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6 <br /> Selectman Leveille: I like to have the opportunity to hear some other comments. <br /> Glenn Marshall: Absolutely. You had a second question. <br /> Selectman Leveille: I asked that about the objectives...Okay, thank you Glenn. <br /> Mr. Benway. <br /> George Benway: Thank you Mr. Chairman, I have a petition which Mr. Marshall <br /> referred to and if I am in order I would like to present it to the <br /> Board at this time. It contains more than 275 names garnered in <br /> less than two days on the weekend and if I may I could read it for <br /> you and then give to you and make it part of the record. It says we <br /> the undersigned voters and residents of the Town of Mashpee <br /> strongly urge our Selectmen to take no action, which would <br /> support the current federal recognition process of Mashpee Tribal <br /> Council membership.. We do not want our Town split in two by <br /> having an independent sort of a party paying no taxes with no state <br /> or town control oversight located in our Town. With that, I'd like <br /> to present this to you Mr. Chairman. <br /> I would like to also make a few other comments, and to rebut what <br /> Mr. Marshall continues to say about and referring to a Tribe, <br /> because that is the reason we are all here. There is at present and <br /> has been no Tribe. And when Mr. Marshall refers back to 1870, it <br /> wasn't a Tribe then and a Tribe didn't vote. The 1977 federal case, <br /> which Mr. Marshall referred to, is by no means insignificant. It is <br /> important to note that their initial petition, the Tribal Council's <br /> petition to BIA under the Department of Interior was filed in 1975 <br /> before they filed an action in federal court.. So from the time lag <br /> from a year and a few months, it would seem that the Tribal <br /> Council grew impatient. We know what happened. I don't have to <br /> go over that again. I also can tell you from BIA's own record and <br /> own documentation of which I can provide anybody later,that the <br /> decisions of BIA are subject to review and appeal to the federal <br /> courts. Only one such situation has developed where federal <br /> courts have in fact overturned a BIA decision. In Mashpee's case <br /> if you think about it that has already happened. The supreme <br /> authority, supreme to BIA has already made the decision. Federal <br /> court affirmed by appeals court and also by the Supreme Court <br /> said they do not exist as a Tribe, period. So for Mr. Marshall to <br /> continue to reiterate the fact that a Tribe does this and a Tribe does <br /> that is merely trying to say for the record that a Tribe exists when <br /> in fact, a Tribe does not exist. <br />