Land in trust is complicated. One way to fix the Carcieri decision is for the Congress to change the law to allow the Department of Interior / BIA to take land into trust for all tribes regardless of when they were recognized. According to the BIA, we were not under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934, so that congressional change is what we need.
The Congress has been dragging its feet on fixing this law for six years and now that there is some sign of Congressional activity. It’s so minimal, it actually makes matters worse. There is one bill that works for us that has been stuck in a committee since February. Now the Republicans are throwing amendments around that gut the bill. One says that for the BIA to take a a secondary parcel of land ( like Taunton) into trust the land has to be contiguous or connected to Mashpee for example. Good luck on getting 1 acre from Sandwich, Osterville or East Falmouth, let alone freakin Tauton which is the one place we don’t even have historic ties to. Again were trying to take Taunton into trust and we never lived there. Brilliant.
No wonder the BIA is silent. We are rediculous all the way around. Not us but the Fryebal Council and Shovel Ready !
The other amendments only allow LIT for housing and to establish governments but no gaming. Lastly you have a hostile Republican Congress that is not interested in giving Native Americans anything…nada. They are totally threatened by any people of color and do not want to give any land back period. Let aone gaming. Natives do not vote for Republicans and they just hate us.
Lastly, the bills can’t get out of committee with or without these bad amendments (that kill the original intent).
Arlinda keeps gettin’ paid to deliver a blank. Great work if you can get it.
Arlinda Locklear and Mashpee Wampanoag Chairman Cedric Cromwell better know and Shovel Ready Ceddie ( for obvious reasons) rely on the fact that most tribal members, like those all over the country, don’t understand the legislative process, so they keep lying about the process and get away with it.They keep borrowing $10 -$11 million every 3 months to keep getting paid while millions of dollars go to places and people other than tribal members. Very very dangerous business with the feds watching.
Another thing. Where are we building this casino? We don’t own ANY land. We are paying millions to people in Taunton to hold on to land rather than buy it outright because we don’t have the LIT. Renting crappy land we will never own in the town know as the home of the state nut house. You could use a deal like that eh?
We’re paying Shovel Ready’s “special assistant” Lew $17k a month to do what? White lawyers
He’s been “Shovel Ready Ceddie” for 6 years and can’t break ground. No land or license, just false promises.
and a former congressman hundreds of thousands of dollars each month to do nothing.
Arlinda said that something was going to happen by September…maybe. How about they stop paying her until something materializes cause that bill is dead and she knows it. Even if it got out of committee, it would have no support for final passage.
You get a ham and some lame parties 3 times a year. The Government Center is home to the Fryebal Council and a few rejects from other families.
If we had a real Medicine Man we might stand a chance in at least trying to serve our people. We need to do more than pretend this is not happening and retreat to being old Mashpee and ignoring the slime that that has taken over the tribe we have worked to establish for 32 years.
Stand for something or fall for anything.We need someone who is not afraid to lead us out of this mess and legally challenge the horrific debt of $130m that we never approved.
