Beverly Wright was walking through the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last week during the opening ceremony for the National Museum of the American Indian when a familiar face caught her eye. As she made her way through a sea of thousands of strangers, she was suddenly confronted by a huge image of her friend, Berta Welch, staring back at her.
Wampanoag Sovereignty Arguments Are Heard at State Supreme Court
By JULIA WELLS
Attorneys on both sides of the sovereign immunity dispute in the
town of Aquinnah took their arguments to the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court this week, in a landmark case whose outcome is expected
to have far-reaching implications for every town on the Vineyard.
In the end the case will test the strength of the historic 1983
Indian land claims settlement agreement in this tiny town that is home
to the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
The ghosts are quiet these days - if you believe in such things - but at the Vanderhoop homestead the screen door still bangs and the old wood sash windows rattle with the specter of a new future.
Purchased last year by the town of Aquinnah and the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank in a joint acquisition, the historic homestead is now set for its first fund-raising event.
The event will kick off a $300,000 restoration project aimed at converting the homestead to a museum and cultural center.
In the first regulatory review under its own maiden government since
the superior court decision on sovereign immunity last year, the
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) this week permitted itself to
build a 6,500-square-foot community center off Black Brook Road in
Aquinnah.
The community center will be built around a wetland.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is launching two large building projects on the 190 acres of tribal land surrounding their headquarters in Aquinnah.
Over the next year and a half, the tribe plans to construct a community health center and a health and human services facility. The new structures are part of the tribe's master plan - a wish list of meeting rooms, health clinics, playing fields and a campsite the Wampanoags hope to complete in the next five years.
Sovereignty is in the news these days.
It's in Rhode Island, where tempers are running hot in an
ongoing skirmish between the Narragansett Indian Tribe and state
attorney general over whether the tribe can sell tax-free tobacco.
It's in the Hamptons, where the Shinnecock Indian Nation has
begun to clear land for a casino, contravening local zoning and state
gaming laws.
The Aquinnah selectmen heard a distinct plea from their up-Island
neighbors this week to formally appeal the recent superior court
decision that found the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) cannot be
sued because of sovereign immunity.
Aquinnah Case in Towns' Eye
Up-Island Selectmen Will Meet; Neighbors Support an Appeal of Ruling
That Favored Tribe on Zoning
By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer
The town of Aquinnah will join the Gay Head Taxpayers Association in
asking a superior court judge for reconsideration of his recent decision
in favor of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
Although the Aquinnah selectmen have agreed to join the move to
reconsider, they have not yet decided whether to take the next step and
appeal.
In a land-use decision that has potentially far-reaching
implications for every town on the Vineyard, a superior court judge
ruled last week that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) cannot
be sued because of sovereign immunity.
If allowed to stand, the ruling by the Hon. Richard F. Connon has
the power to turn a landmark 1983 Indian land claims settlement on its
head.
A shed and a pier in the tiny town of Aquinnah were the fulcrum for court arguments this week that will ultimately test the question of whether the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) waived sovereign immunity when it signed a land claims settlement agreement in 1983.
The settlement agreement later led to federal recognition for the tribe.
