‘WE WILL NOT REST’

Interior Secretary Orders Mashpee Wampanoag Land ‘Disestablished’

The tribe’s chairman said the action was “cruel” and “unnecessary” amid their ongoing struggle against the coronavirus outbreak.

The Secretary of the Interior has ordered the Mashpee Wampanoag historic reservation to be “disestablished” amid the tribe’s ongoing struggle against the coronavirus outbreak, tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell said on Saturday. “Today’s action was cruel and it was unnecessary. The Secretary is under no court order to take our land out of trust,” the chairman wrote in a statement on the tribe’s website. “He is fully aware that litigation to uphold our status as a tribe eligible for the benefits of the Indian Reorganization Act is ongoing.” Jean-Luc Pierite, the head of the North American Indian Center of Boston, said the move would threaten the fate of tribes across the United States that are protected by trusts. The land, in Taunton, Massachusetts, stretches 321 acres. “These are our lands, these are the lands of our ancestors, and these will be the lands of our grandchildren,” Cromwell continued. “And we will not rest until we are treated equally with other federally recognized tribes and the status of our reservation is confirmed.”