FEDS RECOGNIZE FIRST TRIBE SINCE BUSH ELECTED

by Peter Micek

(PNS) -- The American Indian tribe that welcomed Pilgrims to North America and celebrated the mythical first Thanksgiving received federal recognition last week. The Mashpee Wampanoag of Massachusetts waited 32 years for the call from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

With its new, government-to-government relationship with the United States, the tribe can now gain access to federal funding for health care, education and housing, among other services. The tribe's 1,500 members also took an important step toward building a casino.

The possible economic benefits, however, do not affect the outlook of some tribal members, who say their identity and mission continue whether or not the federal government says they exist.

"We've had a lot of time to think about [tribal recognition]," said tribe member and clay artist Ramona Peters, in an article published May 23, 2006, in Indian Country Today, a New York-based, American Indian-owned newspaper. "But there are still a lot of unanswered questions."

She recounts the tribe's relationship with whites, from the Mayflower landing to the arrival of religious missionaries. "We were a reservation until 1870, when we became free and removed the missionaries," she told the newspaper.

"We've been free until [we receive federal recognition], when we'll be wards of the government again."

This is the first time the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recognized a tribe since Bush took office, according to Mark C. Tilden, senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, the nation's oldest and largest Native legal defense fund.

"There are more than 200 tribes that have filed letters of intent to petition for federal acknowledgement," Tilden says. "The decision-making process takes so long. It's very expensive and petitioners often have the perception that it can be unfair to a certain degree."

Indeed, the Mashpee Wampanoag sent a letter of intent in 1975 and submitted a petition in 1990.

"I'm not sure if the BIA is going to issue any more decisions under the Bush administration as far as recognition of tribal governments," says attorney Tilden.

The reaction from the public at large, Peters says, contradicts past sentiments toward her tribe.

"There has been a huge effort to de-Indianize us. Now we're going to be discriminated against in a positive way. People in neighboring towns are congratulating us like it's the first time they've ever seen us. We have a lot of unanswered questions and many tasks ahead."

Tribe members debated the merits of federal recognition at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., last spring, after the government revealed its preliminary finding.

"I feel as if they are anointing us," tribal member John Peters Jr., Ramona's brother, told Indian Country Today. "But the federal government has always known who we were."

Tribe member Anne Fox told Indian Country Today, "I am hesitant about being associated with the federal government, but I am honoring my elders who have worked hard on this for 30 years because it will help other tribal members in regard to health issues, the education of our young people, and obtaining housing."

"Federal recognition could be a useful tool in gaining resources to fund all of those needs," reporter Tanya Lee writes in Indian Country Today.

However, in the same article, Fox says, "It will not promote our cultural traditions. It's up to us to do that. We all have to be supportive of each other, now more than ever. We deserve everything that is available to us -- so many resources have been taken away from us in Mashpee. If this is a way to get some of this back, then fine."

A lawsuit filed in 1976 to reclaim the tribe's land failed in 1978 because the Indians lacked federal status. Peters, Jr. says his tribe did not know they needed federal recognition to win the lawsuit.

"We were trying to protect our land when we filed the land claim suit in 1976," he told Indian Country Today. "Now our land is 90 percent developed, taxes are forcing us off our land, and we have to deal with pollution and traffic jams."

In coming struggles, Peters Jr. tells Indian Country Today, his tribe will use its federal status.

"How will we provide for future generations and teach them to carry on? Federal recognition is just another tool we will learn how to use as we continue on our path."