Former Bureau of Indian Director Kevin Washburn last week recalled the intense pressure that was exerted on him to approve of a compact between Massachusetts and a gaming tribe—and how he almost resigned over it.
When Washburn first stepped into the job of assistant secretary of Indians affairs for the Department of the Interior (aka the Bureau of Indian Affairs) on October 9, 2012 he was hit almost immediately with demands that he approve of a gaming compact between the state and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. He was given four days to make a decision.
He was pressured by many of the state’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Senator (new secretary of state) John Kerry, then Governor Deval Patrick, and indirectly from President Obama, who Washburn was told frequently golfed with Patrick.
Patrick and Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell wanted to personally lean on him to approve of the compact.
But Washburn listened to his staff, which objected to the 22 percent that the compact required the tribe to pay to the state of Massachusetts, and shared their worry that if he allowed it that every other state would demand a similar amount.
He told the governor and the chairman of his likely decision. As he describes it: “First day; I had already made a huge mistake because all hell rained down on me for the rest of the week.”
He was summoned to the office of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who asked him why he was making the decision, and described the pressure that he was getting from members of Congress and the administration. When Washburn explained his reasoning, Salazar said, “OK. I’ve got your back on this. That’s fine.”
Despite that assurance, Salazar would later once again summon him to defend his decision. He would defend the decision to Governor Patrick, who told him, “The Mashpee Tribe and the state of Massachusetts — we’ve come to this historical agreement, and I can’t believe the federal government, with its trust responsibility, is going to undermine that agreement,” Washburn said.
As Washburn describes it, “They were just pulling out all the stops,” Washburn said. “I just had to deal with every member of Congress from Massachusetts, it seemed like. They called up and said, ‘What the hell are you doing; you’ve just started and you’re already screwing things ups.’”
When Salazar again summoned Washburn to his office and turned up the heat Washburn gently suggested that he would be happy to return to his tenured position at a law university. Salazar upheld his decision.
That decision led to a different compact being submitted more than a year later. It was a compact, Washburn said, “with much better terms.
Currently tribe’s casino project in Taunton is in limbo due to an adverse decision by a federal judge that calls into question the tribe’s ability to put land into trust.
