"When the U.S. Department of the Interior rejected an agreement negotiated by the state with the Mashpee Indians, nobody said it had slammed the door on chances of a resort casino in Taunton.
It just sounded that way to some of us. When the decision was made known, Mayor Tom Hoye saw it as a “bump in the road.” There’s the federal rule that you must be a certified Indian tribe for much longer than the Mashpees have been recognized; a court decision on that may be another bump. Gov. Deval Patrick and the legislators will have to knock heads with the descendants of the Wampanoags again. The tribe is easy to please; Beacon Hill isn’t, not when it’s been told it was wrong." Get the Story: