Reel Wamps

Harding

The mystery surrounding the tribal American Express cards evaporated  for a  tribal Elder today  who spent 31/2 hours documenting the personal expenditures by tribal officers  made on the tribal charge cards.  It just became more outrageous the longer you looked.They all have their own tribal AMEX cards that tell different stories of abuse.

Darryl Frye was  in the room guarding whatever and  providing spin control justifying the gross over spending of his  brother- in -law Cedric Cromwell. Darryl, in all his brilliance would make comments like, ” Ya know, Cedric’s gut a lot of meeting’s to go to.”

Oh yah …….like the meeting at the Mohegan Sun where his room was $500 and he leased a limo for $1,500 for a couple of days.  Now anyone who has been to Mohegan Sun knows you  can jog around the place and not break a sweat.  Sooooooo, what do you need a limo for? Jenifer Lopez was there in concert, was he impressing her? Did he take her outside and show her the limo?  Cause you know they had front row seats. Was he shuttling Darryl and the family back and forth to Foxwoods or MGM ? The records  also showed thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on the best hotel suites and the finest restaurants around the country. And all those gas fill ups $87, $95, over and over…that Escalade burns a lotta gas  don’t it? And then he fills  up all the family on the same day….rollin’  ain’t ya  boy? Who says you make $130 k a year.  You still act like a poor man who won the lottery and just can’t help himself.  Of course Cedric said that the tribal members were not sophisticated enough to understand what he was doing, and how he has to represent as the Chairman, with the big tabs $2,500 here and $10,000 there, $10,000,000 here…and who knows how much it is ..who knows?

Enter Paula the Peters…who in true fashion blurts out the question: “What are you looking for?

Elder: ” You know what I’m looking for.”

PTP: “Lemme look at that.”  She snatches the bill and then says,” Hah….these are porn movie charges…whose card is this ?”

Elder: “It’s Mark Hardings’ ”

There’s silence from PTP.  More trouble with the man who would be Paula’s husband. Can you imagine ? The treasurer. Porn movies in black and white charged to the tribal AMEX.   Lots of room service. In addition $200 green fees in Arizona, Detailing of that fancy truck of his,  thousands of  dollars in charges each month for fancy hotels, the Hard Rock, etc., etc., at hundreds of dollars a night. About $9,972.85  a month on average added to his $80k and all the tribal contracts. Just living large they say.

The main question is…How does any of this serve you, the tribal member? What benefits do you receive? Don’t laugh, tribal members get lots of benefits from their officers watching porn!

Why can’t they open the Pantry on a regular basis? Why can’t they shovel out the Elders? Why can’t they give the wood they promised? Why don’t they do anything for us, just the basic things ?

And the irrepressible Tah Tah who takes trips to Hawaii for a conference ? What conference does she need to go to in Hawaii? Right…and spend $700 on the Sheridan  hotel in a few days and then added another room at the Ramada . Guess the whole family went.  Who the hell knows? Pages and pages. Free wheeling and spending.

The worst part is the plane tickets weren’t included…those trips to Pago Pago.  And who goes on the trips?

It just shows you how out of control things are with spending at the Tribal Council.  Get this, Trish authorizes it, at least that’s what she said. Checks and balances.?With the previous administration you could not spend $15 without a receipt.  These people spend your money with no intention of reimbursing you.

The charge cards are symbolic of a huge problem…. If the charge cards are bad, what do you think the big stuff looks like? Right, millions of dollars unaccounted for.

The bank statements are the key. The Elders have been asking for them for years. As usual, they know what to ask for.

There’s more to this story and all the back door deals of  the tribal administrator.  Another Lumbee who knows more than anyone. Retirement is in his future, because he can’t remember anything.  Then he can travel around and remind everyone how big he is in Indian Country. Ya that sounds good.

A lawyer for Genting told a Florida lawmaker recently, that the  controversial  gambling giant had ” nothing to do with the Mashpee.” How interesting.

The Boston Magazine article that talks about how Genting would not waste the ($17 million) investment in Mashpee in a wide open lucrative market like Massachusetts. Really? Another inaccuracy in the article is that the interest rate on that loan is listed on the few documents released as %16.5, not %15.  That means it’s probably higher than that in light of  the hundreds of thousands of dollars supposedly charged for wire transfers that ended 3 months ago. The article did say that Cedric Cromwell would not comment on the  actual amount of the debt. Meaning the debt is  at at least $24 million. The reporter also forgot to mention that this incredible debt, that has produced nothing but embarrassment, was acquired over the course of 2 years.  Two years!

Cedric Cromwell with Fall River Mayor and the whereabouts of $3.4 million deposit on the Fall River boondoggle, is still a mystery.

He also forgot to mention that the Marshall administration ( that included Cedric Tobey  Cromwell who had to be told to get on the tribal rolls ) finalized recognition at a cost of  $15 million over 10 years.  The money was used to hire professionals to get the job done.  That’s how White corporations do it in the USA. After 30 years of rebuke, the Mashpee got wise.  Course we’re not supposed to do that.

Jack Abramoff

Another inaccuracy…the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe never hired Jack Abramoff. He mentioned the tribe in an email.  By then the work was all done by pros hired by the tribe during that 10 years prior to recognition. And if campaign contributions to congressman were illegal, everyone would be in jail.

While the Carcieri Supreme Court decision dealt a decisive blow to the tribe’s ability to complete it’s sovereignty and get land into trust,  Cedric Tobey Cromwell was clueless about the devastating  February 2009 decision and  failed to act  quickly to shore up the tribe’s position. Treasurer Mark Harding, who is amazingly silent these days, and Cedric busied themselves firing the very lawyers who knew what to do.  Then, they never contacted our number one advocate, US Senator Ted Kennedy, who would of cleared the way for us. They had no idea how serious the Supreme Court decision was.  Almost 3 years later, Cromwell is running around Washington making silly speeches, running up the charge card, chatting about the need to correct the law…when the bill has no companion in the ( republican) US House.  That means the Carcieri fix is dead on arrival. Can’t you see Cedric working the bill in the US House? And there’s no way to get land into trust as mandated by the new state law.

Here we are basically destitute, because of a gross malfeasance and misfeasance by the current administration and not a single economic development program in place to put our people to work. We have digressed dramatically,  actually loosing numerous grants put in place by the previous administration, because this administrators can’t refile the damned things or miss deadlines.

The Mashpee Wampanoag is now experiencing a recurring nightmare. Because there’s no way the tribe benefits from a commercial casino, even if it could meet the new laws requirements,  which it cannot. That is mentioned in every newspaper article and television news story.  No land in in trust, no casino license.

The bill is what Reel Wamps said it would be months ago.  A bad deal for the tribal members, because there is no guarantee  that members would share in the profits….because it’s commercial.  And the chairman must promise not to build a casino under the federal protection. No tribe does this, for obvious reasons.  This kind of exploitation is so bad the Congress passed a FEDERAL LAW protecting vulnerable Indian nations from this pattern of abuse that popped up all over the place.

You cannot blame the state for protecting the interests of the Commonwealth, they have waged that war against us for centuries.  But when the tribal leader is a party to the assault…that’s an atrocity we cannot fault the White man or the Black man for.

The deal with the previous South African investors  involving Middleboro, that included a large group of folks brought together  by Herb Strather, was a good deal.  That $15 million spent over that 10 year period paid for lawyers, lobbyists, to get recognition and grants and the environmental clearance necessary to build a resort casino and allow the land in Mashpee and Middleboro to be placed into trust.  Carcieri stopped all that, again, Cedric had no strategy for a ” fix”. They were too busy trying to seek revenge against Marshall. That’s why  we do not have a  ” principle” reservation in Mashpee and have a ” fake ” Tribal Court, and have to go to court in Barnstable or the federal court for any redress.

The deal also called for the tribe to pay for infrastructure in Middleboro, which is standard for any kind of huge project like this.  The entity  bringing hundreds of thousands of people into a community has to pay for the stress it places on roads, law enforcement etc….So that $250 k to Middleboro was a small price to pay for a casino where roughly 75 -80 % of the profits would go to the tribe.    And the investors who would build the resort casino would get only 6% of the profits over 20 years.  The interest on the loans by Strather’s group and the South Africans was %6.   How about the math on that?  That was an interesting piece of information left out of the equation as the article talked about Cedric being saddled with cleaning up the Glenn Marshall ” mess .”

Glenn Marshall left the tribe in good shape. Whatever he did wrong in the eyes of the US Government, he will have paid for .

Cedric however…that’s something else.  The article accurately talked about the bags under Cedric’s eyes and how he can’t sleep more than a few hours a night. No doubt it’s contributing to his other serious health problems.

But with a record like this, who would feel sorry for him?

Mashpee–It’s hard to know where to start.

Okay let’s start with the fact that the Tribal Council has not met in 5 weeks.  You can look at it two ways.  It saved the tribe about $6,000, or it’s $6,000 the Council didn’t have to pay itself  to have closed executive sessions where they do for themselves instead of the members of the tribe.

And guess what? They don’t intend to meet until November 22.  Two months without meetings. A Constitutional violation of high order. They just keep racking up the violations, and believe it or not Cedric has about 2 supporters left.  We’ll tell you about them later.

Okay, how about they don’t want to have meetings because they fired Noni …they don’t want to answer any questions.  How about they don’t answer any questions anyway.

Or how about what does  it matter… when  for a tribe of 1700 legitimate members, the debt is so enormous that $6,000 is miniscule compared to the $25 million of debt to Genting, accrued over the last 2 years by the Cromwell administration. And Genting has walked away. Other than their salaries and about $8,000 a month to Gordon Harris to produce that propaganda rag called the Mittark filled with picture after picture of Cedric on glossy paper  “so Not Mashpee” written by a White PR person.  It is awful. It has nothing in it about our people. Just a whole bunch of made up cultural events that the true Elders know nothing about….because the current administration has to make up events to make them Mashpee.   The Mittark  does not uplift our members.  It is a misleading and disgraceful piece of propaganda designed to prop up and cover up  an administration that that cannot produce one shred of  evidence of progress or expenditure of the millions it has received and spent in our names. How about two months of garbage in the Mittark about the $12 million government building USDA grant , that the previous administration is responsible for.

Also, the very nice White man who is the contractor at the water treatment facility  on Meeting House Road, funded by the US Department of Energy for the tribe,  proudly admits that Mark Harding is the subcontractor on that contract thinking that’s a good thing.  Never mind that people are going to jail all over the country, because you cannot sit on a governing body and take federal revenues that benefit you, your family or your  company. Sigh…

How about the Council  should mandate that all workers are Native on the contract.  Novel idea eh?  Now it would have been automatic with the previous administration.

But then again, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is the employment agency for Wampworx don’t you know. Not  that the many men and women who need work and are fully qualified to work on projects for the tribe are actually encouraged to participate.  It is a disgrace.

Okay, what’s new you say. What is the state or the Federal government doing? Well, somethings going on because the money has dried up.  Genting is sending nothing to Mashpee and spending millions in New York and Florida.

Meanwhile people who have been hired are being fired because there is no cash flow.  Wow, what a surprise. So Winnie is out and so is Gail ( Hendricks) Hill is out . You best believe the kids are happy Gail Hill is gonezo.

Joanne Frye is supposedly being fired after years of   covering up the Cromwell (Tobey) nightmare and actually bringing them to power with the help of her sisters Ca and Yvonne. Joanne does have a conscience because her last stand was against the non-Mashpee in charge of programs impacting tribal members very intimately, and the non-Mashpee tribal  Tribal Administrator who is going along with the non-tribal member who is unable to serve the tribe or its children. Too  much talking, on sensitive information leaking out concerning tribal families.  There are no secrets in Mashpee. None. And lawsuits are eminent.

Mashpee know each other and handle things their way.

What the hell is Cedric doing in Mississippi with the Choctaw?  Begging for money? Who would loan us money to pay off 85 million that the Cromwell administration has racked up….especially when we have no way to pay it back.  No casino, no businesses. Outsiders run their mouths and cause problems. Joanne couldn’t take it.  Now that Noni’s gone.  She’s the last one left. Who would think it would have come to this.  Well it’s here.

Not a single officer is in the office to talk with tribal members. Course they don’t work, ever.  They’re trolling across the country spending what’s left of the Genting money, looking for revenues to keep the pay checks coming without LIT.

And we’re still waiting for Laura Tobey’s investigative report. Stop laughing.

Minnie Ah Hah will finish this investigation.

Who’s “Mashpee” and who’s not. has become very clear lately because the  ones  who ain’t keep saying they are.  That’s not done. At the Sunday meeting Cedric (Tobey) Cromwell said ” I’m as much Mashpee as anyone.”  Right …growing up in Dorchester, and getting on the rolls in 2006.  Plus you lied on your campaign material saying you ” grew up in the tribal community.” Then he had his mother say she lived in Mashpee with her grandmother until she was a grown woman.  Strangely enough,  no one in Connie’s age group remembers her being in school with them in Mashpee or playing together whipping through  Edmonds Dream.   That’s because  she was adopted out when she was 5 and  never came back. Another point.  No ” Mashpee” would  even try to make their elder parent get on the stage and lie.

Of course if you’re not Mashpee then, you do all kinds of strange things. Strange things like allowing the Vice Chair, Aaron Tobey, who’s disappeared,  to set up phoney Elders Council ( with a Tobey majority) to usurp the real Elders made  up of  people 55 or a little older….wearing bomber jackets, to identify themselves.. No real “Mashpee” came to the phoney Elder Council meetings. So now they have three members who sit in back of the real Elders meeting silent. Claiming to learn.  Too late. No one respects them no matter how much food they truck into the meetings.  Maybe they can get their cousins to return the Elders van or the $10,000 that disappeared.

Maybe they can get the bank statements that the Elders have been asking for and the audio tapes they have asked for  for years.  The Elders became the voice of the tribe when no one would stand up.  Certain people just kept ordering people around but would not fight for the tribe. And the Tobey’s were allowed to kept over reaching in a world they have never had any respect for nor did they ever play a role….until now.

And the  Mashpee agree that they have all but destroyed the tribe….on every level.  Only two departments run correctly…Indian Health Services and Game and Fish.

Then Noni went off late last week.

It was a meltdown in the Council offices of grand proportions, but it had been brewing  for months.  One of the last 2 full time “Mashpee” left in the office, Noni brought reality to  Shelly Tobey.  As she told the co worker off she screamed”you’re not Mashpee”  and she went  further about Shelly’s lineage…that she has no Indian blood. Course it got pretty bad with all the truth spewing everywhere…And Noni proceeded to tell all about who was” Mashpee” and who was not in that office. It took a minute.  She was only saying what “Mashpee” has been saying.

There are no secrets among the Mashpee…that is of course if you are Mashpee. If you’re not.. you’re the last to know.  They know everything about you, your parents and grandparents. If they get tired of your foolishness they have a knack for bringing you back to the flume.

So Noni was fired, and the temp running the housing office ( another Lumbee they say…) he resigned Friday. He knows when it’s time to go. Reportedly both the Lumbee and the so called Tribal Administrator a guy making long cash named Leon, hit the door ahead of the women.

Once again…every Mashpee knows what to do to prevent this kind of thing…what family member or elder to call.  But there was not a Mashpee there to help.

Herrin’: “The Sunday meeting was pretty stinky.”

Roe: “That’s what I heard. Paula Peters sat in the nose bleed section of the auditorium.

Herrin’: “Tryin’ to hide.

Roe: ” She can’t hide, neither can Mark Harding. Even though he talked more nonsense to tribal members.”

Herrin’: ” Well the few members that showed up got ’em told.  They  said Cedric and crew are not Mashpee, and that’s the problem.”

Roe: ” They also said if it weren’t for Reel Wamps they wouldn’t know what was going on with the tribal government.”

Herrin’: ” That’s pretty sad.”

Roe: ” We have gone backwards.”

Herrin’: ” We’re underground ”

Roe: “Buried alive.”

Herrin’: