The Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head approved a plan last night that could lead to settlement of the seven-year-old suit claiming Indian ownership of Gay Head town lands.

 

The 115 to 60 margin in favor of settlement of the suit is being contested by a party within the tribe that favors suing for the entire town. But tribe leaders say they will move toward settlement.

 

By one vote short of a two-thirds majority, Gay Head voters last night ordered their selectmen to move forward toward turning the town Common Lands over to the Tribal Council.

 

The matter is far from an end, still. Ahead lie negotiation, General Court legislation, more town meeting votes, and possibly, countersuits.

 

But once the common land is transferred, the pending suit by the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head against the Town of Gay Head will be mooted.

 

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.

 

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. James R. Gentry elected its president.

 

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.

 

The first powwow to be held on Gay Head since the days of King Philip took place in that town last night, and the flavor and spirit of those ancient days was revived so far as possible when Lorenzo Jeffers was made chief of the tribe. Dressed in full Indian regalia, with a war bonnet on his head, but unaccompanied by the sound of the war drums or the spectacle of Indians dancing in the flickering flames of a bonfire, Rev. Leonard C.