Mashpees near federal recognition

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Mashpees near federal recognition

Video via url:
NECN: Tribe granted preliminary federal recognition
<javascript:playVideoClip('plV737951')>

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Glenn Marshall, Mashpee Wampanoag tribal chairman, addresses the tribe
as council members Desire' Hendricks (center) and Cheryl Frye celebrate.
(Boston Globe Photo / Victoria Arocho)

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Mashpees near federal recognition*
Final approval could open up casino talks

By Megan Tench and Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | April 1, 2006
www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/04/01/mashpees_near_federal_recognition/


MASHPEE -- The federal government gave preliminary recognition yesterday
to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, setting the stage for possibly
contentious negotiations with state officials over the right to build a
casino in Massachusetts.

The 1,468-member Cape Cod tribe, descendants of Indians who met the
Pilgrims in 1621, has sought federal recognition for 31 years. Anyone
opposing the recognition has a year to try to persuade the government to
reverse its decision.

If the federal recognition stands, the state would be required to
negotiate a compact with the tribe involving gambling rights, and the
tribe would become eligible for a host of federal benefits and would
gain power as a sovereign entity within the state.

The tribe could seek land for a large-scale bingo-style operation
shortly after winning final recognition because bingo is legal in
Massachusetts. But the Mashpees would need state approval to build the
kind of casino-style operation with gaming tables and slot machines that
is not legal in the state but has become a multibillion-dollar business
for tribes in Connecticut.

If the Massachusetts Legislature passes a pending bill allowing slot
machines, that would remove a huge hurdle. Opponents of allowing slot
machines at racetracks are using the Mashpee recognition to warn of the
consequences of expanding gambling.

But at a celebration at tribal headquarters after the federal Bureau of
Indian Affairs' announcement, tribal leaders did not want to discuss
gambling.

''I don't have anything to say about that," said Glenn Marshall, tribal
chairman. ''Until the state does something, we can't do anything anyway.
This is not about gaming. This is about recognition. Right now, my focus
is on health, housing, and education."

The late afternoon announcement was greeted with tears, howls of
jubilation, and the beating of drums by tribal members.

''We've been waiting so long," sobbed Doris Middleton, 89. ''I've lost
so many members of the family who were waiting for this day. We've all
been waiting."

Marshall added, ''I think this is the first day of peace with the US
national government and the start of government-to-government relations."

Nonetheless, tribal members were mindful of what happened to the
Nipmucs, a Massachusetts tribe that received preliminary recognition in
2001 in the last days of the Clinton administration. That approval was
overturned nine months later by Bush administration officials.

But Kevin Gover, a former assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian
Affairs in the Clinton administration, said yesterday ''it is
extraordinarily unlikely" that the Mashpees' recognition will be
reversed because the same administration will be in charge when the
final decision is made next year.

Gover, now a law professor at Arizona State University, said that in
every case where a tribe has received final approval, the state involved
eventually agreed to allow a casino.

If the state does not negotiate in ''good faith," Gover added, the tribe
could sue the state and ask the federal government to give it the right
to run a casino.

While the tribe owns 160 acres of land in Mashpee, it has pledged not to
try to build a casino on Cape Cod, according to tribal spokesman Scott
Ferson. Instead, the tribe is expected to try to acquire land elsewhere
in the state, probably in an economically depressed area that would
welcome a casino because of the jobs it would create.

The tribe then would need the federal government's approval to put that
land into trust, a move that would exempt the land from most local
zoning. It is possible that the tribe could try to negotiate a deal in
which the tribe pays a percentage of revenues to the state and to the
town in which a casino is built.

One of those in attendance at the celebration was a Detroit casino
developer, Herbert J. Strather, chairman of Strather and Associates, a
real estate development company that financially backed the Mashpee
tribe as it researched and presented its case for recognition.

Asked about the tribe's interest in building a casino, he said, ''It's
certainly an interest, but at the same the tribe has said there will be
no gaming on Cape Cod."

He would not say which towns, if any, had expressed interest in hosting
a casino. ''The Wampanoags will be good neighbors," he said.

The recognition question facing the federal government was whether the
tribe had a continuous history in the area, along with whether the 1,468
people who said they belonged to the tribe had proven ties to it.

Some tribal members had worried their effort to win recognition would
get caught up in the scandal surrounding former lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
who has pleaded guilty to defrauding Indian tribes of millions of dollars.

Strather had paid $50,000 to Abramoff's firm and another $50,000 to
Americans for Tax Reform at the suggestion of Abramoff's firm, Ferson
said. The antitax group is run by Grover Norquist, a longtime friend of
Abramoff. Strather and some tribal members also gave donations to some
Congress members, some of whom urged the Interior Department to consider
the Mashpees' case more quickly.

But the tribe's work with Abramoff's firm was small by comparison to
payments by other Indian clients, and the association with Abramoff
apparently did not hurt the application. Two of Abramoff's former
partners continued to work for the tribe.

The Mashpees are a separate band from the Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard. The 1,100-member Aquinnah branch was
federally recognized in 1987 and it remains the only tribe in the state
with the recognition. The Aquinnah branch has failed to win approval for
a casino and does not have a current proposal for one.

Donald Widdiss, chairman of the Aquinnah band, said yesterday he would
be watching to see whether the Mashpee band tries to establish a
gambling enterprise. ''If the opportunity was there" for a gambling
enterprise, ''we would have to look at it," he said.

Megan Tench reported from Mashpee; Michael Kranish from Washington.

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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More Wampanoag (politics/community)



03/31/2006
Wampanoag cross first hurdle to federal recognition
By SEAN GONSALVES
STAFF WRITER


four centuries ago, there were 26 recognized Wampanoag tribes living in
southeastern Massachusetts - from the tip of Provincetown to the
Narragansett River in Rhode Island.

Today the political heirs of the Pilgrims officially acknowledged the
existence of the Mashpee Wampanoag in the form of a Bureau of Indian
Affairs preliminary finding that the tribe has met all seven criteria
required for federal recognition of a tribe.

The favorable phone call from the BIA came at 4:12 p.m.

As word of the decision rippled through the tent set up on the grounds
of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council building, many of the estimated
200 people present erupted into whooping and hollering. Drum music
started playing. People screamed and clapped and cried.

Though a final determination on the tribe's petition for federal
recognition isn't due until March 31 of next year, tribal leaders hailed
the bureau's preliminary finding as a joyous new chapter in the tribe's
storied history.

"This is a great day for the Mashpee, but also for this country," said
Glenn Marshall, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council in a
faxed statement moments after the decision. "We have always believed
that the truth of our petition would be recognized, although it has been
a long and hard struggle. This decision will ensure that our unique
history, culture and language will not die, and that the men and women
who make up this tribe will have the economic tools necessary to remain
in our ancestral home."

Today's decision is followed by a 210-day public comment period.
According to a court-supervised settlement agreement, the tribe will
receive a final determination by March 31, 2007.

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling emphasized that the agency's finding is a
preliminary one subject to change, should a particular finding be
successfully challenged by the state or another interested third party.

Though the town of Mashpee has yet to officially endorse the tribe's
petition - pending further town/tribe negotiations - Mashpee Selectman
John Cahalane, the town's liaison to the tribe, said the town is not
planning on challenging the BIA finding.

Amelia Bingham, 83, one of the original tribal petitioners and who flew
in from Las Vegas for today's event, said: "It's the principle of the
thing and nothing else. Here we are the tribe that welcomed the
Europeans to these shores and here we are the last to be recognized."

She added: "There was a time when the tribe members gave up. My genes
said I had to stick with it. ... It's a historic day from us. It's a
long time in coming."

Town officials, as a listed interested party, were also called directly
at town hall about the decision, but the tribe as petitioner, was called
first, and word spread quickly. The selectmen first heard about the
positive finding from a Cape Cod Times reporter who got a call from an
editor on his cell phone. They then read the news on the newspaper's Web
site.

At 4:22 p.m. Selectman Chairman George "Chuckie" Green, also a tribal
member, and Selectman Cahalane, joined by town manager Joyce Mason, got
the call they were waiting for from the BIA.

The BIA spokesman told the selectmen that the Wampanoag petition was the
strongest that the agency has seen recently for tribal recognition.

Green was all smiles and obviously anxious to join the celebration at
the tribal grounds.

Cahalane said, "I'm happy for the people who have been waiting for this
for 30 years. He added, "There are no manuals on how to do this. We need
a few days to talk to our attorney and to the tribe. It's a learning
process."

Word spread through town hall quickly, even as it was closing for the
day. "How it'd go, up or down?" people asked.

Mashpee's sister tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head on Martha's
Vineyard - the only federally recognized tribe in the state - did not
get seven positive preliminary findings when their petition was before
the BIA in the 1980s.

The Gay Head tribe initially received five positive findings and two
negatives, according to Gay Head Tribal Council Chairman Donald Widdiss.
But with the help of professional ethno-historians and a settlement
agreement with Congress, the Aquinnah tribe was able to turn the tables
and be granted federal recognition.

Mashpee tribe members and hundreds of supporters who gathered at tribal
council office were crying tears of joy in the wake of today's news.

Shortly after 5 p.m., about 20 tribal members, pounding drums and
chanting, started walking along Route 28 to the tribal meetinghouse and
cemetery. Others joined the procession in their cars.

"History in one respect now comes full circle," said Chief Vernon Lopez.
"Our ancestors, as a sovereign nation, met the Mayflower, and that
meeting led to the birth of this great nation. Today our government has
reaffirmed this status and the faith of that first meeting. But, in
another respect, we are today who we were yesterday - the keepers of an
important American story, one that was in danger of dying out, but has
been given a new birth."

Read more about today's decision and reaction tomorrow in the Cape Cod
Times.

Reporters George Brennan, Hilary Russ and Emily Dooley contributed to
this report.

Sean Gonsalves can be reached at [e-mail]