Last fall, a district judge ruled the Mashpee people couldn’t build a $1 billion casino resort on 151 sovereign acres because the land was wrongly designated by the US Department of the Interior (DOI) in 2015.<\/p>\n
The US Supreme Court has determined that only tribes recognized by the federal government in 1934 are eligible to purchase and have new land deemed sovereign under the Indian Reorganization Act. The Mashpee land in question was acquired just two years ago, and the tribe was only recognized in 2007.<\/p>\n
\nThe Taunton casino dilemma differs from Gay Head’s in that the Martha’s Vineyard Wampanoag people didn’t buy their land, but simply received it back from the government. Mashpee Wampanoag has asked the DOI to provide further clarification to support its case.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nMassachusetts’ Gaming Commission is waiting for the final verdict in Taunton before approving the third and final commercial resort license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Martha’s Vineyard casino is likely coming to the Cape Cod affluent island after an appeals court overturned previous rulings that blocked the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head from engaging in gambling. This week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston overturned a 2015 decision that prevented the tribe from opening a casino on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":48256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Martha's Vineyard Casino Can Move Forward, Wampanoag Tribe Celebrates Appeals Court's Ruling<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n