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Parties in tribe lawsuit agree to timeline

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jul 9, 2019

Schedule gets challenge to Interior Department’s land trust decision underway.

MASHPEE — The parties in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior have agreed to a timeline that could see the case briefing wrapped up by the middle of October, according to federal court filings.

The joint scheduling order — supported by the tribe, Interior Department and a group of Taunton residents opposed to the tribe’s planned casino — was filed July 1, documents show, charting the steps in the case for the next few months.

The order states that the Interior Department must by July 19 file the evidence associated with its Sept. 7 decision that the tribe did not qualify for land in trust. The tribe must respond to that filing — the administrative record — by July 26.

The administrative record includes the federal government’s interpretation of the tribe’s historical and anthropological evidence, demonstrating its centuries-long presence in the region and ties to the federal government in 1934 — the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed.

The Sept. 7 decision reversed the Interior Department’s original determination under the Obama administration that stated the tribe qualified under that act to have land taken into trust. The tribe sued the department within days of its about-face.

The federal government has long acted as trustee for tribes, holding land deeds in trust for the purpose of self-government. Tribal officials have said that without trust protection on 321 acres of reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton, the properties would be subject to state and local taxation and regulation, effectively stripping the tribe of its ability to self-govern.

A group of Taunton residents, led by David and Michelle Littlefield, originally sued the federal government in 2016 in response to the tribe’s $1 billion casino proposed for their city, which precipitated the now-dueling lawsuits. The Littlefields successfully intervened in the tribe’s suit earlier this year and sought to transfer the case back to U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, where the first case sits dormant on appeal.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the federal court for the District of Columbia denied the transfer request last month, noting the tribe’s case has national implications and “public interest factors,” among other things.

David Tennant, an attorney for the Littlefields, had argued both cases deal with the same “narrow legal question” of whether the tribe was under federal jurisdiction at the time of the Indian Reorganization Act’s passage, a requirement codified in a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.

On Monday, Tennant said he had no concerns with the scheduling order, noting it was based on a joint submission.

The Interior Department has until Aug. 9 to answer the tribe’s response to the administrative record filing. If there are no objections, the tribe must file a motion for summary judgment by Aug. 17. The department and the Littlefields would then file combined cross-motions for summary judgment by Sept. 13, according to the court files.

The tribe may file its summary judgment reply by Sept. 30, followed by the Interior Department and the Littlefields by Oct. 15.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell was not available for comment through a tribal spokeswoman.