Mashpee tribe wins federal recognition
By DAVID KIBBE, Standard-Times staff writer
Steve Heaslip/The Cape Cod Times Mashpee Wampanoag Chairman Glenn Marshall, surrounded by tribal elders, receives official word of the tribe’s federal recognition in a call, on speaker phone, from the Office of the Interior Secretary yesterday.
BOSTON — The Mashpee Wampanoag on Cape Cod, whose ancestors greeted the Mayflower four centuries ago, yesterday won federal recognition as a sovereign nation from the U.S. Interior Department.
The decision, sought by the tribe for three decades, makes it eligible for millions of dollars in federal money for housing, education and social services. The nearly 1,500-member tribe has also vowed to aggressively pursue an off-Cape resort casino in Southeastern Massachusetts.
The tribe cannot open a casino without the approval of the state Legislature. That is no small hurdle. State lawmakers have defeated a number of slot machine and casino initiatives over the past decade.
The tribe, which owns about 160 acres of land in Mashpee, will seek off-Cape land to be held in trust by the federal government for a potential casino. The tribe can propose to buy or acquire land that was within its ancestral reach. That area stretches 50 miles from its Mashpee headquarters, all the way west to the Rhode Island state line and north to Quincy.
The tribe's federal recognition was considered a slam dunk. The Mashpee Wampanoag won preliminary federal recognition last March, satisfying all seven criteria set up by the federal government. The Bureau of Indian Affairs said it was one of the strongest applications they have ever seen, and no one challenged the preliminary finding.
The federal government even released its decision one month early.
"Despite delays, despite what our people have endured, justice has prevailed," Glenn Marshall, the tribal council chairman, said at the Mashpee Wampanoag headquarters after receiving the call from the Department of the Interior at 5:08 p.m. "This is truly a day of thanksgiving."
Gov. Deval Patrick called to offer his congratulations.
"For a tribe that greeted the Pilgrims when they landed on the shores of Massachusetts, this recognition is long overdue," Patrick said in a statement released by his office. "I look forward to working with the tribe to move Massachusetts forward."
U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy also supported the decision.
"The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has been extremely patient, waiting over three decades for this moment, and I congratulate them on their federal recognition," Kennedy said in a statement. "I'm pleased that the tribe will now have access to a range of essential federal services, including education, social services, housing and health benefits."
The Mashpee Wampanoag become the state's second federally recognized tribe. The decision becomes official in 90 days. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard won recognition in 1987.
The Aquinnah tribe tried unsuccessfully to win legislative approval for an off-Cape resort casino in Southeastern Massachusetts in 1997 and earlier this decade.
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has to overcome several key obstacles before launching a casino like Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
First, the Interior Department has to approve its application to hold land in federal trust. Then it has to win legislative approval for casinos or slot machines and negotiate a gaming compact with the governor.
The Patrick administration held an introductory meeting with the tribe at the Statehouse on Monday. Patrick did not participate in the meeting, but he did greet the tribal leaders, a Mashpee Wampanoag spokesman said.
Patrick is undecided on whether he will support casinos, although he has emphasized a duty to consider it as a form of local aid to hard-pressed cities and towns.
"I know the tribe has been working on this for a very long time," Patrick told reporters earlier yesterday, when asked about the impending federal recognition. "I hope today they get full recognition. Representatives of the tribe have already been in to talk about the implications of recognition. We are committed to working closely with them on all issues of shared concern."
The governor has convened a task force within his administration to study the pros and cons of gaming. The group is led by Dan O'Connell, the secretary of Housing and Economic Development, and includes representatives of state agencies in areas like public health, public safety and economic development.
O'Connell's spokeswoman, Kofi Jones, said it would take about six months for the group to report its results to the governor.
Jones said the administration does have "concerns about public health and public safety, and at the end of the day, the overall economic benefit of expanded gaming throughout the commonwealth."
Jones said the Patrick administration would discuss gaming with the tribe. "We completely acknowledge that the Native American community must be heard on this issue," she said.
Date of Publication: February 16, 2007 on Page A05
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