Reel Wamps

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.

Shovel Ready sings an honor song to the Tribe . This is from the man from Dorchester who didn’t know what the tribal roll was and had to be put on by Glenn Marshall and Patty Oakley He can’t sing and he scares people.

Cedric Cromwell achieved his dream and became the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, but it was in name only. He never had the credentials or legitimacy of his predecessors. A stolen election brought him to power and rigged elections thereafter kept him there. Always considered a wannabe, he fell victim to the notorious Mashpee Wampanoag nic name brand of  “Shovel Ready Ceddie.” He couldn’t deliver. It was too much for him. But he gave it “the ole heave ho” by gory.  You see, standing up against Eben Queppish, Steve Peters,  Earl Mills, Eddie Amos, Russell Peters, Hazel Oakley, Mable Avant, Glenn Marshall and John Peters…. real leadership was not something Cedric could ever even fake. Not in the DNA you see.

So Cedric and the BF’s ( Bottom Feeders ) began erasing our history around April of 2009..  They fired all the Elders, literally threw them out of the Tribal Council effectively killing many of them off prematurely.  Of course, we all know the importance of Elders in Native culture, but if you are not raised Native, it doesn’t matter does it?  Blaspheming, after all, we went through to get recognition brought no rebuke of Cedric and his Play Play Indians. They moved ahead.

Here were the signs that Shovel Ready was never about the best interest of the Tribe. Straight out of the Trump playbook.

• In a matter of months, Cromwell and his gang blew through a $1 million surplus left by the previous administration plus David Pocknett’s donated salary.
• Also within months SRC and his Council officers fired all tribal members in enrollment, finance, and housing  resulting in a general collapse of any structure of tribal governance established by the previous administration
• SRC puts his Tobey cousin, Jessie Bard in charge of enrollment. For months she could not access the code to enroll members.  She eventually begins adding people through her newly created process. They were people who did not meet tribal enrollment standards. She built a base vote that would keep them in power.  She added over 1,000 new members who never had any affiliation with the Tribe.  These people came from the dreaded RED BOX who were prohibited from becoming members because they had no affiliation with theTribe for 10-20 years. The Casino Stalkers outnumbered the core of the Tribe.  So Cedric and Jessie had a lock on the Tribe.
  
• By the Fall of 2009, SRC and his regime abandoned the Middleborough agreement, and a 536 acres and confirmed homeland of the Mashpee. It was purchased by the previous administration for a mear $6m.
• Mark Harding brought Genting to the table and the true horror story of extraordinary debt,  interest rates and pimping of the Tribe began in earnest.
• THE GROSS INCOMPETENCE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION WAS REVEALED WHEN THERE WAS NO EFFORT TO COMPLETE THE LAND IN TRUST PROCESS in  2009. The Carcieri decision by the US Supreme Court came down in Feb of 2009 and Cedric had no idea what it meant. Tribal  Lawyers  ( who were the best Indian lawyers in the country), were calling the previous administration members to get for the Tribe to act because the decision meant that the Department of the Interior did not have the authority to take our land into trust. It was catastrophic for us. Cedric and the crew never responded to the lawyers. They were too busy getting paid by Genting.
• The point was that US Senator Ted Kennedy was still alive and a good friend to our people.  He could have gotten an Act of Congress passed for us to get our land into trust..  Only Kennedy could have done it. Cedric was clueless They were in the limousine phase and making their exit from the ghetto.  They were partying down and everyone saw the shade and the bad stuff coming.

More tomorrow about how bad he really is…just a reminder.

You know during these sad times we need a little brevity. At Reel Wamps we thought of the Mashpee that actually reflected many of our atributes of defiance and humor.  Of course the award winner without denial is Marie Stone, affectionately known as Tah Tah. Her performances have been extraordinary and impacting particularly on our unpopular Chairman who marches around with his talking points from the White Man and desperately seeking relevancy where there is none with a racist regime that will likely be marched out of the White House under heavy security.

This is a good long one so we  will revisit tomorrow along with the crazy budget shennnanagens with your coo coo Treaurer Gordon Harris  who is totally unaware of the Consitution and his job responsibilities.   And the Cape Cod Times missing the real story yet again cause they don’t talk to the INDNS.

The Elders are fuming and they will make that clear Sunday.  Simply put they were told the truth for once. There’s no money in their account and they will no longer receive  services.  Well honestly, the decline of Elder status began in earnest when Cedric Cromwell took over the Tribe in 2009.  He demeaned the Elders by removing them from perch above us.  He sytematically excommunicated them from enrollment and other important positions of oversight and guidance.  Their essential roles in this Tribe evaporated.  They were reduced to having luncheons and random field trips most of them were not interested in. The Phoney Indian was guilty of gutting one of the most important traditions of any tribe.

He could have cared less. And the rest of his leadership was complicit.  And on and on.

But let’s go on to the really bad stuff.  Shovel Ready Ceddie has now become a horder or millions of dollars. The million he scraped up from Genting recently will not go far, plus he has the standard bills in arrears. He must pay himself and the Council of course. Meanwhile they’re going from office to office asking employees if they will voluntarily be laid off.  Yes really.  While Ceddie and crew continue to get the huge paychecks and by the way that little bullsh– pay cut set to begin at the end of October, never happened.  But 60 of the 100 employees will be gone January 1.

The grant programs have begun to build impenetrable barricades around their offices.

The food pantry has no food .  Clearly the Boston Food Bank got wise to the fact that millions flow threw the MWT but they just don’t have enough to money to get food for their own food pantry.

Now on to the real knee slapper. Genting was pretty tiered of us and about three months ago they told Cedric they were going to build a commercial casino on their own….and Cedric pitched it to the Council. Yes he had the nerve.  As long as Cedric get’s paid what does he care? That’s how bad it is people. There was No mention of the Tribe’s casino, cause….well you know  it was never about us was it?

Tomorrow the disappearing act.

The Council made a magnanimous gesture…in their minds anyway.  We put the pressure on about the huge salaries and no return on our investment and guess what?  They decided to cut their salaries, a little…just a tiny bit.  Actually Ann Marie cut her salary far more than anyone else, even more than the passionate chairman, about 1/3.  Take a look.

Where’s my next pay check? Shovel Ready says Reel Wamps are “Haters.” Well yes we are, we “hate” the way you played us, pimped us out, leaving us on the side of the road with a tin cup. Our only consolation, and it’s not a good one, is that we told you so.

Cedric Cromwell    178 – 147, Jessie Baird $130 -109, Ann Marie Askew $109 -75, Gordon Harris $91-82, Winnie Johnson, Winnona, Cheryl Frye Cromwell $75-68, The Invisible Medicine Man Guy Cash $68-61, cutting about $123 K a year.   Well they need to do more.  Why? Cause they don’t deliver to the constituents. Malfeasance.  And in light of the fact that Shovel Ready is still begging the deaf ear Genting for $1.5M, the money is drying up to pay the Genting tribal employees, consultants and the Council.  And it’s doubtful the Tribe will be operational by this time next year. We didn’t even do the math on the millions that would be saved if we fired all the spongy lawyers and overpaid consultants.  We don’t need them, they do nothing.

The Mashpee Wampanoag need to get what they can right now, while they can. The paid Council members should give up their monthly pay checks through January ( 3 months, $200 K ). The money would create  a special trust for economic development specifically designed to employ and train tribal members. It would be administered by an independent panel of professional tribal members. Boy that’s novel ain’t it ? 

A couple of million to put us to work and deliver income to tribal coffers for us?  Why do we keep paying people who contribute nothing to our quality of life?  Its dumbfounding.  They never put a plan of independence together for us because its about their sustainability…..and Genting wouldn’t allow it.

Next the raiding game and the declining $1.3 m in the dormant Gaming Commission.