Today we celebrate a legal and moral victory that brings to our Tribe justice that has been very long overdue. The United States Supreme Court announced that it would not hear the appeal requested by a small group of Taunton residents who have challenged our right to our Reservation for nearly a decade. With this final legal victory, we secure the future for the generations who come after us, and we honor our ancestors who continued the fight to have ancestral land returned to us. With this victory, we will be able to fully exercise our sovereignty to provide for our people and to preserve our culture and traditions.
The Annual Holiday Gift Card and Parent Toy Pick-up opens on Saturday, December 16, with Stop & Shop gift card pick-up from 9:00 AM to Noon at the Tribe’s Community and Government Center. Starting at 1:00 PM and continuing through 6:00 PM, tribal citizens may pick up both toys and a Stop & Shop gift card. The annual event will continue on Sunday, December 17, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, when parents may continue to pick up both toys and a Stop & Shop gift card.
It's unfortunate that we are not focused on the beautiful display of our culture and history at the Macy’s Day Parade but rather on the actions of an individual tribal citizen. We want to make it very clear that the Tribe takes no stance on the conflicts overseas. Our Tribal Nation remains focused on the issues we face on our ancestral homeland. While we cannot speak for an individual's actions, his actions were not a Tribal decision. Our governing tribal body, along with the other tribal citizens on the float, were not involved with his actions.
A community forum will be held on Saturday, November 25, to allow the Tribal Nation to receive important details about the Mashpee Wampanoag Transitional Housing and Shelter Program and ask questions. The forum will be held from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Community and Government Center at 483 Great Neck Road South in Mashpee.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe received welcome news this evening. The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston has ruled in favor of our Tribe. Our tribal lands will continue to remain in trust for generations to come. Tribal citizens who are with us today and our ancestors who have carried the fight for our homeland forward generation after generation. Today, we can celebrate this historic decision.
It is with the deepest sorrows that we learned last evening that the body of our young missing tribal woman Jalajhia Finklea was located in Florida.
Details of her return home will follow in the days to come but right now our primary concern is for the comfort, needs, and privacy of her family.
Our very deepest condolences to the family of Jalajhia Finklea. We hold them in our prayers in this most sorrowful time. We must be here for them and one another.
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
There are two words in your language for the English word, ‘tribe’. These two words are our instructions; chupân8ôk, ‘Tribe’ it literally means the being set apart from others, being free. The other word is, Tahs88ôk, ‘tribe’ but literally to be counted among the collective. To be one collection of People.
The Mashpee Wampanoag are in fact, and have always been, a People created by Manut Creator free and separate from the world; a singular collective free to govern ourselves as we see fit and proper.
We are not a collection of mirror images of one another, however, and any one of us can lose our way. If we do, it is up to the collective Tahs88ôk, to ensure that the course is corrected and the way to free and fit government is opened.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Housing Department will present the 2021 HUD Indian Housing Plan (IHP) on November 19, 2020 at 5:30pm at the regularly scheduled Housing Commissioner’s Meeting. In order to participate in the meeting, please call the dial in # 978-990-5002, Dial In Access Code # 443734#.
In our continued efforts to identify and stop the spread of COVID-19, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Emergency Management Department has implemented a system known as the Text Illness Monitoring System (TIMs2) for the Tribal Community.
This is an effective cell phone text messaging system that has been used for many years to control the spread of disease such as Tuberculosis.
We need your support to quickly bring a young tribal member home. Please contact the authorities if you have seen or heard anything and please continue to share this information with your networks far and wide.
Jalajhia was Last seen on October 20th in the New Bedford area with the abductor Luis Robert Zaragoza/Barboza and may have been taken outside of Massachusetts.
Jalajhia Finklea is 18 years of age and is 5’3” and approximately 110 lbs. She has brown hair, hazel eyes and has a triangle scar on her left cheek.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is seeking Preliminary Price Proposals from qualified Engineering Firms to provide Engineer Services associated with design and construction of sanitation facilities for residential onsite wastewater treatment systems meeting Title V requirements for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. These sites are to be constructed within the tribe’s Purchased/Referred Care Delivery Area (PRCDA). The PRCDA for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is specific to the following Counties in the State of Massachusetts; Barnstable, Bristol, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk Counties. The residential onsite wastewater treatment facilities are to be constructed using funds received through the Indian Health Service Housing Program. All Engineering Services will be subject to Davis Bacon requirements. The Tribe is Tax Exempt.
