Lorenzo Jeffers, descendant of Mittark, the last Island Indian chief, was duly elected chief of his tribe at a meeting held at Gay Head last week. The occasion of this election of a chief was the organizing of the tribe in order to gain representation in the Wampanoag Council, in which all the southern New England tribes with their branches were represented at a kindling of the council brand at Mashpee a couple of weeks ago, the first time that the Wampanoags have assembled in tribal council for 200 years.
An action at law to evict the town of Gay Head from 238 acres of lands within the metes - the cranberry bogs, the Herring Creek and its banks, and the colored cliffs that give the place its name - has been filed in United States District Court at Boston by the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head.
“It is our last hope ever to be able to think the Indians of Gay Head can have a piece of the land that they can call their own,” said Mrs. Beatrice V. Gentry, president of the council.
The town of Gay Head signed the deed conveying the ancestral Wampanoag Indian Common Lands to the federal government yesterday, ending a protracted legal struggle for the tribe with quiet agreement.
The face of the Gay Head Cliffs, the Herring Creek and the cranberry bogs will be under the control of the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head Inc. as the representative of the Gay Head Wampanoag Tribe.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) may go into the gambling business.
Last week the tribal council unanimously voted to pursue gaming as a possible means of making money. The council also decided that any future casino would be located on the Massachusetts mainland.
“This is only the preliminary,” said tribal chairman Beverly M. Wright this week. “It’s just something we are looking at, just like we’re looking at a museum.”
A collection of old documents dating far back in the last century has been unearthed in the old Jeffers house at Gay Head by Lorenzo D. Jeffers, the present owner of the estate of his ancestors. These documents consist of letters, ledgers, bills and notations kept by Thomas Jeffers, grandfather of the present owner.
Construction has begun on a large bingo hall planned by the tribe in Aquinnah — and tribal leaders have issued a stern warning to the town and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to not interfere.
Chilmark selectmen Tuesday evening discussed asking the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to review plans by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to build a bingo hall on tribal land in neighboring Aquinnah.
An Aquinnah selectman met with the chairman of the Wampanoag tribe to discuss the current status of the bingo hall project. But there were few new details.
An exchange of correspondence has begun between Aquinnah selectmen and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) over the tribe’s planned class II gambling facility in the town.
