It is another interesting strategy that no one seems to understand because clearly the State of Massachusetts and its leaders would have no interest in wasting a commercial gaming license in Raynham. So why would the Mashpee Wampanoag even pretend to have an interest in a run down swamp bordered facility that is unworthy of any consideration? Raynham is no where near the Resort Casino that the State wants or that we originally intended to build. Once again, the Tribe is the laughing stock.
In case you missed it, here is the announcement from the Mittark about Sunday’s meeting. Please note that the vote is scheduled “IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO” the regular meeting, so be there well before the time, NOT WAMP TIME! And be sure to vote “NO!” Don’t give the Council the power to sell off our land!
“On Sunday, May 15, 2011
immediately prior to the
regularly scheduled Tribal
meeting, a meeting of the
Mashpee Wampanoag Indian
Tribal Council, Inc. (MWITC)
will be held. At this meeting
members of the MWITC (which
are all Tribal members) will be
informed of certain proposed
changes to the MWITC Bylaws.
These proposed changes will then
be voted upon at a June meeting.
For more information on the
proposed changes to the Bylaws
please visit the Tribe’s website at
www.mashpeewampanoagtribe.”
If you went to the website to see what this is all about, you would see nothing. Why do we have to wait until the meeting to learn what they want to do?
Tell them NO! NO! NO!
News has reached us that the Tribal Council has failed to make payments on the horse farm, and are in default, however, we are trying to determine the present status and will report as soon as we do. It seems odd that they would move Quan Tobey and Chuckie Green’s offices there if they didn’t plan to make the payments.
If you recall, the horse farm was the subject of much brouhaha during the previous administrations, yet those same voices have been strangely silent since the ascent of the Cromwell regime. Hard questions have to be asked about the administration of this asset, especially of Mark Harding.
Buried on the lower right corner of the Mittark newsletter is a meeting announcement concerning a special Council meeting to be held “immediately before” the regular Sunday meeting. The announcement does not give a definite time, nor does it give any hint at the subject of the “proposed changes” to Tribal by-laws. Instead, the announcement directs the reader to the Tribe’s website, which has no information. (Who is getting paid to maintain this monstrosity?)
Word down at the herrin’ run is that they want the Tribe to authorize them to run the housing project on Meetinghouse road in secret, like Project First Light. You know, they don’t want you folks worrying your pretty little heads over little details like awarding contracts and finances and such—trust them. Now, I ain’t one to gossip, so you ain’t heard this from me!
Today is Mother’s Day, and as usual, some Tribe members put flowers on the graves of their mothers and grandmothers. I stopped at Curtis Hendricks’ establishment at Great Neck Road and Meetinghouse Road to pick up some flowers and proceeded to The Old Indian Cemetery. What assaulted my eyes there was crying shame. One would think that the cemetery would have been prepared for Mother’s Day. Instead, it looked like somebody overdue for a trip to the barber and a shave. Another family was there for the same purpose, and one was vigorously raking the thatch from the top of his brothers grave.
Weed wacker anyone?
I have always loved our cemetery. I have good memories as a young child walking between the rows of stones and wondering who some of the unfamiliar names were. I can honestly tell you that I never felt afraid or uncomfortable among so many dead people simply because it was always such a sunny and cheerful place, and it was kept so by the men who maintained it.
When I became an adult, and went to bury friends and family members, the cemetery held the same fascination for me, as I reacquainted myself with those who had passed over the years. Seeing the names, and the times that the deceased had lived in, gave me a perspective on life and my place in it. Now it provokes thoughts of my inevitable journey down that road myself, a decade or three hence. What will you see when you come to visit me? Will you also feel comfortable, or will you sense death through the gnarled and wizened appearance of the grounds?
Our people did the best they could with the resources they had. Ollie Pocknett did a great job with his limited budget, and more recently, Leigh Potter ran a tight ship. You would not find such a disgraceful situation on Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, or any other day for that matter. Well, at least not until Leigh was fired, at the behest of Carol Lopez. Such actions have been typical of the present regime, who present a schizophrenic mix of autocracy and week-kneed pandering to certain persons. But no surprise, Carol “plastic flowers” Lopez was Aaron Tobey’s campaign manager, wasn’t she?
Not what I want to see
And another thing: would it be so hard to put up a discretely located concrete block building with steel doors to replace that ugly container thing? And how much would a few sections of stockade fence cost? wouldn’t it be nice if your view of your loved one’s resting place looked more like a park than a dump? Machines, tools, and materials are central to the operation of a cemetery, but be discrete. A dumpster? Oh come on! And that trailer, don’t think there is nobody thinking about backing their trailer hitch up to it.
Our cemetery should be a showplace. It should be a park-like place that strangers would want to stop at and walk around. Let’s get on the ball!
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
–Abraham Lincoln
Paula Peters is a perfect illustration of this old maxim from Abe Lincoln. In the Cape Cod Times article about Saturday’s meeting of Tribe members at the Collins Lot park, Ms. Peters reminded us of just how dedicated she is to the Holy War that she waged against the former Tribal Council members. Like a gopher in the Whack-a-Mole game, she repeatedly pops her head up, only to be whacked down again in this blog.
You see, Paula is not a fan of free speech, especially when that speech gets a little too close to her “husband,” Tribal treasurer Mark Harding. Though I don’t think that his name was actually uttered at the meeting, when the subject got around to the millions being borrowed and spent by the present administration, everyone knew who we were talking about. Of course, the subject of finances was not the only point of discussion. I would like to give a summary from my perspective:
Why do I pick on poor Paula? Well, just ask her—ask her about her illicit affair with Glenn Marshall, and how she turned into She Devil when he would not leave his wife. Ask her how she used her connections with the Cape Cod Times as a platform to further her assaults on her enemies. Ask her about how she bragged about putting Cromwell & Co. into office in 2009. Ask her how Wampworx has profited from her “husband” being a council member and Treasurer.
I had planned to discuss Cedric Cromwell’s “prepared statement,” but I now think that it deserves its own post.
I do want to thank Paula for providing this old son-of -a-gun with some big bore ammo.
WHACK!
The Tribe’s ugly and poorly maintained website has nothing; nobody on facebook has posted anything. So when was the Tribal Council going to notify the Tribe at large about the event taking place Saturday at the Meetinghouse? I had to learn about it from the “grapevine.” They are going to choose a chief, so they tell me. Isn’t this a solemn proceeding that involves all Tribe members, not just the “chosen” supporters and dupes of Cromwell & Co.?
In choosing the traditional offices such as chief or medicine man, the Tribal Council has no more input than ordinary members. It is not too difficult to understand their program: put in a bobble-head robot who will agree with all of Cromwell’s dictates as a voting member of the Council. They demonstrated this with their inexcusable abuse of Chief Lopez. Now they are beginning to panic. Their power is beginning to erode now that the hopes of a casino become as remote as a reservation at the Shangri-La Hilton.
I know it is short notice, but please, please show up at the Meetinghouse at 10:30 Saturday Morning and ask the hard questions. Let us together rescue our tribe from these usurpers.
This makes the 3rd time the Council has failed to meet. Last week it was due to a lack of a quorum…the week before who knows.Tonight they were supposed to discuss funding for the Juvenile Justice program by phone. They can’t explain what they did with the $280 k brought to the tribe for the program by the ” Previous Administration.” It ain’t no way to run a government is it?
More troubling is the fact that recently hired Comptroller Milton Pratt is reportedly leaving. When asked by a Council member if he was quitting he said, ” No comment.” You know what that means.
Another interesting indicator. The Malaysians have reduced the installments to $2.5m every 3 – 4 months and they want the Tribe to have a meeting with the Governor to clarify where he’s going with commercial gaming. So why would the Governor meet with the tribe and why would he tell them what his plans are? It’s a bad place to be. No Elected official shows his hand in such a contentious issue. Again we look like fools.
Let’s review where we are:
ICWA is in shambles
Housing Program also in shambles is under direction of a HUD expert
No Reservation
No Land in Trust
Middleboro Resort Casino (90% complete) ditched for Fall River
Fall River Folly Commercial Casino publicly abandoned by the Mayor
First Light Inc. financial statements binding Tribal Members to Malaysian debt remain secret
$25m in Malaysian loans secured in 17 months in the name of the 1700 legitimate Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal members has only the salaries of certain Council members and officers to show for expenditures.
No one has seen any records of any expenditures.
No one knows anything accept that we are worse off than we were when the “Commission” was in charge of us. Course only real Mashpee knows about that because it happened in the 1870’s when we became a town. Just so you know, the Mills’s and Peters’s weren’t running things then. And you better believe they wouldn’t have us in this mess if they were in charge now, and that’s a fact.
The Cromwell Administration has now waged an assault on Marie Stone. They have been harassing her off and on for a while…they have poked and prodded her psyche, that quite frankly has been pretty fragile, for quite a while.
Shes been crying because they have been questioning her constantly, asking her who she’s been talking to and so forth. So what’s that all about? Cause it’s not a tribal thing, and Marie is afraid.
Monday April 18 is a bad day, because Marie is being hauled before Aaron the Tobey, to be interrogated further about who she’s been talking to, and probably ordered not to talk to anyone anymore. About what Aaron? About what ?
Cedric called Marie a “Whistleblower.”
So, whatever she knows is of interest to people with real authority to do more than harass people into submission for which the Tobes are so famous.
Marie wants Joan Avant to accompany her, obviously to have a witness…….if that’s true, that’s a sorry commentary to what’s going on in those Council offices…very sad.
Chief Vernon Lopez resigned April 2008
Every Mashpee Wampanoag who was able should have attended the coin dedication (3/25/11) by the US Treasury. That was the crowning moment for our tribe. For that moment, all the hurt and the pain of the past 2 years were washed away. For that moment we could have been proud and stood tall and remembered how we made so much progress and were about to live out our destiny.
Well, you really had to close you eyes and pretend …here’s why.
All three of the officers representing us at the event are foreigners to our traditions, and essentially know nothing about Mashpee families. That’s why they continue to destroy our identity adding insult to the injury they inflict. In addition to there not being able to represent us at all. Here’s why.
Cedric (Tobey)Cromwell--Grew up in Boston/Dorcester and spend his adult years there. He had nothing to do with Mashpee until very late in life. His mother Connie left Mashpee when she was 5 returning to visit much later in life. Course Cedric LIES about ” being raised in the tribal community”….ha in where? Dorchester? He never came near Mashpee. Cedric thinks wearing lots of wampum makes him original and authentic to the White people. It actually makes him look like a cross-dresser trying to be accepted. He has never been accepted. $ 130-150k annually to do nothng( no one really knows but the Malyasians )
Aaron Tobey–Never came over the bridge to Mashpee, which has to be seen as a blessing now, in hind sight. He ran 5 times before he was finally elected, the last time was an illegal election. Aaron is a guy who has to be in charge. Aaron you will recall thought that our land went into to trust automatically when we were federally recognized. So, yes he didn’t know that our sovereignty was as incomplete then as it is now. Aaron is the only man who would abandon a beautiful wife, of consequence and his children, for a straight up…..well, you know….and the new companion was his cousin’s wife…Aarons trying to be an Indian now with his slicked back hair and his Lumbee Lie girl friend who has no where to go. $95k to do nothing.
Mark Harding– was very busy being White, also on the other side of the bridge…and …well, until he decided it was time to be Indian. A dollar a dollar a dollar, his heritage for a dollar. Mark Harding despised by everyone….and loved by a secret few….Markie Poo. Everyone knows his story. At least $70k that we know of, discounting contracts under investigation)
Marie “Tah Tah“–She’s the only one that’s Mashpee. She’s the only one who could have actually helped her own. But she just couldn’t handle it. They treat her badly, manipulating her. Calling her a ” Whistleblower” when theywant to because she knows of the check rec’s. And her issues get in the way, complicated by tragedy. Marie actually knows better. She just can’t help herself…or her people. Now she will tell you in firery terms that ” She is a Mashpee Woman God Damnit!” But …well you know.
At the ceremony , Cedric purposely refused to recognize Earl Mills. Earl is not only a Chief, but he is a living breathing testament to every traditonal part of our being. “Flying Eagle” is Mashpee. So it confirms a lot of things doesn’t it?
The Elder abuse is connected to the current Council dragging “Bunny” around when it suits them. “Bunny” has been a pawn of this Council for all of their illegal actions, currently under investigation. Bunny is clearly aged. He is dragged into Council meeting to vote when Earl Mills was in fact designated Chief in 2008 when Bunny resigned. But Cedric knew he could not manipulate Earl Mills.
No one tells Earl what to do. Everyone know that. But let’s be honest. Earl is Mashpee. Cedric, Aaron, and Mark Harding are carpetbaggers who back in the day whould have gotten their asses kicked and sent down the road. Who knows, it could still happen…that’s why Cedric is always running around with the “One armed …”
But the coin event was unseemly and embarassing. Bunny did not seem to know what was going on. But if you don’t know us, if you are not Mashpee, why would you care?
Round up your .50 Indians Cedric Bro… and call it a day.
