The 92-year old chief of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts, Vernon “Silent Drum” Lopez isn’t entirely sold on the proposed 0 million “Project First Light” casino project that his tribe wants to build in Taunton.
In a recent interview with Yogonet, the chief said that from visiting casinos and other tribes, “It’s a pro and con thing.”
The tribe is competing with several commercial bidders for the license for the southeastern part of the state. The 2011 gaming expansion law gave the tribe a preference, but it lost that after it failed to meet all of its requirements in a timely manner. It could still win the license, however.
The chief may be tentative about the casino, but the chairman of the tribal council, Cedric Cromwell, is all in. “It’s about a hand up, not a handout. It’s about building a GDP (gross domestic product) for the tribe,” he said recently.
The chief, who was chosen in 1999, has a largely ceremonial function, while the chairman runs the tribal government. Lopez supports the casino but adds, “Don’t lose your traditions because that’s the way the creator gave it to us to start out with.”
The 2,600-member tribe achieved federal recognition in 2007, although the tribe traces its history back many thousands of years, and in recorded history was the tribe that met the Pilgrims when they landed from the Mayflower. Currently the tribe has no reservation of its own. It hopes to put land in Taunton into trust for a reservation. Besides a casino, the tribe also wants to build a health clinic, school and housing project. It has already built a tribal court, gym and tribal headquarters on the land.
