FOR A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE, CHECK OUT:
GladysKravitz
REEL WAMPS
carverchick
WAMPALEAKS
House moves closer to affirming Mashpee Wampanoag reservation
By Tanner Stening
Posted Apr 29, 2019
Tribal bill set for Wednesday markup.
MASHPEE — Federal legislation that seeks to clarify the status of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation will be marked up and considered Wednesday by the House Committee on Natural Resources.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, introduced by Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., earlier this year, is scheduled for a full committee markup to potentially advance the bill to the floor for a vote. Lawmakers use the markup to consider changes to legislation, proposing and ultimately voting on amendments to it.
The bill would end a legal challenge to the tribe’s 321 acres of reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton and prevent future legal challenges to the land.
Keating crafted the bill in response to a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton in 2016 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. That lawsuit resulted in the U.S. Department of Interior reversing a decision it made the year before to take the Mashpee and Taunton land into trust on the tribe’s behalf.
A federal judge ruled that the Secretary of the Interior did not have the authority to take the land into trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, and therefore did not qualify under a definition of “Indian” used by the Interior Department.
Interior’s Sept. 7 reversal put the future of the tribe’s reservation in jeopardy — though it remains in trust until a final court order is issued. The tribe has since filed a lawsuit against the agency challenging that decision.
On April 3, the subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States held a hearing on the bill that opened a rift between Rhode Island politicians who oppose the Taunton casino and its supporters. The Ocean State delegation has garnered opposition to the legislation, claiming a tribal casino would curb the state’s gaming revenue and undermine competition.
“An Indian casino in Rhode Island’s gaming catchment area poses a serious threat” to that revenue, Claire Richards, executive counsel to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, previously told the subcommittee. Keating responded by pressing Richards on the specifics of Rhode Island’s opposition, noting the bill’s purpose is to protect the tribe’s reservation and that Massachusetts already has approved a casino in that part of the state.
The markup comes amid a move by tribe members to recall Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment