The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is appealing the ruling by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor that the tribe must abide by a 1987 agreement that it signed with Massachusetts and the town of Aquinnah that it would not offer gaming and would abide by state and local land use regulations—in exchange for a federal land settlement that gave it a reservation on Martha’s Vineyard.
The tribe unsuccessfully argued that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which followed a year later, superseded its agreement, the Massachusetts Settlement Act, which had been endorsed by an Act of Congress. The tribe seeks to operate a small Class II casino in unfinished community center near its tribal headquarters.
The tribe has a hearing on December 6 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the first circuit in Boston.
