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Tribe member confronts Interior official

By Tanner Stening
Posted Sep 12, 2018 

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe official says Interior Department made “wrong decision”

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s second-in-command got a chance Wednesday to tell the head of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs how she felt about a Trump administration finding that the Cape tribe didn’t qualify to have its land taken into trust.

“You did a wrong thing,” Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird told Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney during a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. “I can love and respect you as an Indian woman, but we need to stick together.”

In August, Sweeney was sworn in as the first Alaska native to hold the position.

On Friday, Sweeney sent a letter to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell informing him of the agency’s determination that the tribe was ineligible to have land taken into trust because it was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934.

In a video posted on the tribe’s Facebook page that was later taken down, Baird is seen speaking to Sweeney during a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians, telling her that the department’s finding was “a wrong decision.”

Sweeney, who was standing before a lectern listening, appeared to nod several times.

“We have to make decisions that are good, right and moral, not just politically correct,” Baird said.

Baird asked Sweeney to reconsider Friday’s ruling.

“Because what happens to us in Massachusetts is going to spread across the country,” she said. “You’ve got to think about what you’re doing.”

The Interior broke its silence on the ruling on Tuesday; a spokeswoman for the agency said it will keep the 321 acres of reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton in trust until the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton.

“Consistent with our practices and procedures, the department will continue to hold the tribe’s land in trust until a final court order is imposed,” Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman Nedra Darling said.

Cromwell has repeatedly said a negative ruling from the Interior Department would indicate that it is poised to disestablish the tribe’s reservation.

Members of the tribe are on Capitol Hill this week for “Tribal Unity Impact Days,” a two-day event hosted by the NCAI, which issued a statement on Tuesday objecting to the decision. The organization is demanding an “immediate response” from the Interior to clarify its land policies toward Indian tribes.

Earlier in the day, Baird and Cromwell addressed an assembly of tribal nations and their representatives.

Baird was visibly emotional when discussing the tribe’s long history, dating back 12,000 years in the region, and its many difficulties in attaining federal acknowledgement.

“We waited 30 years for an answer after we applied,” she said, adding that the tribe has worked hard since that time. “Our application for federal acknowledgement turned into a 54,000-page application, the largest one in history because they kept asking us for more.”

The trust lands application was 14,000 pages, she said, listing off the housing, education programs, court system and other advances the tribe has made.

“All of these things are going to go away with this decision and we are asking Indian Country to stand up and support us,” she said.