Meetings & Information




*****************************
****************************************************
MUST READ:
GET THE FACTS!






Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Tribe: Interior officials say decision expected on land in trust by Sept. 21



Image result for mashpee wampanoag casino




SEE ALSO:

Reel Wamps

Tribe: Interior officials say decision expected on land in trust by Sept. 21


By Tanner Stening
Posted Aug 27, 2018


MASHPEE — Officials with the U.S Department of Interior have told attorneys for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe that there will be a decision by Sep. 21 on whether the agency will be able to keep the tribe’s reservation in trust, according to a statement issued Monday by the tribe.
The tribe has been battling to solidify a 2015 decision by the Interior Department to take 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust after a lawsuit brought by would-be neighbors of the tribe’s $1 billion casino project in Taunton prompted a judge to remand the finding to the agency.
Interior officials have been reviewing whether they can secure the land in trust under a different legal category after U.S District Court Judge William Young adhered to Carcieri v. Salazar, a Supreme Court ruling which requires that tribes seeking land into trust must have been under federal jurisdiction in 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act was signed into law.
Since Young’s 2016 ruling, the agency has been considering whether Massachusetts had exercised authority over the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in a manner that could be viewed as a surrogate for the federal jurisdiction requirement under the Indian Reorganization Act.
In a statement, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said the tribe has submitted “mounds of evidence” to show that it was under federal jurisdiction before 1934.
“We remain hopeful the Department of Interior will do the right thing and reaffirm our trust lands,” he said.
The tribe argued in its 2012 submission to the Interior - when it initially sought to have its land taken into trust - that its Mashpee land, which it occupied for centuries, amounted to a reservation for the purposes of the the act’s second definition of “Indian.”
Having gained federal recognition in 2007, roughly 32 years after it first petitioned for the status, the tribe has said archeological evidence suggests it ancestral roots in the region date back 12,000 years.
News of the impending decision comes after the Interior Department chose to take no position during a congressional hearing on June 24 on a bill that would secure the tribe’s reservation despite prepared statements that it was prepared to back the effort.
The bill was introduced earlier this year by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass.; a twin bill has been introduced in the Senate. The legislation would affirm Interior’s 2015 decision, effectively ending a legal challenge that threatens the reservation and barring future challenges in federal court.
Keating and others previously said the legislation was a response to fears that the Interior Department was considering taking the land out of trust.
Darryl LaCounte, acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, testified before the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs during the June hearing, saying the agency was not prepared to take a position, but that he will “encourage” speeding up his department’s review of the status of the tribe’s land.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news11/20180827/tribe-interior-officials-say-decision-expected-on-land-in-trust-by-sept-21



Decision on Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land expected next month

By Tanner Stening
Posted Aug 27, 2018

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is less than 30 days away from learning whether the Trump administration will reaffirm the tribe’s right to reservation lands.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Interior have said there will be a decision by Sept. 21 on whether the agency will be able to keep the tribe’s 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton in trust, according to a statement issued Monday by the tribe and an attorney for opponents of the tribe’s planned $1 billion casino.
The tribe has been battling to solidify a 2015 decision by the Interior Department to take the land into trust after a lawsuit brought by would-be neighbors of the tribe’s $1 billion casino project in Taunton prompted a judge to remand the finding to the agency.
Interior officials have been reviewing whether they can secure the land in trust under a different legal category for “Indian” after U.S District Court Judge William Young adhered to Carcieri v. Salazar, a Supreme Court ruling that requires that tribes seeking land into trust must have been under federal jurisdiction in 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act was signed into law.
Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, did not respond to a message requesting comment.
Since Young’s 2016 ruling, the agency has been considering whether Massachusetts had exercised authority over the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in a manner that could be viewed as a surrogate for the federal jurisdiction requirement under the Indian Reorganization Act, according to a June 30, 2017, letter by the Interior’s Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason.
The Interior Department filed a notice of appeal challenging Young’s decision but ultimately moved to dismiss its own appeal in April 2017.
In the tribe’s statement Monday, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said the tribe has submitted “mounds of evidence” to show that it was under federal jurisdiction before 1934.
“We remain hopeful the Department of Interior will do the right thing and reaffirm our trust lands,” he said.
Unless “back-room politics comes into play, an objective analysis of the evidence should result in a positive finding,” Cromwell said.
The tribe argued in its 2012 submission to the Interior — when it initially sought to have its land taken into trust — that its Mashpee land, which it occupied for centuries, amounted to a reservation for the purposes of the Indian Reorganization Act’s second definition of “Indian.”
Having gained federal recognition in 2007, roughly 32 years after it first petitioned for the status, the tribe has said archeological evidence suggests it can trace its ancestral roots in the region back at least 12,000 years.
But in a June 19, 2017, draft decision on the reconsideration of the land in trust finding, Cason wrote that the framework the agency used to determine whether a tribe is under federal jurisdiction yielded little evidence to demonstrate that the U.S. “had, at or before 1934, taken an action or series of actions that sufficiently establish or reflect federal obligations, duties, responsibilities for or authority over the tribe.”
David Tennant, an attorney for the Littlefields, neighbors of the planned Taunton casino who brought the lawsuit, confirmed that the Interior’s attorneys also informed his legal team of the impending decision, saying he fully expects the Interior’s decision to follow “the clear law,” and that the tribe will be found ineligible under the Indian Reorganization Act to have its land taken into trust.
“We fully expect them to tell the tribe, ‘no,’ as they had previously,” Tennant said.
Michelle Littlefield, who has led efforts by a group of Taunton residents opposing the casino, has previously raised concerns about the effects of the project on the community, including the proximity to a school and airport, as well as raising questions about the jobs promised by project proponents. She declined to comment on Monday, referring questions to Tennant.
News of the impending decision comes after the Interior Department chose to take no position during a congressional hearing on June 24 on a bill that would secure the tribe’s reservation, despite prepared statements that indicated it was prepared to back the effort.
Darryl LaCounte, acting director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, testified before the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs during that hearing, saying the agency was not prepared to take a position, but that he would “encourage” speeding up his department’s review of the status of the tribe’s land.
Ahead of the hearing, Cromwell urged Congress to exercise its plenary authority to prevent the “disestablishment of our reservation,” which he said would be the first instance of the U.S government severing its trust relationship with a tribe since the Termination Era, a period from the 1940s to the 1960s during which Congress pushed to end tribal independence by removing federal protections.
The bill was introduced earlier this year by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass.; a twin bill has been introduced in the Senate. The legislation would affirm Interior’s 2015 decision, effectively ending the Littlefields’ lawsuit and barring future legal challenges to the land in trust status.
Keating and others previously said the legislation was a response to fears that the Interior Department was “seriously considering” taking the tribe’s land out of trust.
Keating said the bill was meant to prompt the Interior to make the right decision with respect to the tribe.
“I remain hopeful that is exactly what they will do,” he said Monday.
Keating previously said a negative finding from the Interior could mean financial ruin for the tribe, which could lose access to a variety of funding sources, including for social services, housing, education and environmental programs.
Last week, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, saying that having a federally protected reservation has been vital to the tribe’s exercise of sovereignty.
For decades, Baird has spearheaded an effort to revive the tribe’s native language; she said the work would not be possible without their land.
“Our land and our language are inextricably tied to one another, and to our ultimate survival as a people,” she said.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180827/decision-on-mashpee-wampanoag-tribes-land-expected-next-month


Related content


Tuesday, August 21, 2018

MASHPEE WAMPANOAG: Lawsuit challenges tribe-town pact

MUST READ: 


Image result for REEL WAMPS

REEL WAMPS



Lawsuit challenges tribe-town pact





Posted Aug 20, 2018 

Unilateral action to amend reservation bill called unconstitutional. 

MASHPEE — The former vice chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council is suing Chairman Cedric Cromwell and one of his attorneys in tribal court, questioning the constitutionality of a decision to amend legislation that would end a legal challenge to the tribe’s reservation, according to documents obtained by the Times. 

Aaron Tobey Jr. filed the action Monday, alleging the tribal council never got the chance to vote on a town-proposed amendment to the bill. The amendment adds language about a 2008 intergovernmental agreement between the town and the tribe. Tobey said there are still questions as to whether that agreement is legally enforceable. 

The federal legislation was introduced by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., earlier this year, and a twin bill was introduced in the Senate. If passed, it would reaffirm the tribe’s reservation status and effectively bar future legal challenges to the land in federal court. 

Town lawyers worked out a deal with tribal attorneys to amend Keating’s bill to include language about the agreement after town officials said they worried about “legal ambiguities,” citing fears the tribe would reopen land claims that bitterly divided the two governments in 1976. 

The new language spells out a commitment that the tribe will not reopen those claims against the town. 

The suit alleges Cromwell and tribal attorney Rebekah Salguero were involved in negotiations with the town of Mashpee “to address issues with the federal process of placing land into trust” and “in adopting an amendment to legislation before the United States Congress without authority from the Tribal Council,” according to documents. 

Cromwell declined to comment on the suit through a spokesman Monday, and Salguero did not immediately respond to a call requesting comment. 

Section 2 of the tribe’s constitution states that the tribal council is empowered to, among other things, “negotiate and enter into contracts and agreements with tribal, foreign, federal, state and local governments, private persons and corporate entities.” 

In a letter addressed to Keating dated Aug. 21, Tobey asks the lawmaker to place the amendment in abeyance until the tribal council has a chance to vote on it. 

“Let me restate that to date, no such vote has occurred, and yet the matter is being represented on Capitol Hill as if it has tribal council approval,” Tobey writes. 

In 2008, then-council member Cromwell voted against the agreement before abstaining, documents show. Tobey, who was also a council member, voted against it. 

Should the legislation pass with the amended language, it would enshrine the town-tribe agreement in federal law, which Tobey says could jeopardize the tribe’s federal rights by fastening them to the terms of the agreement. 

“The proposed amendment makes the honey taste bitter,” Tobey said. 

Since losing a bid to unseat the chairman in last year’s election, Tobey has become a prominent critic of Cromwell, calling for more transparency of tribe finances and criticizing attempts to raise the salaries of council members, including Cromwell’s. 

Selectman Andrew Gottlieb, who did not respond to a request for comment Monday, said previously that he always viewed the agreement as “binding and enforceable.” 

“We think the agreed-upon language that we settled on with the tribe lawyers a couple weeks ago is in the town’s and the tribe’s best interest in that it preserves the tribe’s trust status and recognizes and reaffirms all prior agreements with the tribe,” he said last month. 

Gottlieb also said previously that the tribe’s legal counsel had represented to town attorneys that the tribal council agreed with the amendment. 

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180820/lawsuit-challenges-tribe-town-pact

Friday, August 17, 2018

Yarmouth woman charged with leaving baby outside casino



Gambling Addicts loose all sense of responsibility.

Gambling Addicts leaving children in vehicles has been widely reported - that's why casinos and slot barns patrol their parking lots.

Yarmouth woman charged 


with leaving baby outside casino

Image result for HALSTON BORGLUND



LINCOLN, R.I. — A South Yarmouth woman left her 3-month-old baby alone in a running vehicle outside a Rhode Island casino for about 90 minutes Wednesday while she was inside, according to police.

Lincoln police charged Halston Borglund, 26, with cruelty or neglect of a child.

A warrant also was issued for Borglund out of Barnstable District Court on Thursday for an alleged probation violation in a 2015 case, where she pleaded guilty to a charge of larceny of a drug.

An officer at Twin River Casino was informed by security at around 10 a.m. Wednesday that a child had been left alone in a parked vehicle.

Authorities found the girl inside a running sport utility vehicle with a window down. 

Borglund came out of the casino and allegedly said she left the baby alone for just a few minutes while she ran inside to retrieve keys.

Casino security said she actually had entered at around 8:30 a.m.

The baby was evaluated at a hospital and taken into state care.

It was not clear from online Rhode Island court records if Borglund was released on bail or was still in custody. Lincoln police did not respond to multiple voicemails Thursday seeking more information.

According to the Barnstable docket, a notice of probation violation was filed July 30 and Borglund’s probation officers requested the warrant Thursday.

In the 2015 case, she stole fentanyl, an extremely powerful opiate, from an unconscious patient who was receiving the medication through an intravenous line, according to police reports.

Borglund has a total of six cases in the Barnstable court dating back to 2010, excluding traffic violations, court records show.

Three cases were filed in 2010 and two cases in 2012, and all are closed, leaving the 2015 case.

In January 2010, she was charged with assault and battery. The charge was dismissed the following month at the request of the victim, according to the docket from the case.

In May 2010, Borglund was charged with assault and battery and malicious destruction of property. That case was dismissed in June of that year because the victim failed to cooperate, according to the docket.

In July of that year, she was charged with receiving stolen property. She pleaded guilty in January 2011, according to the docket. Although the terms of the plea are not in the file, it states that the case was “continued without a finding” and a probation order was entered. She was “discharged on all counts” and the case was closed on Oct. 25, 2015, according to the docket.

On Aug. 16, 2012, she was charged with 18 counts, including identity fraud, writing bad checks, theft and vandalization. She pleaded guilty to 10 counts in April 2013, which was followed by a probation violation and the termination of her probation in June 2014, according to the docket.

On Aug. 28, 2012, she was charged with larceny and breaking and entering in the daytime. She pleaded guilty in April 2013 and, after violating her probation, was sentenced to jail on June 10, 2014. The docket does not state what sentence she received.


http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180816/yarmouth-woman-charged-with-leaving-baby-outside-casino