Southcoast did a good job of summarizing our demoralized status so we though we would put it up and save some time reminding everyone of how long they have been dragging us around by our hair.
Mashpee Wampanoag casino: 10 years, $400M and counting
Just over 10 years ago, Middleboro became embroiled in controversy when the Mashpee Wampanoag purchased land with the intention to build an Indian casino. In the decade since the tribe is no closer to having a casino and their leaders have amassed a mountain of debt that will probably never be repaid. This is a story that still has local relevance because the tribe owns land on Precinct Street in Middleboro.
Short history
The Mashpee were granted federal recognition in 2007, a feat that had proved to be elusive until some deep-pocketed investors managed to cook up the right concoction of lobbyists, paid historians and green grease to lube the right hallways in Washington. The tribe’s backers purchased several hundred acres of land located roughly between Precinct Street and Route 44 with the intent of building an Indian casino like Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun.
At this time, casinos were illegal in Massachusetts. Federal law provided a back door for tribes to game on sovereign Indian land, which is largely exempt from state and local law. To build a casino, the tribe would need to get the land designated as trust land by the federal government. In simple language, the tribe needed a federal Indian reservation. There are two ways for that to happen. The hard way is to have Congress do it. The easy way is to have the Secretary of the Interior do it through powers granted by the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934.
So back to Middleboro in 2007. Middleboro voted at town meeting to authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into an inter-governmental agreement with the tribe. It was believed that the tribe would have the Middleboro land taken into trust by the Department of the Interior. The agreement was meant to give the town some measure of protection and money to cover the impact of a large casino in little old Middleboro.
Time passed. By early 2009, the project was going through environment review and generally winding its way through the notoriously complicated and difficult process of becoming trust land. In February of 2009 the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar that effectively ended the chances of the Mashpee Wampanoag getting an Indian casino. The ruling said, in essence, that the Secretary of the Interior could not take land into trust for tribes who were federally recognized after 1934 … like the Mashpee.
Enter Genting, goodbye Middleboro, hello Taunton
By the end of 2009, the tribe had parted company with investors Len Wolman and Sol Kerzner and hooked up with the Genting Group, a Malaysian company with a history of casino investment. The tribe soon abandoned plans for a Middleboro casino. I have heard from good sources that the project required so much money to build that it wasn’t economically viable. There was a lot of wetland on the property and the town’s inter-governmental agreement made the tribe liable for many millions of dollars worth of road upgrades to Route 44 and other infrastructure. The Mashpee flirted with Fall River and other locations before settling on a piece of land near east Taunton’s Silver City Galleria.
Taunton Mayor Hoye signed an agreement with the Mashpee Wampanoag that would pay the city about $8 million per year. To put this deal in the proper perspective, Springfield has an agreement that will pay them $25 million per year for an MGM casino. I’m guessing that Hoye didn’t major in financial negotiations in college.
Trust land … for a brief shining moment
The years ticked by with Genting cash pouring into lawyers and lobbyists trying to find a way around the Carcieri ruling. Recent reports put the Genting investment at an astonishing $274 million. In 2015 — against all odds, and federal law — the east Taunton land was taken into trust by the Secretary of the Interior for the Mashpee. The residents of east Taunton sued and won. Judge William Young ruled that the Department of the Interior could not take the land into trust because the Mashpee were not federally recognized in 1934. Young described the decision as “not even close.” The casino in east Taunton ground to an immediate halt.
The Department of the Interior declined to appeal the decision, which speaks volumes. The only hope left was to find a way to show that the tribe was under federal jurisdiction in 1934. This process of “remand” gave the DOI another chance to explain the justification for taking land into trust.
The Cowlitz game
At this point, Genting and the Mashpee were looking to the Cowlitz tribe. Like the Mashpee, they were federally recognized after 1934. In 2016, a district court ruled that the Cowlitz were under federal jurisdiction in 1934 even though they were not officially recognized until 2000. That opened the door for the Cowlitz to get trust land and provided hope to the Mashpee. There was one big glaring problem for the Mashpee: The Cowlitz were under federal jurisdiction in 1934 and the Mashpee were not. The Mashpee waited on the hope that the Department of the Interior would come up with a magic incantation that provided a rationale for taking land into trust.
Yet another “No”
By late June 2017, the Mashpee got the word that the Secretary of the Interior was going to rule that the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934. The Mashpee then asked the Department of the Interior to suspend its review. This left some ambiguity and where there is doubt there is hope. The new strategy will try to show that being under the jurisdiction of the state of Massachusetts is somehow the same as being under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Spoiler alert: It’s not.
Meanwhile, there are rumblings in financial circles that Genting may lose the $274 million they loaned to the tribe if the casino is not built. Given that the bulk of this money came after the Carcieri ruling, it is hard to understand why Genting would bet so much money on such a long shot. I have to believe they are not stupid despite all evidence to the contrary.
Reelwamps view
Shovel Ready cheesing it up with Taunton Mayor Hoye back when they broke ground. That’s all they did. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. Hoye and crew are freaking out right about now. Ceddie looks so happy here, but he’s freaking too.
The Mashpee story sounds very different depending on who you are talking to. Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell is able to spin every setback into something that sounds positive. Opponents, myself included, will give you a perspective that has a very pessimistic outlook for the prospects of a Mashpee casino. The blog reelwamps.com gives a very interesting perspective. It is written by a member or members of the Mashpee Wampanoag who are very down on current leadership and very clear-eyed about the prospects for trust land and a casino. According to reelwamps, the tribe is “nearly $400M in debt” with nothing to show for it. They have characterized tribal leaders as incompetents who are bilking the tribe for their huge salaries and wasting a pile of money for lawyers and lobbyists who do nothing but run up the tribe’s debt.
Reelwamps describes the current state of affairs this way: “What the BIA is suggesting now is that the court allows them to substitute our state jurisdictional status for the mandated federal jurisdiction, to take our land into trust. Not only is the BIA guy admitting that their original decision to put our land into trust was a scam … but is completely dismissing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling defining the criteria for the agency to take land into the trust of the United States.”
The Mashpee are in a world of hurt brought on by bad leadership squirrels chasing the nut of quick money without any real hope of getting it. Prospects for a casino are dim at best. Their land in Middleboro sits empty and any development there will have to face gigantic environmental hurdles. The saga drags on but seems to be near a tipping point as the tribe’s options decrease and their debt increases. The weight of 10 years of false promises and $400 million weighs heavily on the Mashpee.
The column is pretty accurate, accept it infers that we acquired recognition underhandedly because of our high powered lawyers, lobbyists and backers(pre Cromwell). Well, we had some players on our team and the money to back up the research to prove we were a tribe. We had the same lawyers and experts that the Seminole Tribe of Florida had when they battled successfully against the State of Florida. And by the way, we never hired Jack Abramoff. That said, we still hold title to being ” the most credentialed tribe in the United States.” But we also have the worst of the tribe running it in the ground.
And now, news of Cedric Cromwell “quietly trying to secure a commercial casino license.” Not too damned quiet in the Boston Globe is it? That was never a secret, being the last ditch effort. Okay, next the Genting note comes due at the end of the month…in a few days. Uh oh. So Ceddie changes the subject to a commercial casino. Ludicrous.
Okay, so Genting wants their money, as we disclosed earlier. But we have no way to pay it back because we have no income other than grants (that they will begin pilfering again). Not only are we unable to pay it back, who would buy the $400m debt and loan us another $600 to build it? We lost reputable American bankers two years ago and finance has never been mentioned since. Genting owns the Taunton land, remember? So here we are Ceddie Lou still getting paid with his cousin Jessie Baird who collect a check at any price
All I hear is a sucking sound. How about you?
