A memorandum of understanding that spells out how the town of Mashpee, Massachusetts provides emergency services to the 170 acres owned by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe expired last week and so far, there isn’t an agreement to take its place.
The tribe, whose 170 acres in Mashpee and 151 acres in Taunton were put into trust for the tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs last year hit a major roadblock when a federal court judge ruled that the BIA acted incorrectly when it put the land into trust. This called into question the status of the land as sovereign territory. This stopped the tribe’s First Light casino project in Taunton cold. Now it is apparently touching the tribal lands in Mashpee on Cape Cod.
The MOU was signed about a year ago, shortly after the BIA’s action became official. Since the tribe has not communicated with the town for six months the Board of Selectmen voted last week to not renew the agreement. Chairman Andrew Gottlieb says that Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell has not returned any of his letters.
Cromwell says the tribal council voted last week to extend the MOU, but no action from the town on the agreement until the town gets some information about the actual legal status of the land in view of the court decision.
Cromwell told the Cape Cod Times that the tribe is convinced that the land remains in trust: “Nothing has changed. As for the lapse, that can be easily solved by the selectmen simply extending the MOU.”
Cromwell didn’t answer Gottlieb’s request for a legal opinion on the status of the land, but proposed that the town council and the tribal council have a joint meeting “as a way to proceed forward.”
Gottlieb told the Times, “It bothers me greatly that we sent a letter in June and it took until January—when we made an issue of it publicly—to get a response. If we’re going to work together, we need to work together.”
He worries about the precedent that might be set on extending the agreement when the very status of the land is in question. That judgment by U.S. District Court Judge William Young came in August after residents of Taunton who oppose a casino there sued to challenge the status of the BIA’s decision to put the land into trust.
A rule of the BIA states: “If a court determines that the Department erred in making a land-into-trust decision, the Department will comply with a final court order and any judicial remedy that is imposed.”
Gottlieb has tried to get a legal opinion about the status of the land from the BIA, but so far hasn’t gotten an answer back.
However, Young has left the BIA some wiggle room for the BIA to put the land into trust, and his ruling is under appeal by the tribe and the U.S. Justice Department.
The town’s police chief, Kevin M. Frye Sr. said that his department and the tribal public safety agencies have worked very well together. Fire Chief Thomas Rullo said he will continue to work with the tribe as though the MOU were still in force.
