Without the Wampanoag: Thanksgiving and their Reservation Rights

Today is Thanksgiving, and many Americans are gathering in their living rooms, preparing to eat their extravagant meals, and giving symbolic thanks to everything they are grateful for. However, Americans should be thankful for the Wampanoag tribe and Tisquantum, because without them, the Pilgrims would HAVE NOT survived and the United States would never have existed.

What a world....

During this time of year, especially for Indigenous peoples, we understand the trauma that our ancestors endured, and now it has been passed down to us. Historical trauma is very real, and the pain and healing that occurs every Thanksgiving is nothing new to us.

The trauma from Thanksgiving can be felt a little extra today, as the Trump Administration is taking land from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, the same tribe that can be credited for helping the pilgrims survive.

On September 7th, the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Cedric Cromwell, received a letter from the assistant secretary of Indian affairs at the Department of the Interior, Tara Sweeney, informing him that his tribe no longer fit the legal definition of “Indian” and would be losing its reservation status.

For those of you who do not know, every federally recognized tribe is monitored under the Department of Interior. This was established through the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which ideally was created to reverse the traditional goal of assimilation of Natives into American society and to restore the management of their own assets.

While in theory, this Act aimed to give some sort of self-determination back to Native tribes, however, we could never have predicted how this Act would ultimately screw us over in the end.

The legal fight over the Mashpee Reservation began in 2016, when Neil Bluhm, a casino developer, wanted to open a casino in a part of Massachusetts. The location he wished to use was set aside for tribal gaming ONLY. Therefore, he funded a group of residents from the city of Taunton to sue the Department of Interior, on the basis that the Mashpee Wampanoag needed their reservation's trust status revoked. In July of 2016, the city of Taunton won.

However, due to the wording in the court's decision, the Department of Interior had the final say. As of September of 2018, they have failed to save the tribe that ultimately saved them.

What else is new?

See, as many of you sit down to eat your turkey, in your homes (that is more than likely built on stolen land), and give thanks for this wonderful country, the FIRST PEOPLES of this land are still fighting for our basic human rights.

While the original Thanksgiving ended in the genocide of Native peoples, the genocide is STILL OCCURRING TODAY. Now, in forms of cultural genocide, which is enacted by the United States government.

The problem is not that the Mashpee Wampanoag are no longer "Indian" anymore, the problem is they are still in the way. Obstructing the way of capitalism, of natural resources, and of Donald Trump.

Because the United States cannot physically kill of the Natives anymore, they tried to find a way to kill our identities, and the things that makes us Indigenous.

But you know what? They failed in their attempt to physically kill us off, and they will fail in their attempt to culturally terminate us.

Like the Mashpee Wampanoag, we WILL fight back.

There are currently two lawmakers who are helping with representation for the tribe, Reps. Bill Keating and Joe Kennedy III (both D-Mass.). They have co-authorized legislation that aims to maintain federal recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag land.

The Mashpee Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act straightforwardly states that all laws with “general applicability to Indians” apply to the Mashpee. The bill already has 21 co-sponsors from both parties, but we must be behind it as well.

We have to put pressure on Congress and the federal government to end the continued genocide of Indigenous peoples!

"On the Mashpee Wampanoag reservation lie its tribal offices, a future housing development, a casino still under construction, a language immersion school, community gardens and its burial grounds. The traditional homeland of the Wampanoag confederacy ― the tribe the Pilgrims first encountered ― is roughly a third of present-day Massachusetts. Today the tribe is fighting to hold on to 316 acres, an area roughly the size of the National Mall." (huffingtonpost.com)

If you would like to read more about the history of the Mashpee Wampanoag, here is the link to an Indian Country Today article! https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/interior-denies-mashpee-trust-land-you-do-not-meet-definition-of-an-indian-3qLsXhzf2kyptA5oxX4VpA/