Court rejects Mashpee tribe’s appeal of land-in-trust ruling

Court rejects Mashpee tribe’s appeal of land-in-trust ruling

By Cape Cod Times

Posted Feb 27, 2020


Separate lawsuit still pending in District of Columbia court

BOSTON — The Interior Department lacked authority to take land into trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in 2015, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The court upheld a 2016 decision by U.S. District Judge William Young that the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934, disqualifying it for land-in-trust status. Young had sent the case back to the Interior Department, which reversed its earlier decision.

The tribe had appealed Young’s ruling and, in a separate action, filed suit against the Interior Department in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge its reversal.

“The decision has no impact on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s pending litigation in Washington, D.C., and its land will not be taken out of trust as a result of today’s decision,” tribal spokesman Steven Peters said in a statement Thursday night. “The Tribe will continue this fight and continue its plea that the United States Congress take action — the Tribe will not give up the fight to protect its lands.”

The case has been part of a yearslong battle between the tribe and neighbors of its proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton.

The Interior Department initially took 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust. The federal government has long acted as trustee for tribes, holding land deeds in trust for the purpose of self-government. The tribe had planned to use the Mashpee land primarily for housing and the Taunton land for economic activities, mainly the resort and casino, the appeals court ruling states.

A group of Taunton residents, led by David and Michelle Littlefield, went to court in an attempt to block the casino, which led to Young’s decision.

“We said in 2012 that if the federal government took land into trust in Massachusetts, it would be against the law and we would fight it at the local, state and federal level,” the Littlefields said in a statement Thursday night. “We had a small group of citizens who committed eight years to researching and learning. It was an uphill battle and we were outspent and outnumbered at every turn.

“We kept our word,” their statement says. “We fought hard. We stayed the course, and we won.”

The legal arguments through the years have focused on specific wording in the Indian Reorganization Act.

“Much of this case revolved around the ambiguity of two words — ‘now’ and ‘such,’” Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement. “We will continue to fight, as our ancestors did, to preserve our land base, our culture and our spiritual connection to our homelands.”