The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts and opponents of its proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton will have to wait another month for the Department of the Interior to issue its ruling that would allow the tribe to resume the work on the First Light Resort and Casino that it abandoned two years ago, after breaking ground in September 2015.
The department last week said it would issue a ruling in thirty days.
Interior previously took 151 acres in Taunton for the tribe into trust for a casino, only to vacate that action when a federal court ruled that the methodology it used to justify the decision was flawed. It gave the department another chance using an alternative route, which the department has been working on ever since.
The tribe, which has more than 2,600 members, is generally accepted by historians as having greeted the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. But the tribe’s historicity, or rather whether it was under the jurisdiction of the federal government before 1934, as required by federal law to take land into trust, came under attack. The Indian Reorganization Act, which established rules for determining the status of tribes, was enacted in 1934. The Mashpees, despite their history, were only recognized as a tribe in 2007.
The department’s Associate Solicitor Eric Shepard sent an email that explained that the department is still reviewing arguments submitted by the tribe and opponents but plans to decide within a month. The issue is “top priority” he said.
Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell expressed optimism about the decision. He issued this statement: “Although there is no statutory requirement the Department of Interior issue a determination on any particular date, we were informed this week that they are still reviewing evidence and will give us a status update in 30 days.”
Previously Cromwell said, “There is a trust responsibility between the United States and federally recognized tribes, so anything other than a positive finding for the tribe that made the Pilgrims’ survival possible would be a moral stain on this great country.” He added, “The federal government has already acknowledged the Mashpee Wampanoag as a sovereign tribal nation with an established reservation land base. We have existed, thrived and protected our ancestral lands for 12,000 years. We are here to stay.”
The tribe’s backer is the Malaysian Genting Group, and over the course of the casino’s history, the tribe now owes Genting hundreds of millions of dollars.
The state government when it approved of gaming expansion in 2011 intended the Mashpees to open the first casino under the law by 2018. However, one stipulation was that the tribe put the land into trust. That turned out to be a thorny provision. Opponents from East Taunton challenged the casino in court, in part because it would have been adjacent to two schools.
They also argued that a tribe recognized after 1934 can’t legally put land into trust without an Act of Congress. They cited the landmark and controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, which enshrined that principal into U.S. jurisprudence.
The federal judge held with the plaintiffs, but also gave the Interior Department a chance to amend its fee into trust decision. This gave both sides another bite at the legal apple.
Last June Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior revealed that he would have rejected the tribe’s arguments and gave another chance for both sides to make different arguments.
One way that the Department has examined is whether the authority that the state of Massachusetts exercised over the tribe from the earliest days of the colony might be a substitute for federal jurisdiction.
David Tennant, the attorney for the plaintiff, ridicules this notion. He told the Cape Cod Times: “All of the land claim litigation would be wiped out.” He added, “All of the land claim settlement acts that were enacted to resolve those claims would be pointless. It unravels every part of Indian law.”
The casino would have 3,000 slot machines, 150 gaming tables and a poker room on a 150,000-square-foot gaming floor, a 300-room hotel, retail shopping, dining and nightclubs.
