The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts, which has so far been thwarted in its strenuous efforts to build its First Light Casino in Taunton, is being forced into some belt-tightening as its debt to its casino partner the Genting Group continues to grow and grow and grow–now reaching alarming proportions.
At the same time the tribe is asking President Trump to intervene to allow them to go forward with their $1 billion casino.
Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell, who is under increasing pressure from tribal members who accused tribal officials of living high off of the Genting loan money, early in November notified members that the administration has been meeting to talk about cuts that won’t affect services.
A robocall from an unnamed source went out previous to a November tribal council meeting urging members to attend to talk about the $347.4 million debt the tribe has in promissory notes to the Genting Group. Normally tribes don’t talk in public about their finances, however this amount is known from a recent quarterly report issued by the Malaysian-based Genting.
Cromwell in the tribe’s monthly newsletter: “I was able to inform all of our staff just a few days ago that all [Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal] employees at our Community and Government Center will be secure in their positions at least until the end of the year.”
He noted that full time employees and council members have taken voluntary pay cuts; the money spent on outside consultants has been slashed and departments have been required to cut their budgets.
This is contradicted by a tribal column, Reel Wamps, that predicts 60 percent of tribal jobs will be eliminated.
In his column Cromwell wrote: “Together we will get through this and we will ultimately come out stronger on the other side. We’ll be a leaner, more efficient government that continues to serve the needs of our community while building a strong tribal economy.”
He added, “With those steps completed we’ve returned to our operations budget to make a second round of cost-saving cuts to expense lines that have allowed us to avoid any downsizing at this time.”
The tribe and opponents of the First Light casino recently filed final arguments with the Department of the Interior regarding whether the tribal land should be put into trust, i.e. to make it tribal sovereign reservation land. This would be required for tribal gaming to occur there.
The land was originally put into trust about two years ago but was challenged in federal court, which ruled that the justification the department used for the action didn’t fit legal guidelines of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act and violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s Carcieri v. Salazar ruling that tribes that weren’t under federal jurisdiction in 1934 cannot put land into trust. The Wampanoag tribe didn’t get federal recognition until 2007.
Judge William G. Young invited the department to try a different avenue of putting the land into trust, a procedure called a “remand.” The department, with the assistance of Associate Deputy Secretary James E. Caston, has been gathering documentation to support the idea that the state of Massachusetts could be a surrogate for the federal government in this case, since the tribe was demonstrably under the Bay State’s jurisdiction before 1934.
Meanwhile Cromwell has called on the president to cut through all the impediments to the tribal casino. In a Thanksgiving address the chairman accused Trump of not living up to his pledge to support tribal sovereignty and self-determination for the tribe that historians believe was the tribe that greeted the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth.
“These words need to mean something,” he said. He added that allowing his tribe to develop the casino would fit in with the administration’s goals of economic development.
“We are looking to bring massive economic development to one of the poorest regions of Massachusetts. I ask that you join me in our fight to hold this White House to its word and do right by its first people.”
