Tribe OK’s Mashpee deal
Town of Mashpee gets what they want
Some notable quotes from a Cape Cod Times article:
I think “jump-start” is a little optimistic given Governor Patrick’s recent objection to the land into trust application. That said, the agreement prevents the tribe from opening a casino in Mashpee or reopening land claims against the town. The honor of hosting a casino will go to Middleboro.
This was a smart move by the town of Mashpee. They had the tribe over a barrel and got exactly what they wanted. What would Middleboro have gotten if we told them to shove off last summer. I’ll tell you what we would have gotten: More than twice as much as we got including a percentage of the slots.
Happy-happy fun boy Glenn Marshall rears his ugly head
Great – serial liar and rapists allowed – wrongly shunned members shown the door. This is just plain wrong.
De-Nial is not just a river in Egypt
Right – what’s up with that? Is this the sort of transparency we can look forward to when the tribe starts running a $1B+ dollar business on sovereign land? Color me skeptical.
So what did that mean? It sounds to me like he is blaming the press for his problems. This tells me that he has not owned up to the fact that his public humiliation was the fault of one person and one person only – Glenn Marshall. The fact that Marshall is still so welcome is disturbing when viewed in the context of the shunned members. On the one hand we have a group of people wrongly stripped of their tribal rights for asking to see the secret deals that party-fun-boy Glenn Marshall made with a bunch of non-Indian investors. On the other hand we have Glenn Marshall – the person who spearheaded the shunning – yucking it up with his buddies and playing bad-boy to the press.
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council and leadership leave a lot to be desired in my mind. Until they take care of their own business properly – I for one don’t want them running a business in Middleboro – or anywhere else for that matter.
Is that harsh? Consider this: The Mashpee Wampanoag are a sovereign nation. They elected a tribal council. The tribal council appointed Glenn Marshall. During his reign as tribal chairman, he lied to Congress about his war record and misrepresented his birth date to prevent discovery of his criminal past. When his transgressions were discovered, the tribal council did nothing to discipline him.
That speaks volumes to me. And volume I is titled “Don’t do business with this group of people”.
It occurred to me, as I read this post, that somewhere back in time, the town of Mashpee must have been told that a casino was “a done deal”. But instead of buying into that hook, line and sinker as so many people in Middleboro did, and like so many legislators still do, the people of Mashpee didn’t settle, and came up with another solution rather than live with a casino. Hmmm… (I think I feel a blog coming on…)
The town of Mashpee (via town meeting) still needs to agree with the deal. They know Glenn a little better than the people of Middleboro did last year.