The Bureau of Indians Affairs made a weird move. It notified Taunton that a LIT decision was eminent. That could be for a number of reasons: Taunton is a secondary reservation designated for the casino, the historic ties are invalid, the state wants the yes or no right away to get others to bid in the casino region, or the 1934 argument is invalid.
It would be a stunning move for the the BIA to reverse themselves and say that we were under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934 when they told us during the recognition process that we were not. That would leave us with the Congressional route for LIT, which is virtually impossible.
The BIA may have stopped at the question of 1934 federal jurisdiction…..closing the door on it’s ability to take our land in trust.
Even weirder was the fact that the homeland, Mashpee were the primary reservation is to be, was not notified first. Very very weird. And we believe that Shovel Ready Ceddie really did not know what was going on, which is another bad sign, because usually they give you a high sign. No sign at all.
A negative would be worse for the administration of Cedric Cromwell. The backers would be far less interested in continuing to invest in a protracted effort to get LIT fixed through the congress. All the huge salaries, padded staff, surveys to give themselves huge raises would be left for all to see.
If they had just been honest. we could have fought this thing together. We want LIT but not at a cost of $130m a Christmas ham and a charity food pantry.
