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Mashpee Wampanoag tribe member can proceed with fishing rights lawsuit

1/28/2013 3:26:31 PM

Cape Cod Times

By George Brennan

gbrennan@capecodonline.com

January 28, 2013

A Plymouth Superior Court judge has rejected a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Mashpee Wampanoag member seeking to assert the tribe's aboriginal fishing rights.

David Greene of Buzzards Bay, a member of the tribe, sued the Town of Mattapoisett and Kenneth Pacheco, a former deputy shellfish warden, claiming his rights were violated in a 2010 incident where Pacheco confiscated Greene's catch of quahogs. Greene also alleges that he was assaulted in the process, though a criminal court exonerated Pacheco of an assault charge.

In a 34-page ruling issued Jan. 18, Judge Richard Chin found that Greene can proceed with his case against Pacheco and the town. The judge also rejected a motion made by the town's attorney to join the Mashpee Wampanoag and the state to the lawsuit saying that both parties have knowledge of the ongoing lawsuit and have not sought to have their rights asserted in it.

The case is being closely watched because while the state's Supreme Judicial Court found that Greene could not be charged criminally in a separate case regarding fishing rights, the high court did not settle aboriginal rights for the tribe.

In a letter to tribe members, Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council Chairman Cedric Cromwell applauded Chin's decision.

“The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and our individual members have never ceded our original rights to fish as we have done since time immemorial,” Cromwell wrote in a message posted on the tribe's social media sites. “The tribe will take all steps necessary to stop any and all unlawful effort to interfere with our rights and the rights of tribal members.”

Greene is being represented by Howard Cooper, a tribe attorney. That's one of the reasons cited by Chin for not joining the tribe to the lawsuit because the tribe's interests are already being protected.

Should the suit ultimately codify the tribe's fishing rights, that could have implications for Mashpee Wampanoag casino plans. There is precedent with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs citing fishing rights as a way of demonstrating a tribe's historic ties to land.

 

http://usetinc.org/NewsAndAnnouncements/13-01-28/Mashpee_Wampanoag_tribe_member_can_proceed_with_fishing_rights_lawsuit.aspx