In every tribe, each family wears its brand. There for generations, it never changes. For us, it’s the famous, hunters, fisherman, historians, chefs, political leaders, activists, historians, traditionalists, drunks, hustlers, doctors, developers, nurses, educators, dopers, the faithful, the brawlers, the lifesavers, the jailbirds, and the grifters.
For Jessie Baird, it has been a lifelong struggle to rid herself of the family brand…we all know our family labels. We know Jessie’s too. She was determined to shed the shame.
Messy Jessie uses every opportunity to exploit the Tribe and make a profit. When things get hot she takes off for the Vineyard to hide and complain.
When she was young, Jessie and her family left Mashpee in a hurry, drifting around the country… The old timers know the story, and so do many of their children. When she returned, she was a used car salesman and then suddenly a tribal historian, a linguist, and academician with no mention of a major area of study or where it was achieved. She’s an expert on everything and knowledgeable of absolutely nothing. And so the credentials (even a certificate like masters) just kinda evolved. Erasing that family trademark and ending the eye rolling was Jessie’s goal no matter what. Sitting on the Council at any level was an obsession for her. She would be the first in her immediate family to assume the power of elected office (her cousin Cedric, also a Tobey, was the first in that family to hold the high office of Chairman) always a lock by a select few of the same families. We know their names. And now we know why it was that way for a century prior to Jessie and Ceddie accended to the tribal thrown. It has been a horror show of greed and degredationfor the Tribe that fought so hard for legitimacey and tribute to its survival.
But what Jessie failed to understand is, her family was never part of leadership during the years of progress for the Tribe or at any point quite frankly. So it wasn’t like she was raised up to understand the value or importance of public service. Something, like waking up one day and claiming to be a good hunter without ever picking up a gun or learning how to use it. Jessie was relentless though, and every time she ran, which was often….it was when only the REAL MASHPEE were on the rolls voting. Not good for Jessie, she would get a couple dozen votes tops. They knew too much about who Jessie was.
So when she took over enrollment in 2009, she put over 1,300 ” casino stalkers ” (who were not approved properly by the committee or by the Elders) on the rolls. She did it to guarantee her future and continued empowerment thus creating a new tribe basically. They outnumbered the Real Mashpee. It was like reliving the 60’s & 70’s when the White people on the Cape ran out of land to develope and exploited Mashpee, they outnumbered us. That meant they took over the town politics. Now we’re the Cape’s resort mecca.
So the “Red Box” people who did not meet membership criteria, went on the roll. And a lot of people who never set foot in Mashpee were suddenly card-carrying Mashpee Wampanoag. All the safegards put in place to prevent the opportunists like Jessie from taking advantage of our potential prosperity was wiped away. And Jessie had her voter base. They, unlike the core of the Tribe, the true Mashpee, knew nothing of Messy Jessie. But Jessie brilliantly disposed of the naysayers who always laughed in her face and she essentially took over. Each election for the next 8 years, they showed up outnumbering the core of the tribe largely because the big families failed to unite against the outsiders or the Fryes. Jessie, Cedric and their sycophants had access to tribal rolls and addresses to send campaign materials disadvantaging all challengers. They bused stalkers in, paid their way from out of state and they voted to keep the regime in place based on the propaganda in the Mittark. This last election was not that great however….despite all that advantage the stalkers enthusiasm began to wane as the casino prospects faded. Importing stalkers was just barely enough to put Ceddie back in office (against Aaron Tobey) and Jessie had an even closer call (against Carlton Henricks Jr.) with a few votes seperating her from a demoralizing defeat. But with them running the election who knows.
Chief Mills told our story eloquently. It was the last time…
She conjured up all kinds of bizzare historical nonsense that is unending…. to include exclusive rights to the tribal language. In November 2007 the Tribe, Chief Earl Mills and youth held a Recognition cerimony at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University (that houses many of our artifacts). Jessie was asked to translate some simple exchanges between Tribal children and Elders and Chief Mills would translate. She refused to do it. She couldn’t do it. Finally, a tribal member researched the language online and did
After thanking the Elders in the language, the children presented the gift of wampum.
the language translation after struggling for nearly 12 hours, debunking Jessie’s exclusivity. You see, you had to get her permission to use the language. Yes, it was pretty outrageous. But the cerimony was one of the few positive stories we received over the last 10 years validating our identity a Native Americans. Jessie continues the language con with classes funded by millions of dollars in grants where students are taught God knows what. How do we know what she’s teaching? Who is validating her language curriculum? Right. Now she’s trying to move her classes on to tribal property so she doesn’t have to pay rent. Course we don’t even know how we are going to pay the note on the building without any income. But that’s another story.
Messy was not only the Vice Chair, she used it as a bully pulpit to lecture the White people about their cruelty to us. She was rediculous because she was always chastizing those who were interested in helping us. And half the time her infomation was total fantasy. Her constant babble in public was standard and incredibly embarrassing. Sometimes she would be cut off, but you could tell Jessie was making up for all the times she was told to sit down and shut up. Her greatest atrosity though was land into trust. Little Miss Scammer launched the crazy pine needle river theory that really proved that we had no connection to Taunton and everything just spiraled downward compounded by the bad lawyers offering the Carlyle Indian School crap. Course we had many tribal members go to the Indian school of Jim Thorpe fame. But it didn’t mean we were accountable to the federal government. And the court repeatedly said we had no proof that we were under fedral juristicion in 1933 or ever. The British and the Commonwealth were our masters.
The only consistency in the overall strategy was that Jessie, her buddy Cheryl, Cedric and Council crew kept getting a check. Millions and millions and millions.
Baird’s house on the Vineyard. Not enough however
Jessie already had her husbands house on the Vineyard. But her
Jessie’s new backyard, the result of over $100k in bonuses for a casino that will never happen and grants for a language she can’t translate.
new house in Cotuit on Lovells Road is quite fancy and in a coveted neighborhood. She put $100k down and has $565,250.00 to go. She got all the money for it in the name of the Mashpee Wampanoag. Course with layoffs and meltdowns you would think the Vice Chair would give up some of that huge salary to help her people. Nonsense you say ? She will get the last dime leaving nothing. She sold herself to the wannabees and stalkers as the Mystical Indian…..what do they know ? Well, they damn sure know now. More about the latest casino flim flam, skimming, layoffs and the good old robbing the grants.
