4/23/2018 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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''............'°r� TOWN OF MASHPEE OFFICE OF SELECTMEN 16 Great Neck Road North • �'t I' Maslipee,Massachusetts 02649 Telephone-(568)539-1402 %ii►i:E G0., bos@niashpeema.gov April 18, 2018 Cedric Cromwell, Chairman Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Offices 483 Great Neck Road South Mashpee, MA 02649 Dear Chairman Cromwell, Thank you for requesting a meeting with Town of Mashpee representatives to discuss the Town's potential support of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act (H.R. 5244, S. 2628). While we are disappointed not to have been advised in advance of the Tribe's correspondence with our Congressional .delegation relative to this proposed legislation, which we deem to have significant ramifications for the Town, we agree that the passage of such legislation could yield mutual benefits for both the Town and Tribe.As you know, based on recent discussions with Tribe officers, Mashpee officials have become Increasingly concerned that the Tribe is considering renewing land claims against the Town and private property owners in the community due to developments in the litigation challenging the Department of the Interior's ("DO]") decision to have lands in Taunton acquired in trust and the potential adverse outcome of the remanded/renewed trust application now pending with the DOI. The Town appreciates the Tribe's reassurance during our recent meeting that it has no intention of renewing such land claims and that it considers its commitment not to do so, as memorialized in multiple Tribal Resolutions and our April .2; 2008 intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), binding and enforceable. Ensuring that the mutual commitments made by the Town and Tribe in the IGA are preserved is the single most important issue for the Town with respect to the Tribe's land in trust proceedings. The 1976 land claims litigation was deeply divisive and, decades later, community_ concern relative to the reassertion of such claims remains, Our job now is to work cooperatively to eliminate that concern going forward. The Town appreciates the Tribe's efforts to preserve and reaffirm the terms of the IGA through the Mashpee Reaffirmation Act, which the Tribe believes will implicitly ratify the IGA by ensuring that the lands acquired in trust in 2015 remain in trust. The Town, however, remains concerned that by failing to expressly incorporate a reference to the IGA into the legislation, the Town and the Tribe will create prospective legal ambiguities that will benefit no one.