Mashpee Wampanoag, tribe at 1st Thanksgiving, is recognized
MASHPEE, Mass. - The tribe that shared in the first Thanksgiving celebration received federal recognition Thursday as a sovereign American Indian nation, 32 years after it began its quest.
The ancestors of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe were at the area where Plymouth was founded long before the Pilgrims arrived, but their population was nearly wiped out by war and disease.
The roughly 1,500 members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe learned last March that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had given their bid preliminary approval. Elders and other members gathered Thursday at their tribal seat in anticipation of the bureau's phone call announcing the latest decision...
In September, Mashpee town officials endorsed the request after the tribe agreed not to build a casino on Cape Cod or try to use the courts to take over private land. The tribe has been open about its desire to build a casino outside tribal lands, if Massachusetts alters its laws to permit it.
After the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, members of the Mashpee tribe dined with the English settlers at the first Thanksgiving. The harmony, though, gave way to a brief period of bloody war.
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The ancestors of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe were at the area where Plymouth was founded long before the Pilgrims arrived, but their population was nearly wiped out by war and disease.
The roughly 1,500 members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe learned last March that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had given their bid preliminary approval. Elders and other members gathered Thursday at their tribal seat in anticipation of the bureau's phone call announcing the latest decision...
In September, Mashpee town officials endorsed the request after the tribe agreed not to build a casino on Cape Cod or try to use the courts to take over private land. The tribe has been open about its desire to build a casino outside tribal lands, if Massachusetts alters its laws to permit it.
After the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, members of the Mashpee tribe dined with the English settlers at the first Thanksgiving. The harmony, though, gave way to a brief period of bloody war.