Mashpee Wampanoag Win Federal Recognition

[Okwes]

Mashpee Wampanoag Win Federal Recognition


Web Editor: Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 2/15/2007 5:36:55 PM
Updated: 2/15/2007 9:49:01 PM







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A Cape Cod tribe that shared the nation's first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims has finally won federal recognition. The Wampanoags began the process in 1974 and were notified Thursday afternoon by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.




Designation as a sovereign American Indian nation could eventually bring casino gambling to Massachusetts.

Hundreds of tribe members were expected to gather in Mashpee to celebrate their long-fought-for recognition.

The Wampanoag received initial approval last March. Six months later, Mashpee town officials agreed to endorse the recognition request after the tribe agreed not to build a casino on Cape Cod or try to use the courts to take possession of privately owned land.

Members of the Mashpee tribe lived in Plymouth when the Pilgrims arrived and dined with the English settlers at the first Thanksgiving.

The harmony gave way to a brief period of bloody war.

[blackcrowheart]

Tribe opens doors to newcomers By STEPHANIE VOSK
www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/tribeopens18.htm
<http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/tribeopens18.htm>
A newly-recognized Native American tribe will now be welcoming new
members. If you can trace your ancestors to one of the 451 Indians
who were living in the Mashpee Indian District in 1860 - a decade before
Mashpee was incorporated as a town in 1870 - you could be in. There are
at least dozens of applications that have been submitted in recent years
waiting to be reviewed, Mashpee Wampanoag tribe spokesman Scott Ferson
said. And with membership will come all the benefits that federally
recognized tribes receive from the U.S. government. The tribe will not
distinguish between the 1,461 current tribe members and latecomers.
''You're a tribe member, you're a tribe member,'' Ferson said. Tribe
leaders closed the doors to new members several years ago as they
pursued federal recognition. The recognition petition required each
member to prove his or her genealogy, and the tribe literally couldn't
afford to have any more. During the recognition process, they hired
specialists to trace their members' genealogical roots to try and prove
their tribe history. Ferson said while new members will endure the
same scrutiny, tribe members will be ready to take on the job
themselves.
<http://oascentral.capecodonline.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.cct.\
com/news/articles/cctimes/1696692089/Middle/Ottaway/CCT_0032_M_CapeCodVi\
ew/CCT_0032_M_CapeCodView.gif/63326230363932663435643935643730?> ''The
genealogy process is so rigorous and the tribe knows how to do this
now,'' Ferson said. The original tribe members are listed on a ''base
roll,'' recorded in a state Indian census published in 1861. New members
will need documentation to back up their claims and, tribe genealogist
Patricia Oakley said in 2005, they will have to appear before a
membership committee. Members must also be actively involved in the
tribe, she said at the time. Stephanie Vosk can be reached at
[e-mail]. (Published: February 18, 2007)

[blackcrowheart]

Cape Cod tribe struggled for years before government recognition
By DAVID WEBER , Associated Press writer



Dominique Frye, 9, sits with tribal elders Pete Pells and Ellen Hendricks at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council headquarters and meeting house in Mashpee. After a 32 year tug-of-war with the government, the tribe was officially recognized last month. Stephan Savoia/Associated Press
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MASHPEE — Ellen Hendricks, 81, has lived her entire life here on ancestral grounds of her Mashpee Wampanaog Indian forebears.
She watched relatives and friends struggle with inadequate education and poverty as their Cape Cod land was swallowed up and fenced off piece-by-piece by "the newcomers," as she calls them.
The Mashpee Wampanoags, who shared the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims in 1621, once had 33,000 acres in what is now mostly Mashpee and Falmouth — land given to the tribe by the English crown when the Indians were forced to move south to the Cape.
By the end of the 20th century, the tribe had 160 acres left.
A greater indignity than the loss of land was the loss of identity, Hendricks said.
People would doubt she was Indian, believing instead she was Portuguese or black or Cape Verdean or some mixture. She recalled how her relatives felt when the same questions were raised during the Mashpee Wampanoags' unsuccessful lawsuit to reclaim their lands.
MORE INFO
Wampanoag history

Some important dates in the history of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe:

1620: Mashpee Wampanoag Indians meet the Pilgrims as they arrive in Plymouth. Tribe member Squanto helps them survive their first winter in North America.

1621: The Mashpee Wampanoag celebrate the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and later serve as guides when the settlers explore the land.

1685: Plymouth Court deeds roughly 55 square miles of land on Cape Cod to the tribe. The court ruling states the English cannot purchase any of the land without the Indians' consent.

1752: The tribe sends a petition to the Massachusetts General Court seeking relief from encroachment on their land by non-Indians.

1763: The Massachusetts governor and Legislature agree to allow limited self-government by the Indians in Mashpee.

1770: Crispus Attucks, whose mother was a Mashpee Wampanoag, is killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.

1790: President Washington signs the Trade and Non-intercourse Act, which requires federal government approval before Indian land can be sold or transferred.

1822: The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is listed as an Indian tribe by the U.S. War Department.

1849: Oversight of the all Indian tribes is transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. A bookkeeping error omits the Mashpee Wampanoag from the bureau's list. The error is not corrected despite the Mashpee Wampanoags' 1822 classification as a tribe.

1870: The Massachusetts Legislature abolishes the Mashpee district on Cape Cod and incorporates Mashpee as a town.

1870-early 1960s: Mashpee Wampanoags hold all elected offices in Mashpee and hold all slots on the police and fire departments. Tribe members continue to fish and hunt on the town's undeveloped lands.

1964: First white person is elected to the Mashpee Board of Selectmen.

Late 1960s: Large residential developments, beginning with New Seabury, start to alter the town's demographics and political structure. The Indians' free movement through the woodlands to the coastal waters is impeded.

1975: The Mashpee Wampanoag inform the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that they will seek federal recognition as a tribe.

1976-82: The tribe fights unsuccessfully in state court to reclaim lands it once held. The case creates havoc among those trying to buy and sell property in the town because banks will not grant mortgages while ownership is in doubt.

1993: Mashpee Wampanoag Medicine Man John "Slow Turtle" Peters delivers opening prayer at President Clinton's inaugural breakfast.

2005: The Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council reaches a settlement with the U.S. Department of Interior, putting its recognition petition on the "active consideration" list.

Feb. 15, 2007: The Mashpee Wampanoags are officially recognized as a tribe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"They were humiliated to hear those lawyers say, 'How do you know you're Indian?'" she said.
A decision by the federal government, however, has changed the tribe's fortunes.
On Feb. 15, the Mashpee Wampanoags the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs — after 32 years of legal tug-of-war, officially recognized them as a tribe — a decision that ultimately could lead to the first legalized casino gaming in Massachusetts.
The drawn-out petition process never would have been necessary were it not for an 1849 bookkeeping error that kept the Mashpee Wampanoags from being listed as a tribe when federal government oversight of Indians was transferred from the War Department to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to tribe members.
But now, the members no longer will have to prove themselves. And they are looking to a future with millions of dollars of potential — should state lawmakers allow for a casino to be built.
Still, long before tribe members began dreaming of a financial bonanza, they lived a simple life off the bounty of the land and sea.
Their land on the Cape remained unincorporated until 1870, when the Massachusetts Legislature said the need to build roads and spread electricity through the region required the residents to form the town of Mashpee. The town population remained predominantly Indian well into the 1960s. When the first white man was elected to the Board of Selectman in 1964, the town's fire and police departments still comprised Indians only, tribal council chairman Glenn Marshall said.
At the same time, demand for land on Cape Cod was rising quickly. Sharp-eyed real estate speculators and lawyers saw large property tracts on government lists because of non-payment of taxes. The Indians' communal and fairly insular lifestyle left them ignorant or unconcerned about paying tax bills when their relatives died.
Hendricks said she began to notice Indian life changing after World War II. White people began buying property the Indians had considered communal for generations.
"They would say we could no longer go to the beach. We didn't question it. We just took it for granted that we were not allowed," she said.
Because the Mashpee Indians are so small in number, with roughly 1,500 tribal members, most of them are related somewhere along the line. Their Indian culture, which dates back thousands of years, literally is their family history. Hendricks found it difficult to see her loved ones squeezed toward insignificance as Mashpee and the rest of Cape Cod increasingly took on the trappings of suburban America.
When the Indians lost their majority to the whites on the board of selectmen in the early 1970s, they decided to seek federal recognition for their tribe.
Shortly after beginning the federal recognition process in 1975, the Mashpee Indians filed a lawsuit in the state court seeking to reclaim much of their former lands, including privately owned property. After the Indians ultimately lost their lawsuit, a tribal elder said, "Never again sue for the land. Get rich and buy it back," according to Marshall.
That's now what they plan to do, through casino gambling.
Marshall, 57, a former Metropolitan police officer and Marine Corps veteran who served three tours in Vietnam, said the decades-long recognition effort would have failed if Detroit-based casino developer Herb Strather had not underwritten their $8 million legal costs and given them another $5 million to begin procuring land.
"The deal is, if we get gaming, he gets a piece of the pie," Marshall said.
Former federal Bureau of Indian Affairs Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover said the Mashpee Indians' formal recognition should have come a long time ago. He said their 30,000-page recognition petition became ensnared in a "bureaucratic nightmare."
"As you look at the historical evidence, it's very clear they were organized as a tribe and understood by all around to be an Indian tribe," Gover said.
But there were long-standing issues of land ownership and friction.
Lee Gurney, a longtime town resident and member of the town historical commission, said the Indians' unsuccessful land lawsuit in state court, which stretched on for about six years, increased tensions between the Indians and non-Indians.
"It panicked everyone in town. Nobody could get a mortgage. Nobody could sell their house. A lot of the community felt pretty threatened," said Gurney, who is white. She said relations between the tribe and the non-Indians have improved since then, although she acknowledged a certain amount of bigotry against the tribe remains.
Gurney said she has no doubt the Mashpee Indians suffered injustices over the years. She said she is glad to see them finally receive official recognition and does not begrudge them the chance to chance to cash in with a casino.
"If that's a way for them to catch up, then good for them," she said.

[blackcrowheart]

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe eyes new future
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts say federal
recognition gives them a new set of tools to succeed.
Mashpee ancestors greeted the first European settlers at Plymouth Rock.
Despite efforts to push them out, tribal members dominated the Mashpee area until
the 1960s, when non-Indians began to move in.
The influx led to disputes over land ownership and federal status. A failed
land claim left the tribe in the Bureau of Indian Affairs queue for more than
30 years.
An answer finally came this year, when the BIA finalized the tribe's status.
Now tribal members are looking forward to the housing, education and health
benefits that recognition brings. They also hope gaming brings in much-needed
dollars but some say it has already begun to corrupt the tribe.
Get the Story:
_Tribe members brace for change, cling to roots _

[Okwes]

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe looking for more land
_printer friendly_
(http://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2007/003396.asp?print=1) The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts is looking for more
land in the town of Middleboro.
The tribe and its backers already purchased 125 acres in the town for $1.76
million and have options on 200 more acres. But the tribe wants up to 1,000
acres, a spokesperson said.
The tribe hopes to use the land as an initial reservation and for a casino.
The town is being offered $7 million a year, plus infrastructure
improvements.
As a newly recognized tribe, the Mashpees qualify for an exception in
Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.