Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

The Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc. (formerly: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe ) is one of two federally recognized tribe of the Wampanoag in Massachusetts . The tribe was not officially recognized until 2007 and its headquarters are in Mashpee , Barnstable County , in the western part of Cape Cod . The second tribe is the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head on Martha's Vineyard .

In 2014, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had more than 2,600 members. In 2015, 170 acres (69 ha) in Mashpee and another 150 acres (61 ha) in Taunton were designated as trust land and taken over to the administration of the US Department of Interior for the establishment of reservation land.

history

Native Americans lived in Cape Cod for millennia. The originally Algonquian- speaking Wampanoag were the locals encountered by the English settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century. The Wampanoag settled large stretches of coast that stretched into what is now Rhode Island . The Wampanoag and the settlers were in contact for centuries and formed each other's cultures and there were also interracial marriages.

English colonists came to what is now Mashpee around 1658 with the help of missionary Richard Bourne from the neighboring town of Sandwich . In 1660 the colonists "left" an area of ​​about 50 sqmi (130 km²) within the English settlement to those Wampanoag who converted to Christianity . Already in 1665 the Wampanoag “administered” themselves, with a court and procedure according to English custom. These settlements were called " Praying Towns " by the English .

Information sign of the museum.

After the defeat of the Wampanoag in King Philip's War (1675–1676), the tribes of the mainland were resettled together with the Sakonnet in what is now Rhode Island. Other Wampanoag and the Nauset were forced to settle in the Praying Towns. Among other things, also in Mashpee. But the colonists also sold many of the men into slavery in the Caribbean and kept women and children as slaves in New England.

The colonists established Mashpee as the largest Native American reservation in Massachusetts. The place name is a anglicisation the Wampanoag word mass-sip : The meaning is made up of mass (= large as or larger than in Massa setts) and sipping (= water). The name can be translated as "the greater bay" or "large pond", or as "land on the large bay". The body of water that is meant is Wakeby Lake , which is wider at one end.

In 1763 the British Crown organized Mashpee as a plantation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony , against the wishes of the Wampanoag. With this designation, the Crown transferred the competence to the Colonial District of Mashpee to incorporate the area administered by the Mashpee Wampanoag into its jurisdiction. The colony "allowed" the Indians the "right" to choose their own officials to maintain order in the area, but subject them to the Colonial Government in other matters. The Wampanoag population within the plantation was steadily declining due to social uprooting and contagion from colonists' diseases. In addition, the English constantly tried to take over the country.

After the American War of Independence, the city renewed the self-government of Mashpee in 1788, which European-American authorities saw as a failure. They appointed a Committee of Overseers made up of five Europeans to oversee the Mashpee. In 1837 , when William Apess , a Pequot and Methodist preacher , helped the Mashpee Wampanoag organize a peaceful protest against the Overseers who failed to protect the Wampanoag from the theft of wood by colonists, the governor threatened a military strike. The rule of the Overseers resulted in further losses of land.

Restrictions in the 19th century and land losses

In 1834 the state again gave the Wampanoag a certain amount of self-government, albeit not full autonomy. The idea circulated that the introduction of agricultural methods based on the European-American model would facilitate assimilation, and the state then confiscated part of the common land of the Wampanoag in 1842. 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of the remaining 13,000 acres (53 km²) were divided into allotments of 60 acres (24.3 ha) and given to the Heads of Households so that each family had their own property and should practice subsistence farming.

Laws were passed that forbade Europeans to assault Wampanoag land, but the state did nothing to enforce these laws. The competing settlers also stole wood from the reservation. Even so, the Wampanoag still owned a large region rich in wood, fish, and game that the settlers viewed with greed. They envied Mashpee's growing community. As a result, the Mashpee have had more conflicts with their European neighbors than other more isolated or less desirable Indian settlements in the state.

In 1870 the state confirmed the incorporation (incorporation or official establishment) of Mashpee as a "Town" (municipality). This made it the penultimate jurisdiction on the Cape that went through this process. With Europeans dominating the city administration, the Wampanoag lost control of most of their land and self-government. Many of their descendants stayed in the area, and some worked on whaling and other vessels departing from the Cape or other ports in Massachusetts. But they always identified themselves as Mashpee Wampanoag because of their culture. New members came through marriages and mixed-race children.

20th century

Since the 1970s, the Mashpee Wampanoag worked to reorganize the tribe in order to be able to exert political influence again, and applied for recognition as a tribe by the federal government. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was founded in 1972 under the direction of the first President, Russell "Fast Turtle" Peters . In 1974 the council sent a petition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition. Like other "landless tribes" on the Atlantic coast, they struggled to prove the continuity of their history. In many areas, outsiders assumed that because the tribes had become "multi-racial" they were no longer "Indians". However, the Mashpee Wampanoag had experience in maintaining their culture and most of their descendants identified themselves as Wampanoag.

In 1976 the tribe initiated a groundbreaking land claim lawsuit, in which they sued the Town of Mashpee for the return of the "Ancestral Homelands" (homeland of the ancestors). The United States District Court ruled that due to a lack of federal recognition, the Mashpee Wampanoag had no standing to enforce the land claims. The tribe then continued efforts to gain recognition and finally received recognition in 2007.

present

Since 2000, Glenn Marshall was Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Council. In 2007 it became known that he had previously been convicted of rape, that he had lied about his military service, and that an investigation was ongoing against him for lobbying for the tribal casino.

Marshall was replaced by Vice Chairman Shawn Hendricks , who held the post until Marshall was convicted in 2009. Marshall had used tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations through the lobbyist Jack Abramoff employed for the purpose . Abramoff, too, was sentenced on a much larger scale for a number of offenses. He had set up a much larger fraud system in conjunction with Native American Gaming (Indian casinos), especially for his work for a Mississippi Tribe.

The Mashpee Tribe received formal federal recognition in 2007. Under Chairman Shawn Hendricks, tribe representatives worked with Abramoff's fellow lobbyist Kevin A. Ring on a plan to start an Indian Gaming (casino) as it appeared as a way to generate revenue for the tribe to generate. But in 2008, Ring was charged and convicted of corruption related to his work for the Mashpee.

During this time there was strong internal tension in the tribe. Some Tribal Elders wanted to force access to the files of the Tribal Council in order to get information about the involvement of the council in the ring scandal and filed a complaint with the Barnstable Municipal Court . The Tribal Council voted to formally “outlaw” (shun) the elders and ban them from the tribe for seven years. In 2007 the federal government had already examined the tribe's files in the proceedings against Abramoff and his colleagues.

In 2009, Cedric Cromwell was elected Chairman and President of the Council. By then he had already been a member of the council. Cromwell promised reforms and he worked to distance himself from the former chairmen, even though he had been on the council for six years and had witnessed the scandals at the Marshall and Abramoff. He was also one of those who voted to expel the elders. After the election, the unsuccessful opposing candidates filed a complaint with the Tribal Court after allegations of election fraud and election list falsification.

Cromwell's tenure was marked by a series of protests from elders over casino funding.

In the meantime, the tribe continued negotiations with the state to obtain a license to build a casino on the tribal land in Taunton . In 2013, the Mashpee reached an agreement with the state that the casino company would cede 17% of all revenue to the state of Massachusetts, in exchange for the state not to license any more casinos in the area.

In September 2015, the Department of Interior took over 0.69 km² in Mashpee in trusteeship as a reservation for the Wampanoag, which already controlled this land. In addition, the department took over another 0.61 km² in Taunton, on the mainland, in trusteeship. Casino.org reported a quote from Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell to The Boston Globe : “This is a reclamation of land that was once ours. Tribal lands once stretched from Cape Ann to Rhode Island, and this new reservation represents only a dot on the map, but it feels really good. ”(This is a land claim from land that used to belong to us. The tribal land stretched from Cape Ann to Rhode Island, and this new reservation is just a tiny dot on the map, but it feels really good.)

Land and casino

After receiving federal recognition, the tribe pushed for a state license to run a casino on the tribal land. Projects of this type (Indian Gaming Operations) are approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission created by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act . The regulations include that casino projects are only allowed on properties that were given to the tribe before October 17, 1988 and are federally registered. Therefore, the tribe's attempts were repeatedly challenged legally or administratively, because the tribe had never had a permanent reserve before the cut-off date.

In November 2011, Massachusetts passed laws to allow licenses for up to three casinos in different regions of the state. Including Gaming Resort Casinos and one for Slot Machine Parlor. The Wampanoag were given a head start to plan a casino in the southeast of the state.

The tribe applied for a $ 500 million casino. on land in Taunton, Massachusetts , for which there was only a purchase agreement at the time. The location is 48 mi (77 km) from Mashpee. These plans were challenged by the Pocasset Wampanoag , who were also seeking an agreement for a casino. Approval has been signaled from the state. In 2014 the tribe made a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Taunton, as well as for properties in Mashpee, where administrative offices are to be built.

In 2010, the Wampanoag tribe reached an agreement for funding from the Malaysian Genting Group . Political support came from Senator John Kerry , Governor Deval Patrick and former Congressman Bill Delahunt , who is lobbying representative of the Casino Project. Both Kerry and Delahunt received campaign contributions from tribal funds through transactions authorized by Glenn Marshall. Marshall was also implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Then the tribe applied to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to take over the land in trust. With this approval, the tribe received jurisdiction over the site in Taunton (321 acres in federal trust) in September 2015. This included 170 acres of land already controlled by Mashpee and another 150 acres that were first acquired in Taunton.

The Department of Interior's actions were challenged in a lawsuit brought by local opponents to the United States District Court in February 2016. They contested the land takeover with reference to the Carcieri v. Salazar (2009). This US Supreme Court decision said the government cannot take land into trust for tribes recognized by the Indian Reorganization Act after 1934 .

The City of Taunton spoke in favor of the casino project, as the residents had also spoken out in favor of building it. Judge William G. Young promised a quick decision in July, but the case would take years to complete.

Both sides assured that they would go into revision if the decision turned out to be in their disadvantage. However, the Mashpee Wampanoag immediately started work on the area in Taunton and began to tear down old buildings.

membership

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council has developed certain criteria for admission as a member. The tribe requires that a member be able to provide a certificate of descent from approved members and live in or near Mashpee, as well as active participation.

In the media

The video documentation Mashpee from 1984 describes the events surrounding the Wampanoag land claims in the 1970s.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handbook of North American Indians. Chapter: “Indians of Southern New England and Long Island, late period”: p. 178ff; Mashpee Wampanoag Nation webpage ; Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah webpage ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ WampaGate - Glenn Marshall: There is stopped much to tell. In: Cape Cod Times, August 26, 2007.
3. ^ ^{A b} Former Wampanoag leader sentenced. In: The Boston Globe , May 8, 2009.
4. ^ Marshall Timeline. In: Cape Cod Times , August 25, 2007.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Cape tribe feels heat from lobbyist scandal. In: Cape Cod Times September 11, 2008.
6. ↑ Fed letter demands 8 pages of tribe's letters to Abramoff, others. In: Cape Cod Today. October 9, 2007.
7. ^ Cedric Cromwell elected chairman. In: Cape Cod Times February 2, 2009.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Mashpee Wampanoag elders gather outside tribal headquarters yesterday, seeking information about the tribe's finances since Chairman Cedric Cromwell took over. Cape Cod Times September 24, 2009.
9. ↑ Nellie Hicks Ramos v. Patricia Keliinui, 2009 Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Election Committee Chair , Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Court, January 17, 2012.
10. ^ ^{A b c d} Kevin Horridge: Surprise Massachusetts Casino Could Result from New Mashpee Wampanoag Land Grant. Casino.org, September 21, 2015.
11. ^ Indian Land Options. National Indian Gaming Commission. 17th October 1988.
12. ↑ City ends deal to sell land for Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe casino. Indian Gaming January 19, 2011.
13. ^ Massachusetts: Casino Bill Passes in Both Houses. In: The New York Times , November 15, 2011.
14. ^ Mark Arsenault: Developers start to jockey for casino sites / Early groundwork laid in Springfield, Palmer. In: The Boston Globe , November 18, 2011.
15. ↑ Pocasset Mashpee Wampanoags at odds over which tribe should get casino license for Taunton. In: Enterprise Press. April 18, 2012.
16. ↑ WPRI News, Sen. Kerry to support tribe country trust. ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. September 8, 2010. 
17. ^ Former Congressman Bill Delahunt to Represent the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Indian Country News, March 12, 2011.
18. ↑ CampaignMoney.com, Wampanoag federal campaign contributions. In: Campaign Money, 2006.
19. ^ Former MA Congressman to Lobby for Tribal Casino. Casino Suite News, March 11, 2011.
20. ^ Mashpee Receive 321 Acres: First Trust Land Decision. In: Indian Country Today, September 18, 2015.
21. ^ "Lawyers for the Interior Department asked Young to consider what Congress intended when enacting the 1934 law based on statements made by lawmakers at the time." Sean P. Murphy, “Judge promises quick decision on challenge to Taunton casino”. In: The Boston Globe , July 11, 2016.
22. ↑ Mark Ganning, Maureen McNamara: Mashpee 1984 ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 

Web links

• Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe , official website