Two Vie for Top Spot in Tribe Election
Remy Tumin

With an election set for this month to decide the top leadership post at the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) for the next three years, tribal members will face a clear choice: stay the course with a tribal chairman who has been at the helm for the past six years, or choose a new leader who is pitching the need for openness and change.

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Wampanoag Powwow in Aquinnah
Remy Tumin

Follow the drumbeats, the hum of singing and the waft of food up to the Aquinnah Circle this weekend as the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) celebrates their 25th anniversary of federal recognition at their eight annual powwow.

Festivities take place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with The Grand Entry, a procession of tribal members from across the New England area, starting at noon on Saturday.

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Wampanoag Leadership Faces Election Test
Chris Burrell

After spending much of the last two years in political hot water over gun-toting rangers, sheds with no building permits and the stewardship of a beloved general store, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) now finds itself in a state of inner turmoil, its members at odds with each other.

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State Aids Talks in Town-Tribe Clash on Guns
Chris Burrell

The dispute over the right of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah) to arm its rangers with handguns and establish its own police
force is now being hashed out in the offices of the state attorney
general in Boston, where state officials are acting as facilitators.

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Tribe, Town Collide
Chris Burrell

In the view of Aquinnah police chief Doug Fortes, the turning point came in the fall of 1999, when rangers from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay
Head (Aquinnah) came back from a trip to the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York, packing a half dozen Glock nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistols.

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Aquinnah Files Suit Against Tribal Move

The Aquinnah building inspector filed a lawsuit this week against
the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to test the question of
whether the tribe must follow local zoning rules.

"A genuine controversy exists on this issue requiring judicial
guidance," wrote Aquinnah town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport in the
complaint.

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Senior Wampanoag Officials Divide in Rising Dispute Over Tribal Finances
Chris Burrell

For months now, Wampanoag tribal chairwoman Beverly Wright has been telling her constituents and at least one federal agency that the tribe's finances are in terrible shape, riddled with debts from failed business ventures.

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Wampanoag Financial Crisis Forces Tribe to Sell Off Land and Stock Assets
Chris Burrell

A general store, a delicatessen and a shellfish hatchery -
they were all supposed to add up to profits for the only federally
recognized Indian tribe in the state, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah).

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Tribe Plan for Police Force Triggers Mediation Talks
Chris Burrell

A federal mediator yesterday waded into the dispute between
officials in Aquinnah and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)
over the tribe's plans to form its own police force.

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Superior Court Hears Key Case
Chris Burrell

The question of whether claims of sovereignty entitle the Wampanoag
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to skirt local and state laws will be
decided in Dukes County superior court, rather than a federal district
court in Boston where lawyers for the tribe wanted the case tried.

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