Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members sue over mail-in voting plan

Jessica Hill  Cape Cod Times

Mar 2, 2021 

MASHPEE — With the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s general election only a few weeks away, a few members have raised concerns about the decision to hold the election exclusively through mail-in voting. 

Tribal members Aaron Tobey Jr., Crystal Asiwe and Steve Helme are suing members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Election Committee at the tribal court, arguing that holding the March 26 election through mail-in voting is against the tribe’s constitution. 

“What my client is arguing, is that the constitution really prescribes the election process for the tribe,” attorney Jonathan Polloni, representing the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview, “and what’s happened is that the tribal council has really buried that process. That is significant and deserves a lot of caution.”  

A preliminary injunction hearing will be held in the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal District Court at 10 a.m. Tuesday regarding the lawsuit.

The election will determine who the next tribal chairman or chairwoman will be, as well as other positions in tribal government. 

On Jan. 25, the tribal council passed an emergency tribal ordinance to address voting in the 2021 Regular Election during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance allowed for the election to be held through mail-in voting and/or voting by ballot drop box.

In conjunction with passing that ordinance, the council also requested an advisory opinion from the Mashpee Wampanoag Supreme Court to determine whether voting by mail conflicts with the tribe’s constitution. The court has not yet made a ruling on that question.

That request was made in order to “bolster the tribal membership’s confidence in the integrity and legality of the modified voting method for the 2021 Regular Election,” according to the defendants’ brief filed Feb. 19 in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion.

The plaintiffs argue that while the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Constitution provides for the adoption of ordinances, as well as emergency ordinances, the constitution requires voting by “secret ballots cast at polls” in all tribal elections and prohibits absentee voting, according to the plaintiffs’ complaint obtained by the Cape Cod Times. 

“By permitting mail-in ballot voting, the Defendants have caused election irregularities that violate the Constitution and will affect the outcome of the election when it is held,” the complaint states.

The plaintiffs ask that the tribal court annul the election and require a new election be held in conformance with the constitution. 

“The timing to experiment with mail-in voting is not now,” Tobey, a plaintiff, said in an interview, noting that information on past elections has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. 

Helme, another one of the plaintiffs, said he does not understand why the tribe cannot follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s rules to allow both voting in person and mail-in voting for those who would like the option. He also thinks all tribal members should have a say in how the election will work. 

The defendants, on the other hand, argue that the tribal council and election committee did follow the constitution, which does not require in-person voting. They argue that all-mail voting still ensures that ballots are cast at “polls,” as the constitution requires. They defined “polls” as the location where the committee designated mail-in ballots to be sent as well as the secure ballot drop boxes. 

The mail-in election does not violate the rule against absentee voting, as all-mail voting is different from absentee voting, the defendants state in their opposition. That opposition brief was submitted by Alexandra Deal, the attorney for the tribal council members, and R. Reid LeBeau II, attorney for the election committee members. The attorneys did not respond to requests for comment Monday, nor did tribal council Vice Chairperson Jesse "Little Doe" Baird.

The defendants argued that voting in person could risk serious, and even deadly, health consequences.

“In the extraordinary time of a worldwide pandemic, the priorities and needs of the Tribe have changed,” their opposition states, “and the Tribal Council has determined that in-person voting on election day during a 3-hour window at a single polling location is no longer a tenable option for the 2021 Regular Election.” 

The defendants also argued that the defendants, as members of the tribal council and election committee being sued in their official capacities, are immune from being sued as they are "entitled to sovereign immunity from unconsented (lawsuits) as officers of the tribe."

John “Jim” Peters Jr., a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, was also on the tribe’s constitution committee. One of the justifications for not allowing mail-in ballots, he said, was that tribal members live all over the country, and not everybody knows what is happening in Mashpee and might make uninformed decisions. But the constitution was never written to prevent the tribal council from having flexibility to meet the needs of the tribe, he said. 

“I understand both sides of it,” he said. “Given the pandemic, it’s kind of difficult to require people to come to the tribal grounds and so forth.”

Grand jury subpoenas more documents from Mashpee tribe

Jessica Hill

Aug 29, 2020 

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council voted in an emergency meeting Friday night not to remove Chairman Cedric Cromwell. The vote came after the tribe received another subpoena related to a federal grand jury investigation.

On the meeting agenda, listed under executive session, was a discussion of “grand jury subpoena” with tribal attorney Benjamin Wish. Also on the agenda was an item labeled “committees, commissions, appointments, resignations and removals.”

The council voted 5-3, with one abstention, not to remove Cromwell from the position he has held since 2009, a source with knowledge of the vote told the Times.

As part of a grand jury investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston subpoenaed the tribe demanding records related to its elections and finances.

The Aug. 10 subpoena was signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers on behalf of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. In lieu of a tribal representative appearing physically in court before the grand jury Aug. 25, it requested all records be sent electronically to Wichers.

The subpoena requested all documents and records for the 2013 and 2017 tribal council chairperson elections. It requested a list of registered voters eligible to vote during those elections and a list of people who actually voted, along with the final certified election results.

It also called for documentation identifying the number of tribal members for each year between 2011 and 2020 along with any other annual census data.

The tribe also was to send any complaints it had received related to the elections, the candidate or any candidate’s campaign, and submit policies or rules related to campaign contributions and campaign expenditures.

Finally, the subpoena requested copies of all contracts between the tribe and the Robinson Green Beretta Corp. from January 2011 to the present. It also requested the minutes from January 2014 to the end of 2016 of all meetings of the committee that selected the corporation to work with the casino and from the committee that was authorized to terminate Robinson Green Beretta Corp.

The Robinson Green Beretta Corp. served as the owner’s project manager for the design and construction of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Community and Government Center on Great Neck Road South, which was completed in 2012. It also took on the role of owner’s representative in 2014 for the tribe’s First Light Resort & Casino, according to the company website, working with the tribe and the Genting Group, the tribe’s financial backer.

The $1 billion casino project in Taunton is at a standstill amid a yearslong legal battle over tribal sovereignty. Without the projected millions of dollars in revenue, the tribe has struggled with its finances.

This latest subpoena comes about two months after a federal grand jury issued a subpoena requesting all personnel records for Cromwell, Treasurer Gordon Harris and former Treasurer Robert T. Hendricks, as well as Mark Harding, founder of construction company WampWorx, and Louis Catarina Jr., who helped manage development for the First Light Resort & Casino project.

The June 5 subpoena requested many of the tribe’s financial records, including copies of checks, expense reports and payments to other organizations. It also sought documents concerning any internal or external investigation or audit looking into any suspected theft, embezzlement or other wrongdoing by a tribe official, employee or contractor.

Last year, a federal grand jury subpoenaed Harris and Hendricks, but the reason is still unclear.

Federal grand jury investigations are traditionally secret, with about two dozen citizens serving as jury members to examine documents to determine if sufficient evidence exists that a crime occurred.

Cromwell and Harris also had faced allegations last year from some tribe members who accused them of wrongful conduct in connection with $500 million owed to the Genting Group.

In June 2019 a robocall circulated within the tribal community alleging that $250 million handled by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority was unaccounted for.

In January 2019, the tribal council had taken a vote of no-confidence and stripped Cromwell of his financial responsibilities in connection with the tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority. Cromwell is president of that five-member board that oversees the tribe’s gaming operation.

The tribal council, however, voted in February 2019 to restore all of Cromwell’s financial responsibilities.

Last fall, some tribe members sought to recall Cromwell and Harris for malfeasance, but the tribe’s Election Committee canceled the recall election three days before it was to take place.

Cromwell did not respond to a request for comment Saturday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts also did not respond to a request for comment about the investigation.

Wish, the tribe’s attorney, said the tribe would comply with the grand jury’s requests for information.

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'A triumph' Interior Department withdraws appeal in Mashpee tribe's land-in-trust case

Jessica Hill Cape Cod Times

Published Feb 19, 2021 

In a big victory for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday withdrew its appeal in U.S. District Court in the tribe's land-in-trust case.

“Today is sakôhsuwôk, a triumph,” said Jessie “Little Doe” Baird, the tribe's vice chairwoman, in a statement late Friday afternoon. The decision was a win "for the citizens of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and our Ancestors who have fought and died to ensure our Land and sovereign rights are respected," she said.

The Department of Interior filed a motion Feb. 18 for the voluntary dismissal of its appeal, wrote Rachel Heron, attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental and Natural Resources Division. 

The case was part of a long battle for tribal sovereignty, which stemmed from a $1 billion casino the tribe wanted to build in Taunton.

U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., also hailed the decision Friday.

"The claim that the Tribe of the First Light, the Tribe of the First Thanksgiving was not an original Native American Tribe has always been disingenuous," he said in a statement. "And the Trump Administration’s sudden attempt to remove their land from trust last March — in the midst of a pandemic — was heartless. We’re reassured that the Biden Administration’s action today clearly reflects the best interest of justice ..."

The tribe had asked the interior secretary to put about 151 acres of land in Taunton into trust so it could build a casino, as well as another 170 acres in Mashpee. While the assistant interior secretary approved it in 2015, neighbors of the proposed casino and others filed a lawsuit in opposition. They argued the government did not have the authority to take the land into trust in the first place.

In 2018, the Department of the Interior reversed itself, arguing the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction when the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was established. The tribe appealed, but a federal judge in Boston ruled in favor of the reversal. 

Then in June 2020, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman found that the 2018 decision was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and contrary to law.” He sent the case back to the Department of the Interior for “thorough reconsideration and reevaluation of the evidence.” 

“We look forward to being able to close the book on this painful chapter in our history,” Baird said in the statement. “The decision not to pursue the appeal allows us (to) continue fulfilling our commitment to being good stewards and protecting our Land and the future of our young ones and providing for our citizens.” 

Mashpee Wampanoag behind on payments to Taunton

Mashpee Wampanoag behind on payments to Taunton

By Jessica Hill

Posted May 13, 2020 

Tribal leader denies report that arrears would be made up through bingo hall.

TAUNTON — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is late with its annual payment of more than $500,000 to the city of Taunton in accordance with the two entities’ intergovernmental agreement, and there is some confusion as to how that payment will be made.

Taunton city councilors were surprised Tuesday night to learn in a letter from the city’s legal department that the tribe planned to pay through revenue it would receive from establishment of a “tribal bingo hall.”

A leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe said he also was surprised.

“There are no plans for a bingo hall or any other financing strategies at this point because the tribe is too busy fighting to protect our ancestral lands against attacks from the Department of Interior during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with the City of Taunton and the town of Mashpee and finding ways to support each other.”

The tribe, which owns 150 acres of reservation land close to the intersections of routes 24 and 140 in Taunton, made an agreement with the city in 2012 based on expected revenue from its proposed $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino. The tribe was to pay the city at least $8 million every year once the casino was operating or 2.05% of its net slot revenue.

The casino and resort were projected to bring more than $50 million in revenue to the state and create more than 1,000 permanent jobs as well as 1,000 construction jobs.

As the tribe has been stuck in a legal tug-of-war with neighbors of the proposed casino who oppose the project and with the Interior Department over its land-in-trust status, that casino has yet to come to fruition.

The tribe has been paying Taunton a rate of $27.62 per $1,000 of assessed valuation every year instead of property taxes because of the land’s tax-exempt status, usually totaling a little more than $500,000.

In the past few years the tribe has been sending those payments through a wire transfer from a New York bank. Taunton Treasurer-Collector Barbara Auger previously commended the tribe on its continued commitment to make the payments.

Matthew J. Costa, first assistant city solicitor, wrote in a May 8 letter to the Taunton City Council that payment was due from the tribe in November. The Law Department issued a formal notice March 31 disputing the nonpayment, and the tribe asked for an extension.

That extension was agreed to based on the expectation the tribe would raise revenue through establishment of a tribal bingo hall, according to the letter.

“However, the establishment of a tribal bingo hall has not been realized due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Costa wrote in the letter.

If the tribe does not pay, the city would take action in Superior Court.

Cromwell said he had no idea how the city got the impression the tribe would establish a bingo hall. He also said the tribe would make its payment as part of the agreement, although he would not specify when or how that payment would be made.

“We’re going to pay it,” Cromwell said. “We’re working through it.”

Costa and City Solicitor David Gay could not be reached for additional comment on where they heard about plans for a bingo hall.

“This is the first I heard the possibility of a bingo parlor being on that site,” Taunton City Councilor David Pottier said at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Secondly, I find it somewhat incredulous that they’re blaming COVID for not being able to make a payment ... that was due in November when COVID only really took the scene in the last month or so,” Pottier said. “I find their excuse totally inadequate.”

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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.

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Interior: Mashpee tribe’s land remains in trust pending appeal

By Tanner Stening
Posted Sep qq, 2018

MASHPEE — The U.S. Department of the Interior will continue to hold the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land in trust until a legal challenge to its status is finalized, a spokeswoman for a division of the agency said Tuesday.

“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,” said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

On Friday, the Interior Department sent a letter to 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 and therefore didn’t qualify under a definition of “Indian” spelled out in the law. Interior officials had previously found in 2015 that the tribe qualified under another definition allowing the federal government to take 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust on the tribe’s behalf.

The Department of Interior was sued in 2016 by neighbors of a $1 billion casino project the tribe proposed for its reservation land in Taunton. U.S District Court Judge William Young ruled in 2016 that the federal government did not have the authority to take the land into trust in the way it had, remanding the decision to the agency for reconsideration.

The tribe’s appeal of Young’s 2016 decision is still pending in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. The Interior Department will not take action with respect to the tribe’s land until that appeal is decided, Darling said.

In November, the appeals court approved a request by the tribe that it be allowed to file a status report within ten days of the Interior Department’s decision, according to court documents.

The lawsuit brought by the Taunton neighbors, as in similar cases, rested on the interpretation of four words: “now under federal jurisdiction,” a phrase that has frustrated tribes seeking trust status for newly acquired land with the federal government over the years, most notably the Narragansett Tribe’s efforts in Rhode Island, which resulted in the Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.

David Tennant, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Taunton case, said Tuesday before Darling’s comments that he expects the federal agency to “unwind” the 2015 decision so that “it is consistent with (Friday’s) decision.”

“The land is not lawfully in trust; the land was not lawfully declared a reservation,” Tennant said. “We certainly expect the Interior to take steps to recognize that reality.”

If the Interior Department doesn’t move to take the land out of trust, his legal team will be back in court requesting that Young “order the agency do what they are required to do,” Tennant said.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said.

On Tuesday, Cromwell said Friday’s finding by the Interior Department is the first instance in which the Carcieri decision is being wielded by the agency to “terminate a tribe.” If it stands, it would be the first time since the Termination Era — a period from the 1940s to the 1960s when Congress pushed to end tribal independence by removing federal protections — that the federal government appears to be in a “detribalization mode,” he said.

“Our own country is attacking us,” he said. “America just attacked its own people.”

News of Friday’s finding and its potential effects is still reverberating across Indian Country.

On Tuesday, the National Congress of American Indians issued a statement condemning the Interior Department’s decision, saying it “severely restricts the (tribe’s) sovereignty and its ability to exercise meaningful self-governance.”

In addition, the organization criticized the agency for failing to consider the “totality of the tribe’s evidence” it says proved the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe was under federal jurisdiction in 1934.

“The tribe’s reservation is now being threatened with disestablishment,” the statement says. “The tribe is effectively stripped of important ‘reliance interests’ that will affect the social service programs it provides to its citizens, as well as the economic development ventures (including gaming) that the tribe relies on to support critical tribal government functions and provide job opportunities to its people.”

If the land is taken out of trust, it could affect the tribe’s sovereignty, and it would be subject to state and local regulations and taxation, according experts in Indian law.

But those same experts have maintained that a reservation can only be disestablished by an act of Congress, specifically through legislation.

And Cromwell said the Interior Department doesn’t have a way to take the land out of trust.

“There’s no policy or regulatory structure in place,” Cromwell said. “There’s no vehicle for them to do that.”

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Interior Department deals blow to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

By Tanner Stening
Posted Sep 7, 2018

MASHPEE — The Trump administration on Friday delivered an unprecedented and potentially crushing blow to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

After more than two years of legal uncertainty, the U.S Department of the Interior — the agency charged with protecting tribal trust assets — issued a finding that it could not keep 321 acres of land taken into trust for the tribe under the Obama administration, casting an ominous shadow on the Cape tribe’s future and its proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton.

The Interior Department was sued in 2016 by neighbors of the planned casino-resort after the agency took the tribe’s land into trust in 2015. 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 Interior officials.

Since the 2016 U.S. District Court ruling, the agency has been considering whether Massachusetts had exercised authority over the Mashpee tribe in a manner that could be viewed as a surrogate for the federal jurisdiction requirement under the 1934 law.

That law remains the primary governing tool over Indian affairs, promoting self-determination and self-government.

The lawsuit, as in similar cases, rested on the interpretation of four words: “now under federal jurisdiction,” a phrase that has vexed tribes seeking trust status for newly acquired land with the federal government over the years, most notably the Narragansett Tribe’s efforts in Rhode Island, which culminated in the Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar.

But the Carcieri decision never established the criteria by which a tribe could demonstrate it was under federal jurisdiction, prompting the Interior’s solicitor to issue an interpretation of the ambiguous phrase in 2014.

In a letter sent Friday to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney wrote that after reviewing the evidence and submissions, the state’s history of exercising authority over the tribe provides no indication of federal authority sufficient to prove it was “under federal jurisdiction.”

While the evidence “demonstrates a federal awareness of the Massachusetts Indians and the Commonwealth’s regulation of their affairs, it does not establish or reflect any federal actions taken on behalf of, or for the benefit of, the Mashpee Tribe or its members as such,” Sweeney wrote. “Because the Tribe was not ‘under federal jurisdiction’ in 1934, the Tribe does not qualify under the IRA’s first definition of ‘Indian.’ Nor does it qualify under the second definition, as that definition has been interpreted by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.”

Mashpee signed Remand Decision byCape Cod Times on Scribd

Having struck out in federal court and with the executive branch, the tribe’s road to maintaining its land and the resulting economic benefits are narrowing. Hopes for the future of the tribe’s land now rest with legislation pending before Congress that would reaffirm the reservation outright, ending the ongoing litigation and preventing future legal challenges to it in court.

That legislation was introduced by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., and a twin bill has been introduced in the Senate. Keating said Friday’s ruling was what congressional leaders feared, blaming Trump administration officials for “turning their backs” on the historic tribe, which traces its roots back some 12,000 years in the region.

“This tribe held the first Thanksgiving,” he said. “This is clearly on the doorstep of the Trump administration.”

Keating said Trump’s Justice Department “should be appealing” the ruling.

“We’ll be moving forward with our legislation,” Keating said.

In a statement, Cromwell said the ruling was a “tremendous blow” to the tribe and a “grave injustice initiated by an out-of-state casino developer,” referring to Chicago-based Neil Bluhm, who is backing a competing casino proposal in Brockton and who had initially thrown financial support behind the lawsuit brought by neighbors of the tribe’s planned Taunton casino

“I am asking people of good will and all those concerned with justice for the indigenous people of this land — the first Americans — to stand with us in calling on Congress to protect our reservation and ensure we are don’t become the first Tribe since the dark days of the Termination Era to lose its land,” Cromwell said.

Federal Indian law experts have said the Interior Department must seek congressional approval to take the land out of trust. The federal government issued a proclamation of the tribe’s reservation after it was taken into trust and it is unclear what the removal of trust status would mean for the reservation, according to the experts.

“All of this is unsettled because there’s not much precedent here,” said Gregory Ablavsky, professor of law at Stanford University Law School.

The removal of trust status must come through federal legislation, he said.

Robert Anderson, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, previously said a ruling against the tribe “would be totally inconsistent with federal Indian policy since the 1950s.”

Within Indian Country, the ruling is telling regarding the current administration’s land policies toward Indians, according to Derrick Beetso, general counsel for the National Congress of American Indians.

Michelle Littlefield, a plaintiff in the 2016 lawsuit, wrote in a text message that Keating’s legislation would reaffirm “a no decision,” suggesting the Interior Department’s original decision had been voided by Friday’s ruling.

“It’s over,” she wrote.