The Massachusetts town of Aquinnah, on Martha’s Vineyard, has asked that the Martha’s Vineyard Commission review plans for a Class II casino by the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head.
The tribe considers this just another delaying tactic by the town, which has lost all of its legal challenges to the tribe’s right to develop a small casino on the island on its reservation that is included in the town limits.
The commission is the regional land-use planning agency for the island, but the tribe says it doesn’t come under its jurisdiction. A year ago the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that established the tribe’s right to build a Class II casino on their land, in spite of the fact that they sign an agreement decades ago that they wouldn’t.
Many residents of the island live there because they like the tranquility.
Tribal Council Chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais issued a statement that said, “The Town of Aquinnah is attempting to bait the Martha’s Vineyard Commission into fighting a battle that the town has already lost.” She added that “SCOTUS was clear that the tribe has the unfettered right to develop a Class II gaming facility on tribal trust land. The town is simply trying to delay the inevitable and attempting to defray the cost of frivolous litigation by dragging the MVC into the dispute.”
Town Administrator Jeffrey Madison said the commission’s charter requires it to review all projects in the county for “regional impact.” He said the Board of Selectmen feel that its permits are required.
The chairman is still trying to persuade the state to negotiate with the tribe for a Class III compact, something it has consistently refused to do. “Which would allow the state and local authorities to have a seat at the negotiation table to address regional issues.”
She implied that she was going forward with the Class II casino as a way to force the issue with the state.
George Washington University historian David Silverman, commented “For more than two centuries, their [the Wampanoag] community has been among the poorest in Massachusetts, largely because of their white neighbors’ appropriation of their land and labor, and discrimination against them in ways too numerous to count.”
But he added that many of the residents spent fortunes on house on the Cape to avoid crowds and commercial activities.
