Maine Indian Education (MIE) is negotiating to purchase the Downeast Heritage Museum building in Calais to rebuild it as a Native American museum and cultural and economic development center. The heritage museum has struggled since its opening in 2004 with severe financial difficulties, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2006, closing its doors in the spring of 2008, with insufficient funds to hire staff, and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2008.

Ron Jenkins, superintendent of Maine Indian Education, which is currently a tenant in the building, says a draft purchase and sale agreement is being reviewed by the board of trustees of the Downeast Heritage Museum, the nonprofit corporation that still owns the building. The acquisition also needs to be approved by the three school boards at Indian Township, Pleasant Point and Indian Island. Jenkins is hoping for a sale closing date of late September or early October.

Since USDA Rural Development holds a mortgage on the building, Jenkins believes that Maine Indian Education will need to pay enough so that Rural Development can be repaid and a clear title can be obtained. The amount of the mortgage is $600,000, which Jim Porter, president of the Downeast Heritage Museum board, says is the offer that's being considered. Porter comments, "We're happy to see Maine Indian Education take an interest in the building and wish them success with it."

Along with keeping the superintendent's office for Maine Indian Education and the visitor information center run by the Maine Tourism Association, Jenkins says, "We will slowly rebuild the museum into a Native American museum." He adds that it will be restructured for nonprofits that are oriented toward education or economic development. MIE is negotiating with two prospective tenants of the building. Both are nonprofits, with one involved with education. "We hope to be a cultural and economic development center for the tribes and possibly Washington County," he says.

Jenkins envisions that the new museum might use some of the Downeast Heritage Museum's existing displays, but "we're more likely to recycle them and bring them back at a later date." He notes that Maine Indian Education will need help from the state, including a consultant on how to operate a museum, along with volunteer help and assistance from the tribes. "We would like to see what they already have on exhibit at the tribal museums rotate through here," he says, adding that they may also seek to have on loan exhibits from the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. MIE also would pursue obtaining historical Native items for display that might not be available to the tribes, since they need to be in a secure and environmentally safe building. "We hope to have a gift shop featuring Native crafts and craftsmen showing how they do their work," he adds. "We hope part will be a living museum."

"We will proceed slowly," notes Jenkins. "It will take time and money." He says that Maine Indian Education does not anticipate "anything near the misguided" estimates for the number of visitors that the heritage museum had expected. A study had estimated that 90,000 visitors would tour the interpretive center during its first year in 2004, while the actual numbers have been a few thousand per year. Jenkins does believe, though, that most of the people visiting the tourism information center will look at displays in the museum. During 2008, a total of 17,254 people visited the tourism center, although attendance so far this year has been down 11%. "I think our living museum part, with baskets, dream-catchers or canoes being made, will be very attractive," Jenkins says.

He points out that the new museum will not need to have a great number of visitors, as it will have other revenue sources, with rent payments from the tourism association and the two potential nonprofits. Maine Indian Education has been paying $34,800 a year for its lease, and the Department of Economic and Community Development's Maine Office of Tourism, which contracts with the Maine Tourism Association to operate its visitor centers in the state, contributes to the operating costs.

The $6 million interpretive center had opened in May 2004 to commemorate the French settlement on St. Croix Island 400 years earlier, but it did not get the estimated large attendance for the events. Also, a million dollars that was expected in the beginning from the federal budget to help with operating costs over a five-year period was removed from the budget. In September 2006 the museum filed for protection with the federal Bankruptcy Court, which reduced the debt from $3.2 million to $600,000, which is the mortgage held by Rural Development. This action reduced the mortgage payments from over $218,000 to $30,000 a year. Income from the rent paid by tenants has covered the cost of the reduced mortgage.