Tribe Wants To Be Defendant In Casino Land LawsuitThe Mashpee Wampanoag Ask To Join Litigation |
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A Native American tribe with reservation land within the state of Massachusetts is looking to insert itself into a legal battle over its casino project.
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe had already began building its $1 billion casino in Taunton when a federal judge in July ruled in favor of local property owners by saying that the US Interior Department made an error in making the 150-acre casino site reservation land.
The tribe was not federally recognized at the time of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act.
According to The Boston Globe, the tribe has filed a motion to be part of the litigation so as not to leave the fate of the project up to just the Interior Department alone. By joining the litigation, the tribe could appeal on its own.
Right now, because the tribe isn’t a defendant like the Interior Department, only the federal government can appeal the court ruling.
“The department’s interest is in the administration of federal lands of the United States for the public interest broadly and the implementation of federal Indian policy, not in the particular sovereign, economic, and personal interest of the tribe,” the tribe’s lawyers wrote.
If the casino is built, the tribe will pay 17 percent of its gaming win to Massachusetts.
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