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot. He did his best to intervene in that process to protect our future land claim interests on our behalf as a negotiator from 1978 to 1980 for the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement and, to that end, became chairman and chief executive officer of the Houlton Band of Maliseets from 1977 to 1982, at the time of the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot settlement.”
Polchies served as president of Tribe, Inc., an Indian international organization of the Wabanaki Confederacy Tribes of Maine and Canada, and was affiliated with many other organizations involving Indian affairs in the Aroostook region on both sides international boundary line.
“Chief Polchies was a strong advocate of our Aboriginal rights and sovereignty, our land rights and interests, and our treaty rights and insisted that these be protected, and fully pursued and enforced,” Bear said.
“Terry believed in that education was the key to success and became the first Maliseet to get his high school diploma,” Commander added. “He was proud and pleased with how much our leaders had accomplished over the years. We will all miss him with respect and honor for the legacy that he left behind. We will be guided by his spirit forever. As we always say in our ceremonies, he is ended his earthwalk and is now on his spiritwalk.”
