MASHPEE — Eight months ago, the flag of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe was raised into a wintry blue sky here, a milestone moment that proclaimed the tribe’s sovereignty over the lands below.
Now, the hard-won status of those lands as a Native American reservation is in jeopardy, collateral damage in a legal fight over the tribe’s plan to build a $1 billion casino in Taunton, some 35 miles away from its headquarters in this namesake town on Cape Cod.
A federal court ruling late last month has not only thrown the casino’s fate into doubt, it threatens the tribe’s right to govern its lands, potentially dashing a dream held for generations and stripping away a key symbol of its identity. “This is reservation ground and should remain reservation forever,” said Naomi Walker, a caretaker of the tribe’s 10-acre burial ground in Mashpee. “These are my ancestors,” she said, gesturing over the well-kept cemetery. “I have a bond with these people.” The ruling found that the US Department of the Interior wrongly sidestepped a 1934 law when it granted reservation status to the Mashpee last year. A group of Taunton property owners had sued the federal government to block the casino. Under federal law, tribes have the right to run casinos on reservations.The ruling focused on the tribe’s reservation land in Taunton but found that the entire reservation, which includes 150 acres in Mashpee, was awarded improperly. Advertisement The Interior Department has not indicated whether it will appeal, and the tribe last week sought permission to become a party to the lawsuit, saying the government “may not adequately represent the interest of the tribe.” If granted, the motion would allow the tribe to appeal on its own.In a statement, the 3,000-member tribe described its sovereign status in historic, deeply personal terms. “The importance of our newly declared reservation cannot be overstated: These very lands are the lands of our ancestors, literally hold the bones of our ancestors,” leaders said in a statement. Even if the tribe loses sovereignty, it will maintain ownership of its properties. But the prospect of losing the validation of sovereignty, particularly so soon after achieving it, has been difficult for members to accept. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Caretaker Naomi Walker passed through the cemetery outside the Mashpee Old Indian Meeting House on Aug. 19.“We want to save some small portion of what’s been lost,” Kitty Hendricks said from the three-room Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum. “This is our homeland, this is where my blood came from. It’s just nice to be able to take care of it as reservation land. We want to pass it down.”
Nearby, in the shade of a maple tree, Sylvia Malloy and her 11-year-old niece, Chloe, said they had come from Boston to learn more about the tribe, which Chloe had recently studied in school.
“I hope they keep it,” Malloy said of the reservation status. “It’s really important to preserve the culture and the history. It’s part of the pageantry of our country.”
In Mashpee, the tribe controls about 150 acres across 11 parcels, accumulated over decades during the effort to gain recognition as a tribe. The property includes the 17th-century Old Indian Meetinghouse, the museum, a parsonage, a parcel slated for tribal housing, and its headquarters, where in January the tribal flag was raised for the first time.
The town of Mashpee has long had a strong relationship with the tribe, and town officials congratulated tribal leaders when they received reservation status. But in Taunton, where the tribe’s land was obtained wholly for the purpose of building a casino, some residents resisted.
A group of neighbors to the casino site joined forces with Chicago-based developer Neil Bluhm, who was seeking to build a casino in Brockton and depicted the tribe’s proposal as legally suspect.
After the state Gaming Commission voted down the Brockton plan and Bluhm withdrew his funding for the lawsuit, the neighbors persisted. While celebrating the court’s ruling, they said it was never their intended goal to invalidate the tribe’s Mashpee holdings.
“We’re not going out of our way to make them a landless tribe,” said Adam Bond, a lawyer for the Taunton residents. “We’re not focused on Mashpee, but if reservation status unravels in Taunton, then it unravels in Mashpee too.”
At the tribal government center, where the Mashpee flag continues to fly, nearly 200 members provide an array of health, housing, and educational services. Francie Dottin, one of the tribe’s top administrators, stood in the lobby one day last week amid a bustle of activity, from teenagers taking college prep classes to senior citizens having lunch.
With such demand, Dottin said, she’s too busy to dwell on the implications of the recent court decision, no matter how far-reaching.
“Nothing has stopped here,” she said. “We are still working. The work does not stop.”
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
Naomi Walker.
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