Quote of the Day

“This is a tremendous blow to our tribe, without whom America’s earliest settlers would not have survived. It should also alarm tribal nations all across Indian Country. I do not believe that our country — this great nation that our tribal citizens have fought and died for — wants to return to the dark days of taking sovereign Indian land away from indigenous communities. If neither Congress nor the federal courts weigh in to stop this, the Trump administration will return the Mashpee Wampanoag once again to landlessness, force us to close our schools and social service programs and lead us back to despair and hopelessness.” — Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell on an Interior Department ruling that his tribe does not meet the definition of “Indian,” among other things.