Wampanoag Tribe election winners include Cromwell critics

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WAMPALEAKS 

Wampanoag Tribe 

election winners 

 include Cromwell critics

By Tanner Stening
Posted Feb 10, 2019

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s annual election Sunday saw three tribal council seats change hands, including a return to power of Aaron Tobey Jr., chairman Cedric Cromwell’s longtime critic.

Brian Weeden, Rita Pocknett Gonsalves, Carlton Hendricks Jr., Winnie Johnson-Graham, Yvonne Avant and Tobey were elected to the council seats, according to a tribal spokeswoman. Hendricks and Avant were incumbents, receiving 232 and 187 votes, respectively.

Weeden topped the ticket with 346 votes, followed by Gonsalves with 309; Johnson-Graham received 212 and Tobey received 201.

Joanne Frye and Denise Johnson-Hathaway were unseated, and Marie Stone lost by 10 votes.

The election comes as the tribal council struggles to secure the tribe’s reservation land, save an embattled casino project and quell internal doubts about its current leadership.

Last month, Cromwell was temporarily stripped of his fiduciary powers after news surfaced of problems with his personal finances, including $37,000 he and his wife, tribal council member Cheryl Frye-Cromwell, owe the IRS, and business interests subpoenaed in the course of their divorce proceeding. On Wednesday, the tribal council reversed course, voting to restore Cromwell’s fiduciary responsibilities and to rescind a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Tobey promised to ramp up the pressure on Cromwell by supporting an investigation into alleged mismanagement of tribal money.

“He’s been very lucky to avoid any accountability, but now it’s about time he’s held accountable,” Tobey said previously.

Hendricks is also a sharp critic of Cromwell, and has called for more oversight of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, a five-member board, headed by Cromwell, that a recent audit described as a “discretely presented component” of the tribe responsible for overseeing its stalled gaming operation.

In an interview, Hendricks said tribal debt has risen to roughly $507 million, over $60 million more than the last figure reported by the backer of the tribe’s casino plans, Genting Malaysia, and that none of that money was ever put aside for tribe members.

The tribe’s planned $1 billion casino resort in Taunton has languished since neighbors there successfully sued to overturn a decision by the Obama administration to take land into trust for the tribe. A federal judge remanded that decision to the Interior Department, which declined to take additional action on it. A bill pending in Congress would secure the tribe’s reservation land and bar additional legal challenges, but it faces significant opposition from competing gambling interests. The Rhode Island congressional delegation has also come out against it.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190210/wampanoag-tribe-election-winners-include-cromwell-critics