Don’t you remember the days when we were dreaming of a casino. When it was actually going to happen once upon a time…and now it’s all screwed up. Actually, we’re still hoping that the Creator waves his hand over us and a miracle occurs.
We have to talk about our sad reality. It goes like this:
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is getting ready to let a second license in our region. Our money is on New Bedford.
Another INDN lawyer who keeps bluffin' and billin'
Arlinda Locklear who is in charge of what has become our never ending LIT exploratory mission, says (in the media) that it will be the end of the year before we have the answer on land in trust. Now, let’s review her long list of predictions. She predicted 90 days from November of 2014, which conveniently came after the crazy election. Nothing. Then in the spring she said June or July. Nothing. Now it’s the end of the year. Here’s her quote in the Taunton Gazette when it became clear that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission had long abandoned the waiting game with the Mashpee Wampanoag and the phantom casino.
“I think it will be this year,” said Arlinda Locklear, the tribe’s attorney handling the land-into-trust application, which is currently being reviewed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the same time, Locklear emphasized that this was just her estimate, and that the government process provides no prescribed timeline to complete the review.
We know what that means….nothing happening. As far as the LIT application goes,we have a huge problem with the historic ties to Taunton. Pretty weak if you’re going by Messy Jessies’ “pine straw and sea foam” theories. It’s embarrassing that that sort of absurdity would come out of anyone’s mouth ….but then again she just makes stuff up. Anything to get attention.
But back to Arlinda. She’s still clinging to the Cowlitz argument saying the Washington tribe clears the way for us because they
The Cowlitz children have a future. Their tribe is fighting for their future. Shovel Ready Ceddie is planning his exit.
were FORMALLY recognized in 2002 ….as we were in 2007. The 2009 Supreme Court decision said the Department of Interior could not take LIT unless the tribe was under federal jurisdiction on or before 1934. Well, as Reel Wamps has said over and over…the Cowlitz were under federal jurisdiction dating back to the 1850’s…but as stated below in the background of this case the difference between us and the Cowlitz is that the feds were marching them all over Washington state from reservation to reservation.. We on the other hand were always dictated to by the Commonwealth. We had the first reservations (called plantations) in the nation, but that was during colonial times and eventually we gave them up to be a township…again under the Commonwealth.
Below is the Cowlitz federal connection. Don’t know how much more “federal” you can get beyond the “Congress” & the “Secretary of Interior.”
CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF CHEHALIS INDIAN RESERVATION,
Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee,
and
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
STATE OF WASHINGTON; William R. Wilkerson, individually and
as Acting Director of the State of Washington Department of
Fisheries; Frank R. Lockard, individually and as Director
of the State of Washington Department of Game; Washington
State Game Commission, Defendants-Appellees,
and
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
STATE OF WASHINGTON, Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.
Nos. 95-35370, 95-35371.
United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.
In 1911, Congress directed the Secretary of Interior to make allotments on the Quinault Reservation under the provisions of the allotment laws to “all members of the Hoh, Quileute, Ozette or other tribes of Indians of Washington who are affiliated with the Quinaielt and Quileute tribes in the [Treaty of Olympia] and who may elect to take allotments on the Quinault Reservation rather than on the reservations set aside for these tribes.” The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that members of the Chehalis, Chinook and Cowlitz tribes were entitled to allotments on the Quinault reservation pursuant to this act and the 1873 executive order. Halbert, 283 U.S. at 758, 51 S.Ct. at 616-17.
So Arlinda’s extended projections have kept her in moola ($480,000) for over 4 years of unproductive legal work. But you would think she would at least do her research about us and stop using the Cowlitz as the means to collect $10,000 a month and to lie in the media.You see how much good she did for her tribe. They were never recognized, and may never be unfortunately.
Shame on you Arlinda
