Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

What happened

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's website says the tribe, also known as the People of the First Light, has inhabited present-day Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island for more than 12,000 years. It says the tribe was re-acknowledged as a federally recognized tribe in 2007 after a process lasting more than three decades, and that in 2015 the federal government declared 150 acres in Mashpee and 170 acres in Taunton as its initial reservation. It lists about 3,200 enrolled citizens.

The reservation's status was contested. In a December 22, 2021 statement, Chairman Brian Weeden said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland had issued a decision confirming the reservation, and that the land had remained in federally protected trust status since it was first placed in trust on November 10, 2015. Weeden said the decision "allows us to reclaim and protect our cherished Land."

Courthouse News reported on October 31, 2023 that a First Circuit panel upheld a federal judge's ruling that the government could take more than 300 acres into trust for the tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, rejecting a challenge by East Taunton residents. The panel reasoned somewhat differently from the lower court.

Good to know. A tribal government, not a place to donate. Sources give the reservation as 150 plus 170 acres (the tribe) or 321 acres (news report).

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error