Federal court rejects Wampanoags' land claim

[paineinthearse]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/02/13/federal_court_rejects_wampanoags_land_claim/

Federal court rejects Wampanoags' land claim
February 13, 2005

BOSTON -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the Seaconke Wampanoag Indian Tribe does not have a valid claim to land in northeastern Rhode Island. The tribe had argued that 34 square miles of land including Cumberland and parts of Woonsocket was theirs due to a 1661 deed between an emissary of the English crown and the Wampanoag chief at the time. The tribe lost control of the land after King Phillip's War in the 1670s. But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the tribe missed a 1978 deadline to claim ancestral land in the state, upholding a November 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge William Smith.

The deadline, outlined in the Indian Settlement Act that gave the Narragansett Indian Tribe its land in Charlestown, gave other tribes six months to file their own Rhode Island land claims. The Wampanoags filed their claim more than 24 years later. "Because the Wampanoags failed to bring their claims with the 180-day statute of limitation period provided for . . . they are now barred from asserting the claims presented in this suit," the opinion said.

The tribe had tried to get around the settlement act by arguing that the deed granted the Wampanoags the right "for to plant & sojorne upon" the land after the sale, making it like a conventional real-estate deal.

The appeals court ruled that that type of right had to be ratified by Congress. The decision pointed out that the Wampanoags are not a federally recognized tribe, and there is no record of congressional approval of their land claim. The plaintiff, Wilfred W. Greene, also known as Chief Eagle Heart, said he hadn't seen the decision and couldn't comment in detail, according to The Providence Journal.

"I'm shocked," he said.