4/23/2018 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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As you know, last year, the First Circuit held that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), 25 U.S.C. 2701 et'seq., implicitly repealed language in the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Dead, Inc., Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1987, Pub. L. No. 100-95, that made settlement lands subject to state and local laws prohibiting gaming. See Massachusetts v. Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), 853 F.3d 618 (1st Cir. 2017). Although the Town of Aquinnah and the Commonwealth argued that all of the parties executed the settlement with the intent of prohibiting gaming on settlement lands and identified Congressional testimony to that effect, the court nonetheless held that a statute of general applicability repealed contrary language specifically negotiated by the parties and codified by Congress. As you are further aware, Section (2)(c) of the Mashpee Reaffirmation Act would make "[a]ll laws (including regulations) of the United States of general applicability to Indians or nations, Indian Tribes, or bands of Indians ... appii'cab_le to the Tribe and Tribal members." Based on.First Circuit precedent, that provision could raise the question of whether certain laws, such as IGRA or even the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790, override commitments set forth in the IGA. To avoid any legal ambiguity which the parties do not intend, the Town strongly believes that the Mashpee Reaffirmation Act should be revised to snake explicit the intent of the parties to codify- the 1GA's commitments. With respect to the Town's commitments under the IGA, we already have fulfilled certain key obligations, including: (1) supporting the Tribe's acquisition in trust of approximately 170 acres of land located in Mashpee for the proposed uses,identified in the Tribe's August 30, 2007, trust application to the Department of the Interior; (2) effecting the transfer of title from the Town to the Tribe of three parcels of land (generally referred to as the Old Indian Meeting House, Cemetery, and Parsonage); (3) removing certain restrictive covenants from three parcels of land (Mashpee Museum, Mashpee Tribal Council Offices, and Mashpee Burial Ground); and (4) supporting all local approvals and state legislation, as necessary and requested by the Tribe, to have the Punkhorn Point and the Popponesset Bay aquaculture sites acquired in trust, since the Town lacks fee title to those parcels. The DOI acquired the Tribe's approximately 170 acres of land in Mashpee in trust on September 18, 2015. The Town facilitated that acquisition by executing a letter of support and other necessary documents to facilitate the acquisition on an expedited basis. Those lands remain in trust, and no one has sought their removal.' The Town would be happy to incorporate a reference to its remaining commitments to cooperate with Tribal staff on development and traffic patterns and assist In planning and implementation of capital improvements into the legislation, to the extent the Tribe believes doing so would be beneficial or appropriate. With respect to the Tribe's commitments, the Town feels strongly that the language of the proposed legislation must include the Tribe's agreement to; We understood from our meeting that the Tribe is concerned about the effect of the federal district cots is ruling in Littlefield v.United States Dep't of Interior, 199 F.Supp.3d 391 (D.Mass.2016)on the 10A.The relief sought in that case,however,is expressly limited to lands in Taunton,Massachusetts.