<\/p>\r\nJust days after renewing criticism of Donald Trump and his administration’s policy failures, the leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe was indicted on federal bribery and extortion charges<\/a>.\r\n <\/p>\r\nChairman Cedric Cromwell was arrested on Friday, according to documents filed in federal court in Massachusetts. He and a co-defendant, a non-Indian named David DeQuattro, are being accused of stealing from the tribe, whose fight to save its reservation has been a rallying cry in Indian Country<\/a> and a sign of the Trump administration’s failure to meet its trust obligations<\/a>.\r\n <\/p>\r\n\u201cMany American Indians face a host of difficult financial and social issues. They require — and deserve — real leadership,\u201d U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said in a news release<\/a> on Friday. \u201cBut it appears that Cromwell\u2019s priority was not to serve his people, but to line his own pockets.\u201d\r\n <\/p>\r\n Chairman of Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and owner of architecture firm arrested in connection w\/ bribery scheme involving plans to build resort & casino in Taunton, Mass. https:\/\/t.co\/o3ciqnXiGC<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t <\/p>\r\nThe federal charges are directly connected to the tribe’s homeland struggles, a dispute that has drawn the attention of the president himself. Last year, Trump tried to derail legislation<\/a> that protects the reservation by employing racist language<\/a>.\r\n <\/p>\r\n\u201cTrump had been tweeting about my tribe,\u201d Cromwell said on Sunday during a session hosted by the National Congress of American Indians<\/a>. \u201cVery negative things.\u201d\r\n <\/p>\r\nWhen the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill anyway, the Trump administration took additional steps to stop the tribe from exerting sovereignty over its ancestral territory. In March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> was taking a hold in tribal communities across the nation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs<\/a> informed Cromwell that the reservation was going to be taken out of trust.\r\n <\/p>\r\nThe action was virtually unprecedented. Not since the disastrous termination era of federal policy<\/a> has the United States attempted to disestablish a tribal reservation.\r\n <\/p>\r\n Amid #COVID19 pandemic, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has been told that its reservation will be taken out of trust. Chairman Cedric Cromwell: “Not since the termination era of the mid-twentieth century has a Secretary taken action to disestablish a reservation” https:\/\/t.co\/dqvzH7sSrZ<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t <\/p>\r\nA federal judge later blasted the Department of the Interior<\/a> for reversing course on a such a cornerstone of self-determination<\/a>. The reservation, which comprises about 321 acres in southeastern Massachusetts, remains in trust as a result of ongoing litigation.\r\n <\/p>\r\nBut with the results of the historic election showing Native voters across the nation ousting<\/a> Trump in resounding numbers, a sense of hope is slowly returning.Democratic president-elect Joe Biden has vowed to \u201cstand with Mashpee\u201d<\/a> and protect all tribal land rights.\r\n <\/p>\r\n\u201cI’m glad to see he’s going,\u201d Cromwell said of Trump, who has not yet conceded to Biden.\r\n <\/p>\r\nWith the charges coming a week after Trump’s loss at the polls, defense attorney Timothy R. Flaherty voiced skepticism about the announcement. The indictment comes amid National Native American Heritage Month<\/a> and on the eve of Thanksgiving, a holiday that is directly tied to the assistance the Wampanoag people provided to European settlers<\/a> some 400 years ago.\r\n <\/p>\r\n\u201cThe timing is curious,\u201d Flaherty told Indianz.Com on Friday afternoon.\r\n <\/p>![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/461553195622232064\/ekjd7lEJ_200x200.png\")
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