An election that aims to oust longtime Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Treasurer Gordon Harris has been scheduled for September 15 after opponents of the officials submitted a petition with 120 signatures for Harris and 104 signatures targeting Cromwell.
The Massachusetts-based tribe has long been attempting to obtain the right to build a tribal casino in Taunton. An attempt led by Cromwell has so far been stymied in federal court.
The recall movement is spearheaded by longtime opponents of Cromwell, who themselves a month ago weathered an unsuccessful attempt by the chairman to remove Carlton Hendricks Jr., Aaron Tobey Jr. and Rita Gonsalves from the council.
Harris, Cromwell, and a third council member, Jessie “Little Doe” Baird, have been sharply criticized for the manner in which they handle tribal finances and how much they receive in salaries. The recall movement began earlier this year when several petitions were circulated to trigger the process spelled out in the tribal constitution. The petitions for Harris and Cromwell gathered enough signatures, but the one for Baird fell short.
Later Baird resigned, but Cromwell and others on the council refused to accept her resignation. That’s one of the particulars spelled out against Cromwell in the petition. Recall supporters claim that refusing to accept the resignation and not holding a special election violates the tribal constitution.
The petitions were certified by the Election Committee, which named the election date.
Hendricks and Tobey have criticized Cromwell for the tribe’s financial management and what they consider a lack of transparency over the tribe’s association with Genting Malaysia, which has bankrolled the tribe’s unsuccessful attempt to build a $1 billion casino in Taunton.
The tribe’s attempt to build the First Light Casino has fallen victim to a federal lawsuit by opponents, and Genting’s investment of more than $500 million was put in jeopardy, to the point that Genting told investors last year that it was writing off the debt. Genting has for years provided most of the funding for the tribal administration overseen by Cromwell. It stopped doing so last year, which forced the tribe to initiate major layoffs and cut services.
According to the Cape Cod Times, the tribe’s finances have declined to the point where it spent $1.8 million in the first half of the year, leaving it with $281,203 and no approved budget. About half of the money was spent on salaries and benefits, this after several years of multimillion-dollar budgets funded by Genting.
The casino project actually broke ground after the Department of the Interior put 321 acres into trust for the tribe in Taunton and on Martha’s Vineyard. However, opponents successfully challenged the department’s ability to do this because of the tribe’s status under the Indian Reorganization Act. They cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Carcieri v. Salazar decision that held that tribes recognized after 1934 cannot put land into trust.
The Mashpees were recognized in 2009, although they maintain they have had a relationship with the state and federal government that traces back to their forebears greeting the Pilgrims when they landed in Plymouth in 1620.
A legislative fix for the problem has been moving forward in the U.S. Congress. A bill that would put the land into trust for the tribe was passed by the House of Representatives several weeks ago and has now moved to the Senate.
The petition against Cromwell claims that he made more than $1 million from the tribe, with “very little to show for it: no casino, no jobs, and Taunton land mortgaged with no monies to pay the mortgage note.”
