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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2006)
News from Indian Country Page 9 Spilyay Tymoo ApHl 13, 2006 Tribe given preliminary recognition W ASHINGTON (AP) - The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, whose an cestors greeted the Pilgrims at the At lantic shore, was given preliminar}7 ap proval last week of the federal recog nition it had been seeking for three de cades. “It’s a tremendous day for the Mashpee,” Glenn Marshall, chairman of the tribe’s council, said. “It’s the most compelling story anybody has heard ... The culture is alive in our young kids and our elders.” The Massachusetts tribe is expected to receive a final determination by March 31, 2007. Such a designation would make it the 564th recognized tribe in the nation, the tribe said. The ruling caps a sometimes bitter struggle for the 1,468-member Cape Cod tribe that stretches back to 1975. Pete Fermino, a tribal elder, said he felt “real joy, and yet sorrow,” since the news came too late for many. “The meaning is for so many who have passed,” he said in Mashpee, Mass. In hopes of speeding up its quest for federal recognition, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe sued the U.S. Depart ment of Interior in 2001. The govern ment agreed to give its preliminary rul ing by the end of March 2006. The tribe met all seven of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Federal Acknowledgment’s criteria for recognition, including proving it has maintained a political and cultural iden tity throughout its history. “The evidence demonstrates that the current group and its ancestors main tained a community distinct from that of other populations near the town of Mashpee, Mass., since the 1600s,” the government’s statement announcing the ruling said. A 210-day public comment period will begin once the government’s pre liminary ruling is printed in the Federal Register next week, according to Scott Ferson, a tribal spokesman. The gov ernment would have to discover ma jor problems in the tribe’s petition to overturn its preliminary decision, he said. Considerable power comes with fed eral recognition, which would make the tribe a sovereign entity within a town that would share its name but have little authority over it. The Wampanoag have acknowledged an interest in casino gambling and ac quiring undeveloped land, a reminder of their failed and divisive 1970s land claim that had residents worried the tribe would seize private homes. But tribal leaders speak of federal recognition primarily as a way to gain needed government health, education and housing benefits and preserve their distinct place in history. A separate group, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head-Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard, has been the only federally recognized Massachusetts tribe. The town of Mashpee’s name is derived from an aboriginal word mean ing “Land of the Great Cove.” The Wampanoag once claimed all its 27 square miles of woodland and freshwater ponds, and those who remain still hunt and fish on its undeveloped areas. The Mashpee tribe’s early history, during which it was part of the broader Wampanoag Nation, included conflict with the encroaching colonists, such as the bloody war led by Wampanoag warrior King Philip after the English murdered his brother. But there was also an openness toward the setders. The year after the Pilgrims landed, in 1620, King Philip’s father Massasoit struck a treaty with the Plymouth colo nists and the tribe hosted the first Thanksgiving. The Wampanoag adopted the En glish style of dress, and in the 1660s the first Wampanoag Christian Bible was printed. In 1683, the tribe built the Old Indian Meeting House in Mashpee, the oldest Indian church in the coun try. By the mid 18th century, the En glish and Wampanoag were joindy run ning Mashpee, and non-Indians couldn’t buy land without the tribe’s consent. The land sale restriction was re moved by the 1870s, when Mashpee became a town. But Mashpee’s popu lation was primarily Wampanoag until the 1960s and the tribe was in firm political control of town boards. Since then, however, residential de velopment has transformed the town and pushed the Wampanoag to the political margins. The land suit the Mashpee Wampanoag filed in 1976 opened a rift that hasn’t fully healed. The suit targeted hundreds of local land owners, claiming that land in Mashpee and three neighboring towns was illegally taken from the tribe. Dave McMechan/Spilyay Sequoia Poafpybitty digs roots during the recent outing with the Oregon State University 4-H program. Florida officials agree to buy and preserve site of Indian battle TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - State officials announced plans to spend $3.2 million to buy and pre serve the battlefield where Semi nole and Miccosukee Indians and escaped slaves fought hand-to- hand with the U.S. Army in 1837. The 145 acres where the Battle of Lake Okeechobee took place on Christmas Day will be turned into a state park, with living his tory events, such as re-enactments of the battle. Preservationists have been afraid rapid growth in the city of Okeechobee would turn the site into a subdivision or shopping area. It is wedged between a commer cial area and a 300-home develop ment. Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida t MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe has revised a lawsuit against the state that sought sovereignty over about 200 square miles of central Michigan’s Isabella County, based on treaties from 1855 and 1864. The tribe had asked a federal judge to declare that all or part of seven Isabella County townships are Indian country as defined by federal law. The attorney general’s office had said that if the tribe’s suit was success ful, thousands of Michigan residents would find themselves living in a sovereign Indian nation. But in a new filing in U.S. District Court in Bay City, the tribe now asks for an injunction to prevent the governor, attorney general and state trea surer from exerting criminal or civil jurisdiction over the tribe or its mem bers “in a manner not allowed in Indian country.” In the state’s answer to the revised suit, Assistant Attorney General Todd B. Adams dropped his claim that the tribe is trying to exert authority over people who aren’t tribal members but live in, work in or travel through the territory claimed by the tribe. The tribe filed its amended complaint March 21, and the state filed its answer three days later. The original suit filed in November claimed that treaties with the U.S. government gave the tribe sovereignty over the part of Isabella County that made up the “historic Isabella Reservation,” which it said includes Deerfield, Denver, Isabella, Nottawa and Wise townships, as well as half of Chippewa and Union townships. Indian policy conference set VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) - A con ference on national Indian policy has been scheduled for the University of South Dakota campus April 18-21. National American Indian leaders and scholars plan to present papers and participate in panel presentations. The symposium’s title is “From Termination to Sovereignty: A 50- Year Retrospective Symposium on National Indian Policy.” “It is hard to appreciate what In- dian Country has struggled through to get to the present stage where tribes are confident of their sover eignty, have developed a solid corps of Indian legal resources, and have gained in political sophistication to defend their governmental rights and trust protection guaranteed them by treaties,” said Mark Daniels, director of USD’s Department of American Indian Studies. Proposed settlem ent reached on Taos Pueblo w ater rights Regulators okay casino management NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The National Indian Gaming Commission has approved an agreement between Lakes Entertain ment Inc. and the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians for Lakes Enter tainment to develop and manage the tribe’s Four Winds Casino Resort project. The Minneapolis-based company, which has development and manage ment agreements with five American Indian tribes in Michigan, California and Oklahoma involving eight separate casino sites, made the announcement Monday. The Pokagon Band earlier said it expected construction on the $160 mil lion resort to begin in June and take 14 months to complete. The casino and hotel will stand on a 675-acre site in Berrien County’s New Buffalo Township, in far south western Michigan near the Indiana border. The commission is the U.S. regula tory agency that oversees Indian gam ing. Tribe amends lawsuit seeking sovereignty in Isabella County Cabinet unanimously approved the pur chase of the site from the Rowland Foundation, created to benefit orphan ages and religious organizations. W.S. Steele, historic preservation officer for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has a reservation nearby, said he has been fighting to protect the site for 21 years. “It was the terminating and decisive battle of a 200-year conflict that be gan in the 1680s and did not really end until 1858,” Steele told the Cabinet. “The significance of this battlefield cannot be overstated.” The battle was part of a government effort to remove Indians from Florida, which was then just a U.S. territory. About 1,100 soldiers and militia troops led by Col. Zachary Taylor fought with around 400 Indians and escaped slaves. The Army suffered heavier ca sualties, 26 dead and 112 wounded versus 11 dead and 14 wounded on the Indian side, according to histo rians. But the battle was declared a victory in Washington because the Indians were driven from the battle field. Taylor won a promotion and fame that helped catapult him to the presidency in 1848. The Seminóles and their allies, however, avoided capture and re moval from Florida, found sanctu ary in the Everglades and never surrendered. The National Trust for Historic Preservation joined the effort in 2000 by listing the battlefield as one of the country’s 11 most endan gered historic sites. SANTA FE (AP) - A proposed settlement has been reached in a Taos Pueblo water rights dispute, but none of the parties has yet signed the agree ment, the state engineer’s office an nounced. The proposal represents a step to ward ending a long-standing dispute be tween the pueblo and non-Indian irri gators in the Taos Valley, according to a news release issued Monday from the office. Once local parties review and ap prove the draft settlement agreement, they will seek to resolve related federal interests. Ultimately, congressional leg islation will be sought to approve and fund a final agreement. Negotiations started in 1989 to settle the pueblo’s claims to the Rio Hondo and Rio Pueblo de Taos. The parties have worked with a mediator since Au gust 2003. “This proposed settlement is in the best interest of water rights owners in the Taos area,” state Engi neer John D’Antonio said. Taos Pueblo Gov. James Lujan Sr. called it a fair settlement. When completed, it will resolve the pueblo’s claims and set rules on ground- water throughout Taos Valley “without injuring surface water supplies or over burdening the aquifer,” Lujan said. The agreement was developed in negotiations involving the pueblo, the state, the town of Taos, the Taos Val ley Acequias Association, El Prado Water and Sanitation District and 12 Taos-area domestic water users asso ciations, the state engineer’s office said. The parties represent most of the wa ter users in the Taos Valley. Public meetings are set April 12 and April 19 in Taos to discuss the agree ment, which runs 88 pages, plus 22 pages for signatures. In general, the proposal would let the pueblo irrigate about 5,713 acres shown on a July 1997 Taos Pueblo water use survey, maintain impound ments and stock poncls for livestock and use 300 acre-feet of water per year for municipal, domestic and industrial uses. It also protects a natural wetland northwest of the pueblo’s traditional village. It also establishes amounts of wa ter for mutual benefit projects for vari ous parties, gives the town of Taos the right to its existing groundwater and sur face water diversions and sets rules for it to apply for future wells, limits the El Prado district’s diversions from the wetlands and gives the Taos-area wa ter associations the right to operate their existing groundwater diversions. Narragansett Indians oust Champlain family from tribe SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) - The Narragansett Indian tribe has ousted the family of a former tribal council member for failing to produce documents that prove their ancestry. Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas told the Providence Journal that the Champlain family did not meet their 120-day deadline for producing the records. The Champlains were told in early December that certain documents — their birth, death and marriage certificates linking them to the 1880 tribal roll — were missing. The family asserts their tribal ties became an issue just weeks after one of their members, Yvette Champlain, raised questions about how the tribe had spent $1 million it obtained from Harrah’s Entertainment. Harrah’s wants to build a casino in West Warwick with the Narragansetts. Yvette Champlain was on the tribal council at that time. “For the best interest of the people, I questioned, I asked for accountability,” she said. “If the Narragansett tribal members do not stand up, are they going to let this happen?” Thomas said the timing of Yvette’s inquiry and her family’s membership review is coincidental. The Champlains have used land deeds, wills and names in the Bible to justify their ancestry. Yvette and others have argued that using birth, death and marriage certificates to tie their lineage to the 1880 roll is almost impossible because Indian mothers often did not give birth in hospitals or keep typical records. They doubt that other tribe members, including Thomas, can produce such records. Thomas said all members had the required certificates. V V *