The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is rolling the dice with President Trump.
Even as Trump mocks Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” the tribe still hopes his promise to make America great again includes its quest to build a casino.
Tribal council chairman Cedric Cromwell is asking the Trump administration to reissue a new record of decision that reaffirms the “land into trust” designation previously approved by the Obama administration for a casino in Taunton. That designation is now up in the air after neighbors filed a lawsuit which stalled the project.
In the gambling business, you play the hand you’re dealt. And for Native Americans, Trump seems like a bad one. Aside from the insult he hurls at the senator from Massachusetts because of the controversy over her unproven Cherokee roots, the Trump administration is moving ahead on the Dakota Access Pipeline over objections from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
Back in Massachusetts, there’s also the complicating matter of Steve Wynn. Trump just picked him to be finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Meanwhile, Wynn is also building a casino in Everett. That’s a different market from Taunton.
But so was Atlantic City, when Trump tried to block Native American competitors in upstate New York. He secretly funded ads suggesting they would bring drug dealing and organized crime to the industry and questioned the heritage of “so-called Indians” who were vying for a piece of the action. “They don’t look like Indians to me,” Trump said of tribal representatives in testimony before Congress in 1993.
I’m no fan of casinos. But I do believe in fairness, and Native Americans in Massachusetts have been denied justice for decades. Cultural resistance to legalized gambling was the initial excuse. But then gambling was legalized in Massachusetts, and the 2011 law envisioned that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe would operate the third and final resort casino authorized by the state. That still hasn’t happened. It’s partly because the tribe is going through a federal process that doesn’t involve the state, and partly because competitors are working to stop its casino.
A year ago, the tribe’s casino dreams looked like they might finally come true. In January 2016, the federal government officially recorded the Taunton reservation land in the Federal Register. In April, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission denied a bid for a rival casino in Brockton and the tribe, which partnered with First Light Resort & Casino, broke ground on their $600 million project. Then the federal “land into trust” decision was challenged by neighbors, with financial help from a rival developer trying to build a casino in Brockton. In July, a federal judge ruled that the US Department of the Interior overstepped its authority in granting the designation. The tribe stopped construction and is appealing the ruling, with backing from the US Department of Justice.
Will that backing continue under Attorney General Jeff Sessions? And what can the Wampanoag tribe expect from a Department of the Interior headed by Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, who has also been called out for insensitive remarks about Native Americans?
Cromwell is testing the political waters, by pushing for federal officials to reaffirm the land-into-trust decision. “Here lies an opportunity,” he said, for Trump to get behind a project that will bring 7,000 jobs, $30 million in infrastructure investment, and $75 million in tax revenue. “That is making America great again,” he said.
Backing the Wampanoags would also allow Trump to reset his relationship with Native Americans. Trump’s name-calling of Warren is “unfortunate,” said Cromwell, who adds, “I hope there can be meaningful discussion around who we are as a people and more respect shown.”
Any hope of that from Trump is definitely a gamble.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.