Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: The Revoking of their Reservation Status


Written by: Jacy Welling



The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is a Native American Tribe that is inhabited in Mashpee and Taunton, Massachusetts. Although the tribe was not federally recognized until 2007, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had been settled in Massachusetts for over 12,000 years, being one of the three surviving tribes in the Wampanoag Nation (Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe).
On March 27 of this year, Cedric Cromwell, the Chairman of the tribe, was notified that the U.S. Department of Interior had ordered the reservation to be revoked from federal trust. The process of placing tribal land into federal trust means that the title to the land is held by the U.S. government to further benefit the tribe. When placing the land into its trust, the U.S. government then establishes responsibility to protect the land and its resources as well as to honor the self-government of the tribe (Robinson). Therefore, under federal trust, the tribal land cannot be sold or taken away from the tribe unless authorized by the federal government, and the tribe is able to operate under their own established government. This allows the tribe to form their own government, establish and enforce their own laws, and determine who is included in the membership of the tribe.
This process is extremely beneficial to tribes as it allows them to continue their cultural customs on their own sacred land. It allows a tribe to appropriately commit to their culture and operate as a sovereign nation under U.S. law. Revoking the tribe from federal trust would mean that these rules no longer apply, that the land would no longer be considered sovereign and therefore would become subject to state laws (Eng). This means that the government, laws, social services, and police forces the tribe had developed under the federal trust would be disestablished (DeCosta-Klipa). With federal trust revoked, it suddenly leaves the tribe unable to provide much-needed services for its members, like healthcare services (Taylor).
So why was the federal trust revoked from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe? This is not a common process by any means, as taking a tribe out of federal trust has only been done one other time since the 1950s (Taylor). The Mashpee Tribe had only been granted this trust in 2015, eight years after federal recognition, which enabled the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior to claim the title of the land and grant the Mashpee tribe a reservation. 
The process of being able to accept tribal lands into trust was approved by the IRA and made possible with the Indian Recognition Act of 1934. The IRA also deemed certain Native’s nations to be federally recognized, like the Mashpee Tribe, which enabled those tribes to be eligible for certain federal benefits and services. This was in no way an easy process to qualify as a “federally recognized” tribe, as a list of requirements were instated by the IRA. One specific requirement was that a tribe had to establish that they had been an Indian tribe for an extended period of time and had maintained a continuous government body among members, as well as having a defined territory (Eng). The Mashpee tribe was thought to have met these requirements; however, a confusing reversal by the Secretary of the Department occurred due to a recent court case.
The Department of Interior decided to revoke trust after a court decision was made the month before, claiming that the Department should have never granted the Mashpee tribe federal trust to begin with (Taylor). Due to the Mashpee not being under federal jurisdiction in 1934, the year in which the Indian Recognition Act was signed, and they did not qualify as “Indian”  under a definition created from a prior Supreme Court ruling in 2009, Carcieri v. Salazar. 
Carcieri v. Salazar essentially ended in the creation of two different classes of tribes in the U.S., those that could have their land granted federal trust, and those who could not be granted federal trust. Although this case led to a lot of blurred lines and confusion, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Interior could not grant federal trust to any tribes recognized after the Indian Recognition Act of 1934. It was due to the Obama administration, who clarified and created a new framework to make this division of classes easier to distinguish, that the Mashpee tribe was able to be federally recognized in 2015 (Eng).
So, what has happened since 2015 when the Mashpee were clearly justified under Obama’s guidelines to receive federal trust? It turns out that the Trump administration has not adhered to these guidelines that were re-established under Obama. In fact, Trump’s administration completely reversed the Obama policy, as in 2018 the Bureau of Indian Affairs reclassified the Mashpee tribe to not be under federal jurisdiction in 1934, thus enabling the DOI to revoke the federal trust (Hill).
Many people, including the Mashpee tribe, are questioning the real motives of the Trump administration’s decision. The decision was made the same day the CoronaVirus numbers reached 100,000 cases (Germanos). A global pandemic does not seem like the right time to be making these decisions. In fact, when Chairman Cromwell received the call stating the revoke of federal trust, he assumed that the phone call was going to be an offering of assistance. There are also accusations around the casino that was planned to be built by the Mashpee Wampanoag, and how it could have been seen as a threat to Trump’s ally, who has an association with the Twin River Management Group that also manages casinos in MA (Germanos).
This decision has clear issues of greed, racism, and ethnocentrism. Some may find it confusing as to why the land is so important to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Their land had been established even before the pilgrims came, their tribe’s ancestors living there before MA was even a state (Eng). There is no clear, appropriate reason as to why this tribe would not be considered Native American. Their land being taken out of trust means that there’s a possibility that it can be completely taken away from them in the future, and it’s not just the Mashpee tribe, multiple other tribes in the US struggle to maintain the land they claimed long ago. Many tribes have lost pieces of their culture like their original languages and religions. These are the lands of the Natives’ ancestors, schools, homes, and casinos. This is the land of their culture. Remaining culturally relative when viewing issues such as these are extremely important in order to understand their point-of-view. During a global pandemic, the Mashpee tribe does not just have to worry about the health of their members, but the survival and future of their tribe.



Sources:

DeCosta-Klipa, Nik. “Why the Trump Administration Is Moving to 'Disestablish' a Massachusetts Tribe's Reservation.” Boston.com, The Boston Globe, 30 Mar. 2020, www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/03/29/mashpee-wampanoag-reservation.

Eng, Miranda. “The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's Crisis Within a Crisis: Magazine: The Harvard Crimson.” The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's Crisis Within a Crisis | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson, 17 Apr. 2020, www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/4/17/mashpee-wampanoag-scrutiny/.

Germanos, Andrea. “‘Cruel:" Trump Admin. Moves to Take Land of Mashpee Tribe-Whose Casino Plans Irked President's ‘Special Interest Friends’-Out of Trust.” Common Dreams, 29 Mar. 2020, www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/29/cruel-trump-admin-moves-take-land-mashpee-tribe-whose-casino-plans-irked-presidents.

Hill, Jessica. “Mashpee Tribe's Reservation Land 'Disestablished'.” Capecodtimes.com, Capecodtimes.com, 29 Mar. 2020, www.capecodtimes.com/news/20200328/mashpee-tribes-reservation-land-disestablished.

“Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.” Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, www.mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/.

Robinson, Brett. “Native American Trust Lands Explained: 1st Tribal Lending Blog.” 1Tribal, 4 Aug. 2017, www.1tribal.com/native-american-trust-lands/.

Taylor, Rory. “Trump Administration Revokes Reservation Status for Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe amid Coronavirus Crisis.” Vox, Vox, 2 Apr. 2020, www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/2/21204113/mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-trump-reservation-native-land.


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