It’s absolutely crazy. In the LIT decision, the BIA…Kevin Washburn said that we were under the feds prior to 1933. He talks about the plantations and living on our homeland etc. but there is no new confirmation of federal governance of the Mashpee at any time in our history.
As we have said over and over and over, we were on plantations under the British, and the Commonwealth but never under the federal government. If we were under federal jurisdiction, why didn’t we get roll numbers in 1911 like all the other tribes Arlinda? We got nothing, that’s the point. We have no connection.
But we made the fatal mistake of becoming a township in 1870 and the encroachment on our land began…but we were officially a town in Massachusetts, baring our name. Look closely at the seal.
From a state plantation to a state town in 1870, the federal connection remains elusive, and the BIA knew it.
This is the reason Arlinda said the decision “was not bullet proof.” Reel Wamps will post the actual detail on the Washburn explanation.
