BIA Gives Us Preliminary Positive Finding

As part of the American Indian Heritage Month proclamation for November 2006, I want to share with you the latest developments with the federal recognition process for the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council on Cape Cod.

Last April, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the Department of the Interior, determined that the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council meets the federal law definition of an Indian Tribe. This very significant decision, culminating after over thirty years since the Mashpee Tribe first filed for federal recognition back on July 7, 1975.

This official notice of findings is based on a determination that the petitioner, the Mashpee Tribe, satisfies all seven mandatory criteria for federal acknowledgement and therefore meets the requirements for a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

As part of this agreement, the Department of the Interior will issue a final determination on the Tribes status by March 30, 2007. Just recently, the Mashpee Board of Selectmen unanimously supported the findings, therefore finally clearing the local hurdle for the Tribe’s tireless efforts for recognition.

The petitioning process is  a daunting, long, complicated and expensive ordeal that the Mashpee Tribe has endured. The 1,462 member Tribe has satisfied the rigorous criteria which includes historical and continuous American Indian identity in a distinct community with anthropological and genealogical research and evidence to document each of the seven requirements set forth by the Branch of Acknowledgement and Research, under the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Further this recent decision is particularly noteworthy, because the vast majority of petitioning Tribes do not meet the strict standards and far more petitions are denied rather than accepted.  In fact, only 8 percent of the total number of  recognized tribes have been  acknowledged since 1960.

To date, there are 562 federally recognized tribes in the US.  Federal recognition, which acknowledges a Tribe as a sovereign entity, carries with it significant privileges such as access to a range of services in education, social services, law enforcement, health services and resource protection.

If interested, please visit the web page at mashpeewampanoagtribe.com for more information on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council’s preliminary positive findings on the home page.

So hopefully by next March, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will officially have its second federally recognized Tribe which will surely ignite a very powerful celebration in Mashpee, the land of the Wampanoag!

Donald Liptack

MA-RI Special Emphasis Program Manager

Hyannis Service Center, MA

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