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US Government Revokes Mashpee Tribe's Reservation Status

Cecily Hilleary

   WASHINGTON - Four hundred years ago, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in
   Massachusetts allied with English settlers in Plymouth and helped them
   through their first year in America.

   Friday, the U.S. Interior Department (DOI) informed the Mashpee it will
   disestablish the tribe and remove its 129-hectare Cape Cod reservation
   from federal trust.

   Tribal chairman Cedric Cromwell called the move "cruel" and
   "unnecessary" in a statement on the tribe's website, especially coming
   at a time when the tribe struggles to protect roughly 3,000 members
   from the COVID-19 pandemic.

   "The Secretary (David L. Bernhardt) is under no court order to take our
   land out of trust. He is fully aware that litigation to uphold our
   status as a tribe eligible for the benefits of the Indian
   Reorganization Act is ongoing," Cromwell said. "It begs the question,
   what is driving our federal trustee's crusade against our reservation?"

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