Concerns that tie will hurt cause
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | December 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In the three-decade struggle by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to win federal tribal recognition -- a key requirement for building a possible Massachusetts casino -- the money that passed hands in September 2003 stands as a turning point.
Six members of the Cape Cod tribe gave a combined $12,000 to a political action committee that is led by a California Republican, Representative Richard William Pombo.
As chairman of the House Committee on Resources, Pombo has jurisdiction over most matters concerning Indian interests.
The donations to Pombo's committee that month also included one from a Detroit casino developer who is bankrolling the tribe's recognition effort. The developer, Herbert Strather, kicked in an additional $2,000.
But the biggest contribution to Pombo's committee, $5,000, came from Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist whose firm represented the Wampanoags.
Pombo took up the tribe's cause. Working with Representative William D. Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who also received contributions, Pombo introduced a bill urging the administration to speed up its review of cases such as Wampanoags'. The government -- prodded by a federal judge who was handling a lawsuit by the tribe -- agreed this summer to speed the review by at least seven years.
As a result, the 31-year fight by the Wampanoags appears to be coming to a close; the Bush administration is to decide in March whether to recognize the tribe on a preliminary basis.
But the connection to Abramoff, revealed in e-mail messages that were recently released by a Senate committee, may have come at the worst possible time for the tribe. Abramoff is under investigation into whether he defrauded other tribes of millions of dollars, and on suspicion that he funneled contributions to powerful legislators in exchange for favors.
Recently, tribal members met to discuss whether the ties to Abramoff could diminish their chances of winning federal recognition, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Some tribal members urged that the tribe cut its ties to two lobbyists, Kevin A. Ring and Michael D. Smith, who have left the Abramoff firm but who still represent the tribe. Ring has invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination rather than testify before the Senate about his knowledge of Abramoff's business matters.
''It does bother me . . . that our tribal leadership chose not to distance themselves from lobbyists who are in question," Paula Peters, a member of the tribe who has criticized the hiring of Abramoff's firm, said in a telephone interview.
But the tribal chairman, Glenn Marshall, has expressed satisfaction with Abramoff's firm, and with the work of Ring and Smith. Marshall declined comment, but his spokesman, Scott Ferson, stressed that the Wampanoags needed influence in Washington.
''The Mashpee were in a position where they had waited 30 years for their case to be heard, and the best information at the time told them they would have to wait another dozen years for it to be heard," Ferson said.
''The process was clearly flawed. So they undertook a strategy to sue the [government] over issues of due process and to bring their case to people of influence in Washington."
The Mashpee tribe, which is separate from the Wampanoags on Martha's Vineyard, has a unique place in American history: It is the tribe that met with the Pilgrims in Plymouth. The group first petitioned for recognition in the 1970s, a decade before a federal law cleared the way for Indian casinos.
Ferson said that the tribe is satisfied with the lobbying by Abramoff's firm because it created ''a very high understanding in Washington that the tribe that met the Mayflower is not recognized by this government."
Ferson said the tribe went to Abramoff several years ago because his firm ''had a very solid reputation for being effective in its lobbying effort. . . . Part of this effort was to let as many people know about the Mashpee story, and Jack Abramoff was reported to be extremely well known in Washington."
Ferson confirmed that FBI agents had visited the tribe to collect documents about Abramoff's work for the tribe a year ago, but he said there has been no follow-up.
Tribal representatives fear they could be tarnished by their association with Abramoff.
Members stress that the tribe's ties to Abramoff are small in comparison to what Abramoff allegedly did for other tribes. The Wampanoags said they paid the two lobbyists $50,000 when they worked at Abramoff's firm, a far cry from the millions of dollars paid by some other tribes to Abramoff and his associates. There has been no allegation of wrongdoing involving anyone in the tribe, Ferson said.
Abramoff's work for the tribe did not surface during widely publicized hearings this year.
The hearings involved Abramoff's dealings by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. But emails released in recent weeks by the committee show that Abramoff was involved in pushing the tribe's cause.
On Dec. 6, 2002, for example, Smith wrote to Abramoff that ''the tribe believes that a bureaucrat in the Solicitor General's Office has unfairly held them up."
One month later, Abramoff wrote an e-mail message with the subject line ''Mashpee Indians (Cape Cod Massachusetts Area)."
''Is there any way you might be able to discreetly find out whether this recognition is being held by one of our guys, or one of the bureaucrats?" Abramoff said. ''They want me to help, but I don't want to get into something which might cause any problems for Steve or the secretary." That alluded to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
The e-mail trail suggests that Steve may have been a reference to the former deputy Interior Secretary, J. Steven Griles, whose name has surfaced in the investigation. Abramoff wrote a subsequent e-mail message to an aide, with the subject line, ''Mashpee for Griles." In that email, Abramoff wrote, ''This regards the tribe in Massachusetts and is quite urgent . . ."
Griles's lawyer, Barry Hartman, said ''All of the evidence we have seen confirms Mr. Griles' recollection that he never worked on the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal recognition issue."
At some point in 2003, Marshall, the tribal chairman, came to Washington and met with Abramoff. Ferson said $50,000 had been paid to Abramoff's firm by Strather, the Detroit casino developer who has bankrolled the Mashpee Wampanoags' effort to win recognition.
Strather did not return calls seeking comment.
In addition, Ferson said that at the suggestion of Abramoff's firm, Strather donated $50,000 to Americans for Tax Reform, which is run by the antitax activist Grover Norquist, according to Ferson. Norquist, a Weston native and a longtime friend of Abramoff from days organizing college Republicans in Massachusetts, has argued against US taxing of tribal profits.
Norquist did not respond to a request for comment.
The Mashpee Wampanoags and their backers provided campaign contributions to Pombo in September 2003, apparently hoping the congressman would help push their petition along. Pombo introduced his bill urging speedy review a year later.
A Pombo spokesman, Brian Kennedy, said that the bill affected about a dozen tribes.
These included the Mashpee Wampanoags, who ''are what one could consider a poster tribe on the need to reform the recognition process."
Delahunt, who represents the Mashpee area on Cape Cod, also played a role. He received at least $1,000 from tribal members and $2,500 from Strather for his 2004 campaign. Delahunt, who has long been supportive of effort to speed up review of the tribe's case, said he never talked with Abramoff about the tribe.
On Sept. 27, 2004, the Pombo-Delahunt legislation passed the House Resources Committee. It did not pass the full House.
A similar effort was sponsored by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. While denying any wrongdoing, Dorgan last week returned $67,000 in donations from Abramoff associates and clients.
The Mashpee Wampanoags cited the support of members of Congress when it subsequently sued the government for failing to act on its request for recognition in a timely manner. The case went to District Court Judge James Robertson, who denied the government's motion for dismissal.
That prompted the government to negotiate with the tribe, resulting in a pact to reach a preliminary decision by the end of March 2006. If that is granted, the government would give final approval by March 2007.
If so, the tribe would likely attempt to build a casino in Massachusetts.
