Monday, Aug. 8, 2005 | 9:20 a.m.
MASHPEE, Mass. -- Next spring, nearly four centuries after the Mashpee Wampanoag welcomed the Pilgrims to the New England wilderness, the federal government will finally say for the first time whether the tribe officially exists.
And that makes some people in this Cape Cod town uneasy.
Considerable power comes with federal recognition, which would make the tribe a sovereign entity within a town that would share its name but have little authority over it.
The Wampanoag (pronounced, WOMP-a-nawg) have acknowledged an interest in casino gambling and acquiring undeveloped land, a reminder of their failed and divisive 1970s land claim that had residents worried the tribe would seize private homes.
But tribal leaders speak of federal recognition primarily as a way to gain needed government health, education and housing benefits and preserve their distinct place in history.
"We are part of the United States now, but we don't want to be submerged and lost," said Wampanoag elder Paul Mills.
Skeptics say history has little to do with efforts to gain federal recognition.
"If it was that simple, I'd be all for it," former Mashpee selectman George Benway Jr. said. "It's not about that. It's about money. It's about power."
The tribe has been working since 1975 for federal recognition. A separate tribe of Wampanoag on Martha's Vineyard are the only Massachusetts tribe to receive such a designation.
Last week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs settled a lawsuit with the Mashpee Wampanoag over the decades-long delay in ruling on its bid for recognition.
As part of the settlement, the BIA promised to make a final decision by March 2007. But a preliminary decision indicating which way the bureau is leaning will be made by next March, leaving a year for public comment.
Tribal council chairman Glenn Marshall said its case for recognition is unassailable, with the tribe meeting each of the seven requirements, including proving it has maintained a political and cultural identity through the centuries. It still elects a chief and medicine man, and much of its power rests with the Elder Council.
By contrast, fears about what the 1,447-member tribe will do with any new power are unfounded, he said.
Marshall said the Wampanoag would be foolish not to explore gambling if the Legislature ever considers allowing it, but it won't build any gambling casinos on Cape Cod.
Another bid to seize private land is out of the question, Marshall said, because the first attempt was so painful. The tribe might possibly seek undeveloped tracts of state and federal land, or unclaimed local land, to augment the 180 acres it has left.
"There will always be people who will never believe you, even if you were plugged into a lie detector," he said.
The town of Mashpee's name is derived from an aboriginal word meaning "Land of the Great Cove." The Wampanoag once claimed all its 27 square miles of woodland and freshwater ponds, and those who remain still hunt and fish on its undeveloped areas.
The tribe's early history, during which it was part of the broader Wampanoag Nation, included conflict with the encroaching colonists, such as the bloody war led by Wampanoag warrior King Philip. But there was also an openness toward the settlers.
The year after the Pilgrims landed in 1620, King Philip's father, Massasoit, struck a treaty with the Plymouth colonists and the tribe hosted the first Thanksgiving.
The Wampanoag adopted the English style of dress, and in the 1660s, the first Wampanoag Christian Bible was printed. In 1683, the tribe built the Old Indian Meeting House in Mashpee, the oldest Indian church in the country. By the mid 18th century, the English and Wampanoag were jointly running Mashpee, and non-Indians couldn't buy land without the tribe's consent.
The land sale restriction was removed by the 1870s, when Mashpee became a town. But Mashpee's population was primarily Wampanoag until the 1960s and the tribe was in firm political control of town boards.
Since then, however, residential development has transformed the town and pushed the Wampanoag to the political margins. The land suit the Mashpee Wampanoag filed in 1976 opened a rift that hasn't fully healed.
The suit targeted hundreds of local land owners, claiming that land in Mashpee and three neighboring towns was illegally taken from the tribe.
Property owners couldn't get mortgages or sell their homes because of uncertainty about whether the court would seize their property. A jury ruled against the Wampanoag in 1978 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to the hear the case.
Former selectman Jim Vaccaro said some residents haven't forgotten that "terrible period."
"Some people were hurt," he said. "It was fractured for a number of years. It took some time for the healing to begin."
Mashpee -- about 65 miles southeast of Boston -- is among the fastest growing communities in the state, and Vaccaro said 90 percent of its current residents know nothing about the land suit, or the tribe's move for recognition.
Benway, a vocal opponent of the land suit, said newer residents need to get educated. Tribal recognition would create an unaccountable entity with power to drastically change the town, particularly if the tribe changes its mind about building a casino or the amount of land it wants to acquire, he said.
For Benway, the tribe's bid for tribal recognition was settled with the land suit. As part of that ruling, the jury found the Wampanoag had not continually functioned as a tribe throughout their history, leading the judge to conclude they had no standing to sue.
"They took a bite of the apple ... and they lost," Benway said. "Now they're taking another bite of the apple."
Despite whatever opposition arises, Mills feels the tribe's long battle for recognition is nearly won.
Standing in the Old Indian Meeting House's cemetery, which looks any other Colonial-era graveyard, Mills points to different headstones and seems to know the story behind each name. Their small community has endured and will overcome any fears people have about taking its rightful place in history, he said.
Any bitterness has "been offset and balanced by hope, because you had to be optimistic," he said. "The idea that things will eventually work out -- I think most people have it."
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