The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe have reaffirmed their noble quest for economic independence!
(Steven A. Bingham) said the tribe needs to completely break from its deal with the investors, who, he said, have reason to be working against the casino effort because of their financial ties to potential competition in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
He said he is not aware of any investors who have been courting the tribe, but is not worried about difficulties in finding new backers, particularly because of the tribe’s claims to property in town.
He argued that even though the tribal council agreed not to sue to reclaim private- and town-owned land in Mashpee, in a binding intergovernmental agreement with the town, the deal could be considered to have been struck under circumstances involving fraud and Congress has not yet ratified it. So the tribal council could use the land claims as leverage in negotiations with the state over gaming rights, he said.- From the Mashpee Enterprise, June 19, 2009
Well, there you go.
Because no one knows 'circumstances involving fraud and Congress' like the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Be afraid Mashpee. Be very afraid.
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34 comments:
Maybe the tribe should better acquaint themselves with the law. Having land (not really theirs by the way) is not going to help them with the legal right to game under IGRA.
They can't game under IGRA. They don't meet the requirements of the law. Period.
End of Story.
Wait, just NOW they are figuring out that the casino developers have competing interests in RI and CT?
Somebody in Mashpee should be getting a dope slap.
"....circumstances involving fraud and Congress....."
Is "fraud" synonomous with "Mashpee Wampanoag"?
Read my lips:
"NO NEW INVESTORS"
Maybe he's thinking about the Scooby-Doo ending.
You know, the one where the Tribe threatens Mashpee over the land deal, the town gets scared and calls the Statehouse, the Statehouse can't afford to fight because Tim Cahill lost all the lottery money in a poker game, so they give the Tribe exclusive rights to run a commercial yet-tax-free casino (because they're Indians dammnit!) next door to Water Whizz, whereupon they are flooded with offers from scores of generous and ethical international casino billionaires, as police carry Sol Kerzner off in chains while he shouts, "And I would have got away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
Anon. 11:00,
In my book, yes.
In DC at a conference earlier this year I met a man who helped the Mashpee gain their State recognition. He told me that then, in order to get their Federal recognition, they completely altered their cultural background, at least on paper, in order to conform to the Federally required definition.
Why? Well, for the purpose of getting federal $$ and a casino, of course.
Oh yeah - and they're NOT the tribe that met the Pilgrims.
So many people misunderstand what it means (or rather, what it meant pre-Carcieri) for a tribe to have Federal recognition. It's NOT a badge of honor. It's a fast track to federal dollars and 'gaming'. Think Mohegan Sun. That tribe is so wealthy now that they're trying to put a casino in Palmer. The Pequot (Foxwoods) Tribe is trying to get into Philadelphia.
We were all able to witness how convoluted and unbalanced the land-in-trust process is to the host and surrounding communities. But the Tribe, under both old and new leadership, is untroubled by this process. As long as they end up with a casino.
There's much to be gained by 'bending the truth'.
So tell me, is that 'fraud'.
How funny is it for a Tribe to cry "fraud" when they paid off politicians to gain recognition? Abramoff anyone?
I needed a laugh today, Gladys! Thanks for providing it.
Here's a Tribe that signed an agreement with Mashpee that the town wouldn't oppose recognition if they agreed 1. not to build a casino in Mashpee and 2. not to pursue their land claims.
As soon as the Tribe gained recognition, they announced that they were a "Sovereign Nation,"
'screw you, the deal is off!'
Until someone provided a dope slap and explained they needed Mashpee for the BIA/IGRA application.
The humbled leadership shut up, signed an agreement that Mashpee town meeting ratified.
And now they think they can reneg?
(Someone, please tell Mashpee how 'honorable' these people are when they look for any excuse to reneg on an agreement.)
Since the investors have cut off $$$ to this losing proposition, Cromwell and crew need to take a cut in salaries or take up a collection for some decent legal advice. Or maybe they need to do some research.
Kerzner and Wolman either bought the deal from Strather or maybe funded him from day one.
There was NEVER EVER going to be a casino in Mboro. and it's good that the Tribe finally figured it out. Has anyone in Mboro figured this out yet? It's the wrong location. Too much is needed for infrastructure improvements. The Tribe was NEVER going to get 2 initial reservations -- especially the one in Mboro where they had no ties. The 2 SCOTUS decisions have made any Indian casino impossible. There are numerous other reasons you've listed, Gladys.
The parcels that Steven Graham and Jack Healey decided to add to the phony auction that was advertised only in the local weekly paper was probably the worst location imaginable. (Steven Graham might go to prison since he was the one who provided Glenn Marshall with all of the information about the laws Marshall's going to prison for breaking.)
There will be no Indian Casino in the Commonwealth. None!
The Tribe still has an agreement with Mboro that they'll default at some future date or something else will happen. Maybe Kerzner and Wolman won't pay the taxes and the parcels will be taken back.
This Tribe, led by a Portuguese activist, saw that pot of gold and were blinded. Time to take off those rose colored glasses and try working for a living. You just aint gonna sit home and collect a casino paycheck!
Gladys, this makes a wonderful concluding chapter in your book on the threat of a local casino! For some reason, I expect die hard proponents won't let it go.
In their quest for recognition and illusory casino dollars, they gave up the one thing of value they had - a claim to a bunch of prime cape real estate.
once you start labelling things as "fraud," where do you stop?
The 2 agreements with Mashpee are fraud because Glenn "The Felon" Marshall signed it?
The agreement with the investors was fraud because Glenn "The Felon" Marshall signed it?
The agreement with Middleboro was fraud because Glenn "The Felon" Marshall signed it?
Tribal rcognition was fraud because Glenn "The Felon" Marshall paid off politicians and commited crimes to achieve it?
The Tribe got duped. Middleboro got duped. Face it. Did any body any where do any homework? CFO was posting about the investors. The Cape Cod Times wrote about Glenn Marshall's seedy history. The Boston Globe wrote about the Tribe's connections to Abramoff.
Everybody got what they paid for.
"investors, who, he said, have reason to be working against the casino effort because of their financial ties to potential competition in CT. and RI" FIRST HINT, that was never a secret and a reported fact frequently in the media.
So it really has been no mystery.
Why do you think "they" groomed a felon/criminal to lead them, then, SECOND HINT: "outed" him to start the process of complete disorder of the tribe, to unravel themselves into chaos, making it easy to use them and walk away when your ready. BECAUSE: "they" left before the tribe knew what hit them.
Just part of the game plan. Just part of doing casino business and what is best for "them"
The greed was so big and Marshall helped to push that greed to the tribe and Middleboro. So much so that no one took the time to research the process, or even read their own appliacation, THIRD HINT:(w/all the missing documents, there was definately something wrong/rotten.
Shame on Middleboro Board of Selectman who should have cared enough before making anykind of business deal to take the time to examine all and any documents,application), and some background on who your doing business with. One BOS was a lawyer??????
Where were the ck.'s and balances? Ignorance is not bliss when you represent a town.
So bottom line to this mess, the tribe, Middleboro BOS, all made it possible and easy for the investers to take advantage of them due to GREED. I don't feel sorry for the tribe, for Middleboro,(as you kept voting them back in). GREED! Shame on all of you.
I agree with everything said here.
And count me among the used - I lost time from family and friends, and other things I enjoyed just so a couple of foreign greedmiesters could play us all like a game of checkers.
But I did find a few new passions like blogging and political activism. So... I guess I'll just keep using them to remind people of how casino investors roll.
But naturally, they had help from good old human nature - in the form of greed, incompetence and the desire for an easy way out.
After a certain age, most people should realize - there is no easy way out. It all takes work. Life is not a casino.
And everything worth anything takes effort.
Like our homes and our communities, and our quality of life.
Look at the bailouts we have to pay for other people's greed, incompetence and lack of ethics.
And some people in this State expect it to be different with casino investors?
Oh and Anon. 4:34, wait... doesn't everyone have skeletons in their closet? Hey who said that? Wonder what skeletons lurk there...
OMG! Gladys, of all the quotes in this disgusting, pathetic saga of people who should have known better, that's my favorite.
After the media revealed the sleezy character the BOS got in bed with - Stolen Valor, a rape conviction, a drug conviction, lies about being an undercover cop and many other things he wished he was, to say "Everyone has skeletons in their closet" defines the stupidity of that individual more than thinking he was in the "Big Leagues," his meetings with the IBEW, calling antis braying mules, then denying it, then saying it again, comparing antis to Nazis and so on.
When you look at the pitiful cast of characters impressed with their own importance who were truly too stupid or lazy to figure this out, it deserves to be fully exposed for the sham it is.
If the Tribe has recognized the truth, when will the Middleboro Casino Supporters?
I said it before and I'll say it again. At the time this casino debacle was just getting started Middleboro was a two bit town led by two bit politicians who were blinded by their own self importance. How much time was wasted by the BOS on this pipe dream while real town issues took a back seat?
As far as the tribe renegging on a deal they had with the Town of Mashpee....does that make them indian givers?
If anybody is offended by that comment and thinks it is racist, too bad, I was making a joke and I'm sick of political correctness. We're supposed to have freedom of speech in this country but if anybody gets offended, you're forced to apologize. Its funny how Glenn Marshall was always playing the race card but yet he was willing to do business with a man from a country that only recently abandoned its long history of apartheid.
I'm not sure the Tribe has quite yet recognized the truth...
(from the same article cited in this blog post)
Mr. Cromwell emphasized that even without the reaffirmation, the agreement is still legally intact. A previously scheduled $250,000 annual payment to Middleborough, required by the intergovernmental agreement between the tribe and the southeastern Massachusetts town, is still scheduled to take place, Mr. Cromwell said.
“We are completely committed
to the Town of Middleborough to
do this project,” Mr. Cromwell
said.
Greed springs eternal.
They're "committed" allright but not in the same way you intended!
Hey Smoking Owl,
I've been feeling a little politically incorrect myself these days.
Interesting food fight among the pros about the Tribe asking for money back with Wayne Perkins offering his uninformed opinion. Maybe you could comment on that next.
Smoking Owl, how can anyone trust this Tribe in business dealings?
Tribal Councils and this entire "Sovereign Nation" creation is not democratic. There is no transparency. Do the Tribal members even notice? Yet they want to have rights afforded to all Americans under the law? Is that the greatest insult? They also want the taxpayer handouts that are available and seem only to be paying large salaries to a few governing members and not benefiting the rest of the Tribe.
When Glenn Marshall was asked what the Tribe was doing with the money, he said they were teaching members how to balance their checkbooks.
We comin!, we comin! Not.
"We are completely committed to the town of Middleboro to do this project".........
.......said the tribe who tried to break the last agreement they signed with a town.
If I had to make up a wildly fantastic and entertaining story about stupidity and greed, it wouldn't have been as good as what has transpired here in the last two years.
Smoking Owl and all commenters, you keep saying what is and has been the truth all along.
Smoking Owl, don't worry about being called a racist for that remark because you already are one, why? you have your own oppinion and it doesn't agree w/the pro casino oppinion. when you can't defend your postion w/positive *facts*, pull the race card.
Actually, I think its the pro-casino people who are racist.
Aren't they the ones who support a project that benefits a foreign casino developer over the interets of the tribe?
Ooooh...in that case, not only are they racist, but they are anti-America too!
HA HA! Won't that drive 'em crazy!
If I was a real racist I would expound on the differences between "dot" indians and "feather" indians.
One group is from Asia and are known to be highly intelligent and hard working individuals.
The other group can be found locally and are known for renegging on contracts, fraud, corruption, and failure to pay their taxes.
All I'm waiting for is the day when someone can stand up at town meeting and say...."HA HA TOLD YA SO", to Wayne Perkins, Her Highness Marsha "Gavel Queen" Brunelle, Pat Rogers, Mimi DoNothing, and the rest of the casino lemmings.
Actually Smoking Owl, I've met some very nice American Indians - Blackfeet, Onieda, and Sioux - and they don't have many nice things to say about how tribal governments work.
If you are enrolled in a tribe, you are governed by the tribal council - who may have several members of one family on it etc. - and it is certainly not unknown for these governments to control their tribes by disenfranchising members who criticize them. And, very often, Federal funds/casino revenue/etc. is disproportionately channeled to a few, while others live in poverty. Some have less rights than you or I under their tribal governments. It takes a lot for the activists among these tribes to be heard, as they are often the victims of violence from their own people. This way of life as well as the proliferation of tribal casinos in American culture are the end product of flawed Indian policies going back for centuries.
Not all Indians are the Mashpee, who, I agree, are now more known for "are known for renegging on contracts, fraud, corruption, and failure to pay their taxes" and that BS about meeting the Pilgrims, than about their Indian culture. But even among that Tribe, I have heard that there are some who've opposed a casino all along. I wish the press had worked harder to find them and share their stories, or that they themselves would have come out to the hearings.
Smoking Owl did say that the other group (Indians) could be found locally, which directed his criticism at the Mashpee tribe, and did not encompass Indian nation as a whole.
Gladys, your your explanation of the plight of Indians in our country was an eye opener. I'm glad you had an opportunity to explain it. We don't have any knowledge about the potential problems of living with a sovereign nation. I might point out that the tribes that you are describing are tribes with land in trust. Without land, there is no sovereignty. Middleboro should consider themselves lucky. They will never have to know how badly jurisdiction issues would have effected their community.
And Amen to that, Anon. 3:15!
I don't actually refer to Asian Indians as "dot indians" nor do I actually refer to Native Americans as "feather indians". I was just being controversial.
Gladys you mention how modern tribal councils are often controlled by one family in the tribe. I am not an expert on Native American culture but it is my understanding that although some tribes historically had a somewhat democratic form of governance, there were predominant family lines that traditionally held the most important positions in the tribal hierarchy.
In fact, among the colonial Wampanoags, Massasoit, (not a name but a title, his name was actually Yellow Feather), of the Pokanoket tribe was considered the "Great Leader" and his family and descendants are equivalent to what white men would consider a royal bloodline.
We happen to know a number of native americans around the area who are hard working and cherish their culture, heritage, custom. They are deeply spiritual and we have the utmost respect for them.
The Mashpee seemed to have opened the floodgates for the lazy who want the casino winnings without working for it.
During the onslaught of the TMFH, I called newly registered voters as a reminder to attend.
On that list of "new voters" were several older people who had been residents of the town for many years, were up in years and just registered to vote.
One man angrily blasted me that he wouldn't forget about TMFH because that was the reason he registered to vote. He wanted to get enough money from the casino to get out of the 'hell hole of a town"!
The man didn't have enough respect for the democratic process to participate but give him an opportunity to get something for nuttin' ? He was first in line!
3 of those cheerleaders are still on the BOS. This is something we need to remember next April and the following year.
From what I heard on the news, the new state Ethics Law makes ANY gift illegal for state reps. Do you hear that Minni May and Spartaro? ANY gift! That includes cheap mugs, cheap tshirts, limo rides and meals.
Included in the law is that elected officials are going to have to go for Ethics Training!
That means that Minni May will actually have to attend a seminar and learn something instead of butifyin' da town.
It's about time for these local yokels who defended their cheap mugs. (And for Marsha who refused to comment which tells me she got the cheap mugs and cheap tshirts.)
You know you can always be controversial here, Smoking Owl.
The problem as I see it, with modern tribal governments operating as they do, like a sort of monarchy or dictatorship, etc... is that this form of government has gone the way of the horse and buggy in the rest of the world.
Indians enrolled in recognized tribes, living on reservations, are truly disenfranchised from American democracy. This is why many Indians choose not to enroll yet continue to remain true to their culture.
For example, a certain tribe may have a law that when a woman's husband dies, her land goes to the tribe. In non-Indian America, the land would transfer to her. But if someone tried to take it away - she could fight it in a court of law which was based on the premise that all citizens are created equal. Her gender would not be an issue. And, according to federal law, the children of tribes 'belong to the tribe'. As you can imagine, this creates a lot of serious problems.
But, it's a complex issue I'm only just becoming acquainted with. If anyone is interested I would highly suggest checking out the CERA website (listed on the front page of this blog) and even coming to a CERA conference, which was so eye opening this year. (Not to mention a wicked good time when you go with the crew that I did...)
Much of the world has evolved into democracies of some sort in the centuries since the Pilgrims landed, not a Mashpee Wampanoag in sight. But Federal policy, while often well-intentioned, and often not, has encouraged the traditional sovereignty you described in your comment.
It hasn't kept pace with the rest of the world - and yet - fellow Americans are still subject to this way of life.
The BIA, IGRA and Congress have endorsed totalitarian regimes within the US for the sake of assuaging their guilt for mismanaging funds, selling land, selling resources and much else?
What a unique occurrence!
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