This may particularly interest those of you focused on the recent casino gambling vote. The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities reminds us that on this day in 1978, a trial began on Cape Cod to determine whether the Mashpee Indians met the legal definition of a tribe.
If they did, they could sue for the return of land granted to them in 1685. With huge amounts of undeveloped land at stake, Mashpee’s non-Indian residents hired lawyers. The defense argued that the Mashpee Wampanoag had intermarried with so many different groups over the years that they were no longer genetically the same people as the original Mashpee. The lawyers also claimed that the Mashpee had not maintained their traditions. After a 40-day trial, the judge declared that the Mashpee Wampanoag did not meet the legal definition of a tribe and therefore had no standing to sue. The case was dismissed.
Native Americans screwed again, it sounds like to me. In any event, the story continues:
The Mashpee lost the case but did not abandon the effort to reclaim their land. In 1990 they petitioned the U.S. government for recognition as a tribe. On March 31, 2006, after a 31-year struggle, the 1,468-member tribe finally won preliminary recognition. The Globe reported that the announcement “was greeted with tears, howls of jubilation, and the beating of drums by tribal members. ‘We’ve been waiting so long,'” one 89-year-old Wampanoag sobbed.
Click here for the full story, from the Foundation. It is interesting reading.
Separately, can Red Sox Nation be certified as a tribe: it’s in our blood, after all. And does anyone else besides me find the logo of the Indians — not to mention the whole wretched team — disagreeable. GO SOX!
The case was dismissed without predjudice. Now, with legal standing, the Tribe can look at repo’ing New Seabury and Mashpee Commons. That’s WHY the land was bought in Middleboro – to settle the case equitably, by giving the tribe access to virgin land of similar value and size. Now, Deval is devaluing this trial land with his goofy casino bill, and the Tribe is looking to re-open the lawsuit. Thanks, Gov.!
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You can tell they killed all the Native Americans in Boston during King Phillip’s War….
That’s the group that is about to get decertified as far as the 2007 MLB season is concerned.
there is no “virgin land” outside of a few islands in the pacific northwest and alaska. massachusetts was buzz-cut like the rest of the nation mid-19th century to early 20th century.
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or do you mean currently undeveloped land?
Massachusetts did most of its buzz-cutting pre-1850. By 1850 forestry and conservation started to take off.
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As a side note, I recall once reading that the tree mass in North America is roughly what it was 1000 years ago. Seem strange? Consider that while the East Coast and West Coast has fewer trees, the entire plains area had roughly zero. That’s why we have arbor day, started in Nebraska. So, trees in the middle make up for trees on the East and West. Also, oodles of trees were planted in Alaska by the Ruskies before they sold it to Seward and co. However, I can’t find a source for this, so it might be total crap.
most are in sterile plantations. it is a great tragedy.
Tree plantations may be boring, but they sequester carbon and air pollutants. They don’t provide as much variety to the ecosystem as the forests that were 100s or 1000s of years old did, but they do provide homes to lots of critters. They’re not as robust to disease as the old diverse forests, but they do provide protection against erosion, flood, dust, etc.
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I’m not suggesting that Harry’s Christmas Tree Farm is as environmentally useful as a national forest, but I’d speculate that it’s more environmentally friendly than most cropland or suburban subdivisions.
first of all, forest plantations are cropland. second, are you saying that a suburban subdivision is the real alternative for every forest plantation? of course you aren’t, and so that’s not a realistic comparison. a realistic comparison is to managed forests where multi-aged, multi-species trees are allowed to stand in a more normal density, and microclimates are not purposefully decimated.
you’re right. it was 1850s or so that serious clearcutting of the midwest and points west beyond began. but still, there is no “virgin land” in MA that i am aware of.
The Indians are named in honor of a real person. Lou Sockalexis was a great athlete.
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As for the folks that call themselves a “tribe” in Mashpee, well of course they are a tribe. The Federal government has said so. If the Federal government declares them to be Martians, they are Martians. My personal favorite is the celebrations they put on for the press. Invariably, there is a dance by some young person dressed in Indian garb. Sure, it is always a “Plains Indian” (people of about 2,000 miles away), but the white man never figures that out. There’s never an anthropologist around when you need one.
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So, the Red Sox nation can be a tribe. Send your bribe money to the appropriate politicians. Grease the way and the Red Sox can be on the warpath. If only our tribe can get some more serious pitching. (They got rid of Bronson Arroyo for what? Theo speak with fork-ed tongue.)
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Hey, BIA provides free healthcare at the reservations.
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And, yes, at a distance the logo looks like someone flipping the bird.
Yes, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has a free health care department for Indians. The non-Indians have been trying for many years to get government healthcare. Sure, the have-nots will wait a long time before they get government healthcare. Maybe it will be too late.
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How much would a person pay to get free healthcare for life for a family and their descendants?
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Bureau of Indian Affairs states that the membership requirements into an Indian tribe is pursuant to the rules of that tribe. So, conceivably, a tribe can accept anyone of any race, religion, ethnicity into a tribe and that person and family, now Indians, would be covered under BIA healthcare, as would all their offspring.
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Now I don’t expect the Wampanoags to accept anyone for free. Capitalism being what it is, I’m sure the tribe leadership would want a fee or contribution. The logistics are already there. You don’t have to create a healthcare system, the tribe is already government approved. If the sheer numbers of people that would sign up for this is too large for a small tribe to handle, Red Sox Nation can be the go-between, handling mailings, etc, and take the processing fee. Maybe becoming the Red Sox Wampanoag Nation. Why not sign up the Massachusetts healthcare system, state employees?
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It boggles the mind.
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Not MASHPEE, I hope!
Did that freekin’ sideshow 20 years ago.
If you are familiar with our sideshow, you will understand the angst felt down here. And it’s all due to Deval’s greed – unable to accept tribute from the single Indian casino, but insisting on 3 with a larger cut for himself instead. So, since the Tribe feels its Middleboro operation threatened, some elements in the council want to revisit the suit. and as you may know, it’s a good one.
Too familiar.
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Fact is, build-out or not, it’s been pins & needles around here for well over 20 years.
Coffee shop talk has been that the base is a major object of desire.
…would revert to its original owners should the lease end.
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THAT would be the Shawme-Crowell state park, from whom it was ORIGINALLY leased in 1917 to train troops for WWI.
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New people moving in think it’s Federal land, and might be abandonded, and they can build condos, wind farms, casinos, etc. Even Deval would have a HECK of a time pursuading the DCR to a.) give away state park land, and b.) build a casino there.
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Besides – the Tribe isn’t claiming the encroachment was at the base – it was more or less downtown Mashpee.
comparing them to Red Sox fans. But then I just finished reading Mayflower, so it was easy for this thread to make me embarrassed to be a decendant of indentured servants who immigrated to escape the poor houses of England and played a role in displacing the local Native Americans.
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Am I embarrassed enough to root for the Indians tonight?
…who Bill Weld’s family famously sent ahead on the Mayflower to ‘get the summer place ready for the family’? :~)
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(My own grandmother was a servant for a family who summered in Bar Harbor, and had that duty herself).
and stayed there. My folks ended up in the Berkshires and became self sustaining swamp yankee farmers who made their living off the land and selling local produce and their services at inflated prices to the servants of flat -landers and summer people who were often rich New Yorkers.