Feb 04, 2020 The possibility of a tribal casino in Taunton — the $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe hopes to build would have a significant impact on the state's commercial. The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and its beleaguered Taunton casino were dealt another blow on Friday when tribe Chairman Cedric Cromwell and David DeQuattro, a R.I. Architect with nearly $5 million in.

“It’s not if, but when.”

That’s what Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell told reporters Wednesday when asked about the fate of the long-promised, full-scale casino-resort planned for Taunton.

“The tribe is still an active player in Region C,” Cromwell, who oversees the Mashpee Wampanoag’s government and finances, said. “We’re going to move forward. Our goal is progress, move forward and keep it going.”

Cromwell’s statements come the day tribal attorneys presented arguments before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will decide whether the tribe qualifies to have land taken into trust — a special status that promotes tribal self-governance by exempting the reservation from state and local regulations.

Following a legal challenge from neighbors of the proposed casino initiated in 2016, the tribe appealed a decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that essentially reversed a determination from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which said the tribe satisfied a definition of “Indian” spelled out under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, and therefore qualified for trust status. Historically the Interior Department acts as the trustee for tribal land.

The Obama administration initially approved the Mashpee Wampanoag’s trust application, effectively securing the land needed to build the promised casino and green-lighting the project. But the court decision brought the casino’s construction to a halt.

The tribe’s bid to keep its reservation is made complicated by a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar, which established that the Secretary of the Interior could not take land into trust for tribes that were not under federal jurisdiction before 1934, at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act. Carcieri v. Salazar increased the burden of proof tribes had to meet to qualify for trust status.

Jul 16, 2020 Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts has financial records subpoenaed by federal grand jury for reasons unknown, but there’s hope for Taunton casino. The World's Online Gaming Authority. First Light Resort & Casino is the name of the new destination resort casino that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will construct in Taunton, Massachusetts. “First Light” comes from the word Wampanoag or Wopanaak, meaning “People of the First Light.”. Brockton, a town 19 miles from Taunton, wants to build a casino. Mayor Bill Carpenter wants to try again to get permission to build a casino. The state application for a $677 million casino was rejected by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2016 because of worries of over-saturating the local gambling market if the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

On Wednesday, David Tennant, an attorney for the Taunton neighbors, argued that under a plain reading of the 1934 statute, lawmakers at the time intended to exclude the Mashpee tribe from acquiring trust lands.

But tribal attorney Benjamin Wish argued that the language in the law is ambiguous, and that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is empowered to issue an interpretation in favor of the tribe’s interests, noting the agency’s fiduciary responsibility to tribes.

Taunton Casino Status Inquiry

“The question is whether more than one reading is permissible,” Wish said.

Taunton Casino Status Online

Cromwell said the tribe’s finances have been “hit pretty bad” by the litigation.

Taunton Casino Status Refund

“It’s tough to finance problems,” he said. “Our hopes is that this gets done pretty quickly ... we believe we stand on the right side of justice. The goal is to get economic development moving again.'

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