The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has been nothing but up front about its intention to build a casino on Martha’s Vineyard, but until earth moving equipment began clearing land along State Road last week, it always seemed a remote possibility.

First, the location, along a largely unspoiled stretch of scrub oak woods at the westernmost end of the Island, seems an unlikely destination for gamblers looking to play electronic games. A day trip from Woods Hole alone would involve two 45-minute ferry trips and another 50-minute round trip bus ride.

Then the planned facility itself, which will include outdoor seating, food trucks and a beer and wine bar — assuming the tribe can even get a liquor license — does not suggest a highly profitable business model. The tribe has partnered with Global Gaming Solutions, an arm of the Chickasaw nation, which presumably will want a large piece of the action.

But whether the enterprise has a chance of success has become so entangled in the fraught context of Indian rights and tribal sovereignty that to suggest that an Island bingo hall is just a bad idea is to invite suspicion and indignation.

To be sure, the institutional debasement of native Americans over the course of our nation’s history has been nothing less than deplorable. Even as tribes slowly regained their sovereignty, many struggled to sustain themselves economically until casino gambling emerged as a way to generate income for tribal members.

After literally decades of trying to tap into this revenue stream in Massachusetts, as the Road to Casino Gambling timeline published elsewhere in this issue recounts, the Aquinnah tribe finally had its right to do so affirmed last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not hard to understand why tribal leaders would want to exercise this hard-won victory in the only location where they now have tribal land.

Moreover, tribal leaders’ reluctance until now to discuss details of the tribe’s plan with the town of Aquinnah and others who formally opposed them in court is also understandable.

Still, the ramifications of what is the tribe’s undeniable right to operate a bingo hall on its own property will inevitably affect the rest of the inhabitants of this Island, if only because gamblers can’t get to and from there without passing through non-tribal territory. Consider the implications not only for public safety and road traffic but for the Steamship Authority.

Whether or not the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has legal jurisdiction in this area, it is certainly a good place for the tribe to begin an overdue conversation about mitigating the negative effects of its decision. The rights issue has been settled; it’s time to talk to the neighbors.