Print
Subscribe
Response: Mashpees earned federal recognition
Friday, June 16, 2006
"Cedric Sunray’s recent commentary (Native American Times June 9, 2006, print edition) took a swipe at federal recognition, and his backhand struck a stinging blow at the Mashpee Wampanoag.
The Choctaw who is teaching at the Pawnee Nation College accused us of not earning the federal recognition which was the proposed finding by the Secretary of the Department of Interior on March 31 of this year. He says we bought it with $15 million from a gaming backer who used at least some of the money to pay Jack Abramoff.
That is only part of the truth he used to surmise his pat answer that we are unworthy of federal recognition.
Had Professor Sunray done any research at all beyond his cousin’s future wife, a cursory Google search and scanning Indian Country Today for sound bites and headlines, he would know there has been so much more to our petition for federal recognition than tainted lobbyists and gaming money.
Our petition is one that began before the federal recognition process was even invented and arguably charted the course for the recognition of other tribes while political pressure preserved development rights to our ancestral homeland in one of the most pristine and desired coastal communities on the eastern seaboard.
We have fought for our federal recognition since 1975, a small band of Indians using what ever resources we could find and an overstressed Native American Rights Fund attorney to mount the gargantuan bureaucracy that became the Office of Federal Acknowledgement."
Get the Story:
Paula Peters: Mashpee Wampanoag writer responds to criticism
(The Native American Times 6/15)
Relevant Documents:
Summary of
Acknowledgment Cases |
R. Lee Fleming
Declaration
Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal
Recognition Database V2.0 (May 2005)
Relevant Links:
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe -
http://mashpeewampanoagtribe.com
Related Stories:
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to discuss recognition
(6/14)
Opinion: Mashpee
Wampanoags paid for recognition (06/08)
Mashpee Wampanoags see support for recognition
(05/08)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe looks
forward to future (04/06)
Lobbyists
garner mention in recognition decision (4/4)
Mashpee Tribe avoids pitfalls on federal
recognition (4/3)
Tribe anticipates big
decision on recognition (3/31)
Mashpee
Wampanoag Tribe awaits recognition (3/23)
Mashpee recongnition decision due this month
(03/07)
Mashpee Wampanoag lobbying paid off
in Washington (2/22)
Mashpee Wampanoag
elders pass before recognition (2/20)
Mashpee Wampanoags await word on federal status
(01/13)
Massachusetts tribe says scandal
won't hurt case (01/05)
Mashpees call
for tribe to cut ties to lobbyists (12/21)
Opinion: Mashpees disturbed by tribal lobbying
(12/07)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe active in
Washington (12/1)
Mashpee chair gave
Abramoff e-mails to FBI (11/29)
Mashpee
chairman happy with Abramoff work (11/22)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe tight on membership
(10/11)
BIA assigns team to Mashpee
Wampanoag petition (10/3)
Massachusetts
tribe, town weigh recognition deal (09/16)
Massachusetts tribe won't make land claims
(08/22)
Massachusetts tribe waits for answer
on recognition (08/05)
Wampanoag teen
joins tribe's Run for Recognition (07/28)
Massachusetts tribe waits for ruling on recognition
(7/27)
Judge approves timeline for
Mashpee recognition (7/26)
BIA proposes
timeline for Mashpee recognition (7/19)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe steers clear of
Abramoff (05/23)
Judge blasts BIA for
delays in recognition case (02/15)
Wampanoag tribe back to court on recognition bid
(2/14)
BIA opposes Pombo's federal
recognition bill (2/11)
Bill addresses
slow-moving recognition process (02/07)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe presses recognition bid
(09/03)
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe rubs elbows
at RNC (9/1)
House panel sympathetic to
tribes on recognition (04/01)
Federal
recognition process subject of two hearings (03/31)
BIA delaying decision on Mass.
tribe (12/20)
Mass. town
accused of hindering recognition (10/30)
Jump in recognition petitions noted
(06/12)
BIA recognition
staff fails pressure test (05/31)
Wampanoag leader remembered (03/08)
Copyright © 2000-2006 Indianz.Com
