Aquinnah tribe objects to Keating bill

By Tanner Stening

Posted Jan 28, 2019

Vineyard tribe opposes legislation that would benefit Mashpee Wampanoag casino efforts.

AQUINNAH — The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is opposing legislation aimed at securing reservation land for its sister tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag.

In a letter sent to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission dated Jan. 22, Aquinnah Tribal Chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said the Mashpee tribal legislation — which was introduced by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass, to clarify the tribe’s eligibility under the Indian Reorganization Act — would have a “very real potential to have a serious adverse effect” on her tribe’s ability to acquire additional land within the Wampanoag Nation’s ancestral territory.

Lauren McDermott, a spokeswoman for Keating, issued a statement Monday, saying the Mashpee tribe is facing the possibility of having its land removed from trust.

“The congressman’s bill is specifically and narrowly designed to make sure the Mashpee are protected under these unique and imminent circumstances,” she wrote.

But Keating’s office will continue to work with the Aquinnah tribe to address their concerns through the committee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives, McDermott added.

The bill would end ongoing litigation challenging the Mashpee tribe’s reservation, which resulted in the U.S. Department of the Interior reversing a decision it made in 2015 to take 321 acres of land into trust on the tribe’s behalf, by reaffirming the land and barring any legal challenges to it in the future.

The initial lawsuit was brought by neighbors of the Mashpee tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino-resort in Taunton. A federal judge ruled that the secretary of Interior did not have the authority to take the land into trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, and therefore did not qualify under a definition of “Indian” used by the Interior Department.

On Sept. 7, the agency reversed its finding, throwing the future of the tribe’s reservation into jeopardy — though it remains in trust until a final court order is issued, according to an Interior Department spokeswoman. The tribe has since filed a lawsuit against the agency challenging that decision.

Andrews-Maltais argues that both the Mashpee and the Aquinnah tribes are successors to the Wampanoag territory, and that because a majority of Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe members reside within Region C — the geographical area that includes Southeastern Massachusetts where the Mashpee tribe hopes to build a casino — her tribe should be included in the legislation.

“We are simply requesting parity,” she wrote. ”... if Congress is going to reaffirm the Mashpee Wampanoag right to have tribal trust land then they must also do so for the Aquinnah Wampanoag.”

The Aquinnah tribe gained recognition in 1987, two decades before the Mashpee tribe.

Last year, the Aquinnah tribe announced that it would partner with the Chickasaw Nation’s hospitality enterprise, Global Gaming Solutions, to develop its long-planned bingo hall at the western end of Martha’s Vineyard.

The tribe’s quest for island gambling made its way through the federal court system until January 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case. But that left intact an Appeals Court decision in favor of the tribe’s right to have a bingo hall under the 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The town and state argued that when the tribe made an agreement with the state for a land settlement of about 485 acres in Aquinnah, it agreed to abide by state and local zoning laws, therefore waiving the right to a casino.

The town filed a lawsuit in 2013 challenging the tribe’s plans for a bingo hall at their community center. A lower court ruled in favor of town, but the tribe appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel decided in favor of the tribe, and the town tried to get the full Appeals Court to hear the case but it declined to do so in May 2017.

Andrews-Maltais wrote that unless the bill is amended, her tribe will continue to oppose it.

“While we do not dispute the right of Mashpee to acquire trust land within the town of Mashpee, or even within our shared territory, we must also protect our own right to do the same,” she wrote.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190128/aquinnah-tribe-objects-to-keating-bill