Standing in solidarity with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2020 ------ The Wilderness Society applauds the recent decision by a federal judge to overturn the Trump administration’s illegal and unjust effort to disestablish the Mashpee Wampanoag’s reservations.
On Friday June 5, after years of debate, the DC District Courts “righted what would have been a terrible and historic injustice” by stating that a 2018 Trump administration declaration disqualifying Mashpee tribal lands as “Indian”, was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law”.
After this decision, Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell stated, “While we are pleased with the court’s findings, our work is not done. The Department of Interior must now draft a positive decision for our land as instructed by Judge Friedman. We will continue to work with the Department of Interior—and fight them if necessary—to ensure our land remains in trust.”
H.R. 312, The Mashpee Reservation Reaffirmation Act, is a bipartisan bill in Congress that reaffirms the status of Mashpee's reservation. With widespread support across Indian country and up and down the East Coast, the bill’s passage would prevent Interior from disestablishing the Tribe’s reservation.
Statement by Alexa Sutton Lawrence, Southeast Regional Program Director, The Wilderness Society
“These reservation lands are but a tiny fraction of the original homelands of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, who have lived in this place since time immemorial. It is unconscionable that the Trump administration seeks to disestablish the Mashpee Wampanoag’s trust lands, and we stand with the tribe in their efforts to secure their home and their heritage.
The malicious efforts of the Trump Administration to deprive the Tribe of their traditional homelands sets a dangerous precedent for the treatment of other Indigenous communities. It also poses a clear danger to the health of the global environment: although Indigenous peoples make up less than 5% of the world’s population, these communities manage more than 11% of forest cover and protect nearly 80% of global biodiversity. Protecting wilderness means protecting Indigenous sovereignty, and threats to Indigenous sovereignty are also direct dangers to the world that sustains us all. There is no future for any of us without the continued survival and prosperity of communities like the Mashpee Wampanoag.”
Background from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s website:
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has lived in present-day Massachusetts and into Eastern Rhode Island for more than 12,000 years. Known as the People of the First Light, and consisting of approximately 2,600 enrolled citizens, the Mashpee are one of three surviving tribes of the original 69 in the Wampanoag Nation.
After an arduous process lasting more than three decades, the Mashpee Wampanoag were re-acknowledged as a federally recognized tribe in 2007. In 2015, the federal government declared 150 acres of land in Mashpee and 170 acres of land in Taunton as the Tribe’s initial reservation, on which the Tribe can exercise its full tribal sovereignty rights.
On September 7, 2018, the Department of the Interior issued its first Carcieri decision in which it refused to reaffirm its own authority to confirm the status of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation. The decision opened the door for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation to be taken out of trust and disestablished, an action which followed on the heels of the federal government’s refusal to continue to defend the status of the Tribe’s reservation in court. The Department rejected the clear evidence of federal jurisdiction provided in multiple federal reports (some commissioned by Congress), by Mashpee children attending federal Indian schools, by federal representation of the Tribe, and in other evidence accepted as sufficient in prior decisions.
The Wilderness Society stands in solidarity with the Mashpee Wampanoag as they continue to work with the Department of Interior to retain their homeland. We urge all organizations committed to the preservation of wild places, cultural heritage, and indigenous sovereignty and protection to join us in supporting H.R. 312. – a critical opportunity to reaffirm the Mashpee Wampanoag’s rights to this land, and to honor their history as the land’s traditional stewards.
Contacts:
Paul Spitler, Director of Wilderness Policy, paul_spitler@tws.org, 202.360.1912
Alexandra Sutton Lawrence, Southeast Regional Program Director, alexa_lawrence@tws.org, 336.933.1946
