To assure that the identity of the Vineyard’s Indians, their history, culture and tribal lands will be preserved, a Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head was organized on Saturday, and Mrs.
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
1998
August 25, 1998
Golf courses dominated the discussion following a lecture on the role of environmental mediation in resolving public policy and site disputes last Tuesday evening. Held at the Wakeman Center in Vineyard Haven, the lecture was sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, The Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
May 8, 1998
One week after the bill was laid on his desk, acting Gov. Paul Cellucci yesterday signed into law the change that has been awaited by the Island’s smallest town since almost a year ago. The governor’s signature made it official.
The town of Gay Head is no more; long live the town of Aquinnah.
1993
April 16, 1993
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.”
1989
July 21, 1989
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.
1987
February 12, 1987
The federal government Wednesday recognized the tribal status of the Gay Head Wampanoag Indians in a historic decision that opens the way to settlement of the bitter, 12-year-old land claim dispute.
1983
November 25, 1983
The Wampanoag Tribal Council, the Gay Head Taxpayers Association, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the town of Gay Head signed formal settlement papers in the Indian land claim suit last weekend.
The signings represent a major step toward final accord in the suit that has divided the town for nine years.
