Tribe members on edge over new armed security guards at council meeting
Some Wampanoag tribal members are on edge due to new armed guards at council meetings.
Increasing security has tribe members questioning both the presence of guards and the behavior that has led to needing them
Several Wampanog Tribe members told the
Mashpee Enterprise that two armed security guards were present for the first time in memory at a tribal council meeting last week. Tribe member Stephanie Tobey-Roderick said, “If there were honesty and transparency, we wouldn’t need all this. We wouldn’t need the security with guns.”
She added, “Everyone can talk like this is just an election. But it is really bad right about now, as far as people being afraid and guns being brought to meetings.”
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council called an emergency meeting last week to consider a re-vote on an ordinance approved last summer to create an independent tribal agency to further the tribe’s pursuit of a casino.
The ordinance must be created by the tribe in order to receive and disburse money from the tribe’s gaming investors.
At that previous meeting the council voted to create a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority. At that time the plan won by a six to two margin, and the new entity began functioning under the direction of Chairman Cedric Cromwell, Treasurer Mark D. Harding, and Secretary Yvonne Avant.
However, the tribal council learned recently that it needed seven votes to legally create a gaming authority, thus this latest council meeting with armed security guards.
Read the
Mashpee Enterprise story
here.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/02/23/17284-tribe-members-edge-over-new-armed-security-guards-council-meeting
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