The room fell silent as Jessie Little Doe Baird gripped the podium, engraved with a “United States Senate” emblem, as she held back her tears before congressional and tribal leaders. Six days earlier she and her tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation, were informed they were no longer considered “Indian” so their reservation would be taken by the Department of Interior.
With Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe at her side, Baird begged for support from tribal leaders and Indigenous women at the Tribal Unity Impact Days in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12.
“Help me help my community, protect the women in my community, protect children in my community and keep our land under our feet with our jurisdiction and sovereignty in place,” said the Baird, who serves as vice chairman of the tribe.
On Sept. 7, the Department of Interior told the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe they didn’t meet the requirements to have their 321-acres of land placed into trust. The tribal nation wanted to use the land in the town of Mashpee for their government and the other land in the town of Taunton for the First Light Resort and Casino.
The decision, as described by Tara Sweeney, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, serves as the liaison between the tribes and federal government, was told to the tribe in a letter that they were not “under federal jurisdiction” when the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. They also do not meet the definition of “Indian” as stated in the policy.
Baird pointed at Sweeney during her address wanting the crowd to know who was behind the decision. Sweeney had taken her position as assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior earlier this summer. As the first Alaskan Native to hold the position in Indian Affairs, Sweeney is a member of the Native Village of Barrow and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.
“This is a face to the name that spoke to you on the phone Friday. I got very little notice as a tribal leader that this call was coming. The plaintiffs that said that they didn't mind Indian gaming, they just didn't want Indians in their neighborhood.”
Baird also said the decision about the tribe was “very disrespectful,” as she had said such a major decision was posted on Facebook before the tribe knew.
“I am telling you as I told you on Friday, as one Indian woman to another, you did a wrong thing. I can love and respect you as an Indian woman, but we need to stick together. We're an endangered people, and that decision was a wrong decision. Someone said earlier today we have to make decisions that are good and right and moral, not just politically correct and sometimes that means taking the kick for the decision we make on behalf of another and I'm asking you to reconsider the behavior of the department and the action because what happens to us in Massachusetts is going to spread right across the country,” Baird said.
“And there are tribes in Alaska that were recognized after 1934, too. You got to think about what you're doing.”
More in the article here:
Interior denies Mashpee trust land: ‘You do not meet definition of an Indian’ - IndianCountryToday.com
With Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe at her side, Baird begged for support from tribal leaders and Indigenous women at the Tribal Unity Impact Days in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12.
“Help me help my community, protect the women in my community, protect children in my community and keep our land under our feet with our jurisdiction and sovereignty in place,” said the Baird, who serves as vice chairman of the tribe.
On Sept. 7, the Department of Interior told the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe they didn’t meet the requirements to have their 321-acres of land placed into trust. The tribal nation wanted to use the land in the town of Mashpee for their government and the other land in the town of Taunton for the First Light Resort and Casino.
The decision, as described by Tara Sweeney, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, serves as the liaison between the tribes and federal government, was told to the tribe in a letter that they were not “under federal jurisdiction” when the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. They also do not meet the definition of “Indian” as stated in the policy.
Baird pointed at Sweeney during her address wanting the crowd to know who was behind the decision. Sweeney had taken her position as assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior earlier this summer. As the first Alaskan Native to hold the position in Indian Affairs, Sweeney is a member of the Native Village of Barrow and the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.
“This is a face to the name that spoke to you on the phone Friday. I got very little notice as a tribal leader that this call was coming. The plaintiffs that said that they didn't mind Indian gaming, they just didn't want Indians in their neighborhood.”
Baird also said the decision about the tribe was “very disrespectful,” as she had said such a major decision was posted on Facebook before the tribe knew.
“I am telling you as I told you on Friday, as one Indian woman to another, you did a wrong thing. I can love and respect you as an Indian woman, but we need to stick together. We're an endangered people, and that decision was a wrong decision. Someone said earlier today we have to make decisions that are good and right and moral, not just politically correct and sometimes that means taking the kick for the decision we make on behalf of another and I'm asking you to reconsider the behavior of the department and the action because what happens to us in Massachusetts is going to spread right across the country,” Baird said.
“And there are tribes in Alaska that were recognized after 1934, too. You got to think about what you're doing.”
More in the article here:
Interior denies Mashpee trust land: ‘You do not meet definition of an Indian’ - IndianCountryToday.com
