You gotta nerve “Running Bear” (Running Scared). There’s one person left in the world who cares about your anger management issues and that’s you.
Let’s keep moving. Cedric’s failures are many and successes are 0. We are a small beleaguered tribal nation burdened by Shovel Ready Ceddie’s boondoggles.
Drunk with power and money, Shovel Ready Ceddie, flanked by his cousin VC Jessie Baird, was in his glory. But he never arrived or got the respect he craved.
Once he realized that he could get away with anything, he did everything to feed an insatiable appetite for power. But he could never escape the fact that he was owned lock, stock and barrel by Genting. The chairman was a grateful puppet to the gaming giant who showed up occasionally at tribal meetings to condescend to tribal members and openly admit that they would not receive any money from the pact for ” long time ” and that they would not be able to buy a ” Cadillac.” Boy that was quite a dated stereotype, eh ? But our people believed what they wanted to believe. They wanted to believe they were going to be rich. They were deaf to the tell tale signs.
The chairman was surrounded by a security detail at first. He was a foreign dictator in a foreign land. He needed protection. But we had no protection from the incredible debt and the millions and millions of dollars laundered through the Tribe. The huge interest rates taken off the top leaving enough to pay the chairman, certain council members, lawyers, consultants cronies and the Fryes….for nothing.Hundreds of millions of dollars, in and out. Never any benefit to the struggling Tribe.
The debt doubled and quadrupled each quarter as The Cromwell administration continued to wreck havoc in the tribal government. Joined by Mark Harding, who was scorned by the Tribe and the previous administrations, the leadership blatantly steered contracts to Harding and preferred council members. The blatant conflict of interest was present with every tribal contract, and the shakedowns never ended. The sub standard construction and services were everywhere. The only service that was (and are) safe were the grants and services run by the Federal Government and Indian Health Services. Housing was the exception. The Administration treated housing like a candy store until the feds shut it down. The essential services were cut, like weatherization, renovations and repairs and tribal home ownership because all allotments went to the Fryes.
About the Fryebal Council
With each Pow Wow, there were fewer Mashpee dancers and participants. The homecoming atmosphere is gone. Because the INDNs aren’t there.
There is an incredible irony surrounding SRC disastrous reign. His family, the much maligned-Tobeys, championed his candidacy. But, for them the victory celebration was short lived. Cromwell married Cheryl Frye and the Fryes had open access to existing jobs and the contrived ones. There were no job descriptions, no experience or education required and for some real job hires, the programs deteriorated because of the gross incompetence. The previous administration was a stickler for requiring education, qualifications, and experience. Not at the Fryebal Council. Many did not have high school diplomas, and one Frye forged a GED certificate. It was ridiculous. But the sad chapter was Cromwell’s treatment of his own family. They got a few jobs here and there but, within a few months, there was always a pink slip. To their credit, the Fryes with good sense and qualifications worked for IHS, and do a good job. Again the federal programs were a blockade to the infusion of bad actors in search of a place to flop. The Feds made applicants provide credentials.
A sleepy clan, the Fryes brilliantly took over and made more money than they ever dreamed. They quietly banded together with the Casino Stalkers to dominate the voter and approval process for budgets and keep Cedric in power. The problem now is that those 6,7 or 8 years of prosperity is gone because most of them have been fired with the recent Genting cuts. And Cedric being true to his DNA shortage on compassion, will not be bringing them back. He will take care of himself with the small infusion that Genting has just “pledged” to the Cromwellians. More on their influence on that budget vote Sunday.
Messy Jessie Pulls Her Greatest Scam
As long as Jessie doesn’t have to answer any questions or explain her actions, she ‘s good. Unpopular with her own family, the Tobeys, Jessie says she will no longer answer to the Tribe.But true to her messy nature she will take the check to pay for her very expensive home in Osterville. A long way from the quanset hut indeed.
Rewind to the first 6 months of the nightmare. Jessie Baird was in charge of Enrollment. She was freaking out becaus she could not access the roll and could not bastardize it. Well, after many months she finally got a teckie to create a means to the end she wanted. She loaded the roll with 1,000 wannabes from the dreaded “Red Box.”They were “Casino Stalkers” who suddenly wanted on the roll. But the Elders and previous administration established criteria that would protect the Tribe from Pretenders who wantded to be Indian without ever living the culture. They just wanted the money..But Jessie and Cedric and the rest of the crew needed people who did not know them or their families or the tribal history. They needed people who would be grateful to them for making them members of the tribe that was going to be rich….ha ha ha.
So they were bused in and they showed up to vote for the Cromwellians…but eventually began to fade when they figured out that Cedriic and Jessie were fakes and frauds.Jessie’s last election (for Vice Chair) scared the sh– out of her. She won by a handful of votes against Carlton Hendricks Jr. her nemisis. The Stalkers figured it out and began their disappearing act. As their base vote erroded and Jessie saw the bad end to it all…she began her pathetic whining and how she wasn’t going to attend Sunday meetings cause she didn’t want to be attacked…well that’s the life of a public official…oh-oh wait, we forgot. She wasn’t raised up to serve, or answer to the Tribe or anyone under any circumstances. We know who we’re looking at.
Kevin Washburn BIA Sec. told the story of the Mashpee Wampanoag land into trust application and how it started a war in the DOI because we lacked the proof of federal jurisdiction needed. Many left the agency after the Mashpee LIT controversy which was ultimately rejected by a federal court judge.
But she did alot of double talk to the White people on the Gaming Commission. She and Cedric the Cromwell made fools of those White people who started asking questions about the validity of the land into trust application after it all started unraveling. Of course Reel Wamps raised the same questions that were raised by the Judge. We raised them for years. The inability to properly answer those questions was the reason for the war in the Department of Interior.
Sadness is knowing that your people have lived this long to be done in by there own. Even though they’re outsiders in many ways.
We are an awesome people. We are a people who possessed the humanity to care for those who would ultimately disregard our giving nature. We kept them alive and they turned on us. But we are still here and we have to deal with what we are delt. Our survival is still our responsibility. We will be Mashpee forever.
The Chief, Earl Mills, an undeniable leader.
John Peters, Slow Turtle, Supreme Medicine Man, Wampanoag Nation
Remember who we are. Our struggle is tremendous. Before the White man even looked west he was working on
Hazel Peters Oakley, an unwavering voice of discipline and persistence in a tribal community where women were the final arbiters.
assimilating us. We never gave in. We never will.
