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Federal agency denies Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s allegations
By Tanner SteningPosted Feb 20, 2019
MASHPEE — The Department of the Interior has responded to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s lawsuit challenging its Sept. 7 decision, denying allegations that the federal agency contorted and ignored facts to engineer a decision against the tribe.
“Except as expressly admitted, all allegations are denied,” department attorney Sara E. Costello wrote in the Feb. 19 filing.
The tribe’s suit disputes the Department of the Interior’s decision to reverse its 2015 finding that the tribe satisfied a definition of “Indian” required under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act to qualify it for trust lands. Trust status is a designation in which the federal government holds title to tribal property, exempting it from state and local regulations.
The tribe’s suit contends that the Department of the Interior “erroneously determined” that the tribe was not “under federal jurisdiction” at the time of the law’s passage, a requirement spelled out in a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.
David L. Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and the agency itself are named as defendants in the case. The department’s response to the tribe’s suit follows several extensions that federal officials requested in light of the 35-day partial government shutdown.
The department’s response also comes just days after Taunton residents who successfully sued the agency over whether the tribe qualified for trust-protected reservation lands motioned to intervene in the case as intervenor-defendants aligned with the department, according to court filings. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino-resort in Taunton.
David and Michelle Littlefield brought the initial legal action against the department in 2016 after it took the tribe’s 321 acres of land into trust. U.S. District Court Judge William Young ruled that the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction and instructed the department to further review its decision.
The department considered whether Massachusetts’ authority over the tribe could be considered in place of federal jurisdiction, but ultimately decided against the tribe, reversing the land-in-trust decision.
The tribe alleges the decision represented a failure on behalf of the Department of the Interior to “properly exercise its delegated authority under the (Indian Reorganization Act)” in the context of the department’s “general trust obligations to the tribe.”
Tribal officials have repeatedly warned that the decision could result in the termination of the tribe’s reservation, its sovereign status and its ability to self-govern.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190220/federal-agency-denies-mashpee-wampanoag-tribes-allegations
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| Wampanoag lobbyists Jack Ambramoff |
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