Those interested in finding out details of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)’s planned Class II casino on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts discovered some clues last week in a booklet that was distributed before the referendum in which tribal members split exactly down the middle on the question of whether to go forward with the casino.
In that election, 110 members voted to stop the casino and 110 voted to go forward. It would have taken two-thirds of the members to overturn the previous decision to build.
The 21-page booklet included artist’s renderings and charts of the 9,000 square foot casino, dubbed Aquinnah Cliffs.
The publication also argued that the tribe’s sovereign status entitled it to proceed, a question that is now being decided in the courts. “The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is a sovereign nation existing thousands of years before our Island was invaded,” it said. “Aquinnah possesses the sovereignty inherent in all tribes and sovereign governments to make our own decisions without interference from or enforcement by any state or town entity.”
The battle over the casino is generally perceived as the tribal members who live on the island—about 300 of them—being outvoted by the 1,000 or so members who live on the mainland. About 228 voted, including many who traveled to Martha’s Vineyard just to cast ballots.
According to former tribal Chairman Beverly Wright, who organized the unsuccessful effort to scuttle the casino, “I would say it was evenly split, on-island and off-island.” Wright and her supporters tried to mobilize the anti-casino forces with letters, personal visits and pleas to every member they could reach.
The tribe originally sought to site a casino on the mainland, only to be rebuffed by then Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who declined to negotiate a gaming compact with the tribe. It was only then that the tribe decided to try to build on the island.
The booklet, obtained by the Vineyard Gazette, describes a 9,000 square-foot casino, one-third larger than the existing community center that has lain unfinished for a decade. It would have 300 Class II machines. The purpose of the casino’s design, it says, is to “create an interior comfort level for patrons that will promote a feeling of relaxation and support longer patron play at the property.”
The fate of the casino rests with the U.S. District Court, which a month ago granted a temporary injunction to halt construction until it rules on whether the tribe can legally go forward.
The state and the town of Aquinnah argue that the tribe signed away its rights to build a casino when it signed an agreement, approved by Congress, where it was given several hundred acres of land in return for agreeing to abide by state and municipal land use laws.
The tribe argues that this agreement was superseded by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA), which recognizes the right for tribes to operate casinos. In the booklet it writes, “By constructing a class-II bingo hall, the tribe’s only interaction would be with the federal government, eliminating the state, with their highly prejudiced and patently biased actions that were being taken against the tribe.”
The tribe forecasts that it would gross $12.7 million the first year and create as many as 130 jobs. Regional gaming expert Clyde Barrow, interviewed by the Vineyard Gazette thinks that far fewer jobs would be created because electronic bingo machines are so automated.
