In February of 1993, a group of Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) members forcefully occupied the tribal government offices to demand a recall vote of chairwoman Beverly Wright.
The hourlong occupation was a boiling over of tensions between members of the Tribal Council and Wampanoags who called themselves the Concerned Indians of Aquinnah (CIA). As the 28th anniversary of the occupation approached, The Times spoke to some of the key players about the tribal tensions.
Two years prior to the occupation, Beverly Wright was elected as chairwoman of the tribal council, and the CIA began garnering signatures for a recall vote. Eventually, the petition, which held almost 100 signatures (50 signatures are required for a recall to be considered, according to the tribal constitution) was presented to the council.
But the petition was rejected by the council, and the vote held.
“They decided to ignore the petition, so that was essentially the trigger,” said Donald Widdiss, who served as chairman prior to Wright’s election.
According to reporting by The Times in 1993, the buildings were occupied in the morning by five or 10 people, and no one except press, police, and those sympathetic to the CIA’s demands were allowed in without signing the petition calling for a recall vote.
Folks who showed up for work attempted to recapture their offices from the protestors.
“Thelma Weissberg, former Gay Head selectman, wielded a heavy wooden signpost like a battering ram and slammed it against a windowpane in the front door of the Wampanoag Tribal Council offices,” according to Times archives.
At the time, Widdiss said, there was talk about a $150 million casino project that would be proposed in the New Bedford area, which had not been fully vetted by tribal membership.
According to Widdiss, some tribe members were looking to integrate more self-sustaining practices into the economic structure, where the nation could act apart from the machinations of the federal government.
The tribe received official recognition in 1987, the same year that its land claim on Martha’s Vineyard was settled by an act of Congress, with agreement by the state and the U.S. Department of the Interior. The government took into trust on behalf of the tribe 485 acres of tribal lands purchased (160 acres private and approximately 325 acres of common lands).
Some Wampanoags opposed the settlement at the time, and continue to maintain the belief that the strings tied to federal dollars reduce the tribe’s autonomy and self-governance.
In 1994, Wampanoag officials chose Carnival Hotels and Casinos as their investment partner for the New Bedford gambling project — a move necessitated by then Gov. William Weld, who stipulated that the tribe would need significant financial backing in order for him to approve a tribal-state compact. This proposal would eventually collapse when the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees tribal casinos, failed to approve the compact because it was overly generous to the commonwealth, with 25 percent of gross gambling revenues being paid to the state.
Opponents of the casino project who occupied the tribal offices were concerned with the path the tribe was going down, and wanted to see more local opportunities for economic enrichment, such as Wampanoag-owned businesses and tourist centers.
Proponents of the casino, such as Wright and other members of the council, saw the project as a way to garner funds, unite the tribe, and establish new cultural enrichment programs that would bring people together.
But the folks who occupied the government offices, according to Widdiss, believed that adopting a dependency on funds from gaming endeavors would create a false sense of economic security for the tribe.
“There are very few tribes that are successful with gaming,” Widdiss said. “Maybe some investors and certain members of the community do well, but the goals of some kind of egalitarian principle really never come into play.”
Those who sought a casino project asserted that it was the only viable move to produce prosperity within the tribal community,
But the $2 million that Wright’s predecessor, Widdiss, negotiated from NYNEX for rights to a cellular phone concession could have essentially been used by the tribal council for whatever local initiatives they deemed worthwhile.
At the time, the Wampanoags were finishing a deal to buy Alley’s General Store, Back Alley’s, and a shellfish hatchery that aimed at bolstering the internal finances of the tribe (although those endeavors ended up hemorrhaging money and transferring ownership due to outstanding debts).
Reached by phone, Wright said that the majority of the council was attending the United South and Eastern Tribes conference in Washington, D.C., when the buildings were occupied.
According to Wright, per the annual audits conducted by the tribe, internal finances that year were up, and spending was down compared with the previous administration.
“That was my first foray into tribal politics; it was my introduction to people who were against me, my own cousins, my own people,” Wright said. She added that she was elected by a significant margin and saw no reason for a recall vote. “I know I won by a large margin; I think they were just mad that I got in,” she said.
Wright stressed that funds were not being mismanaged, and the idea of gaming and a major casino project wasn’t even on the table during the time of the occupation.
Months after the occupation, Wright wrote in the tribal newsletter that the council voted to pursue casino options afforded under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and started down a path that continues to cause internal controversy to this day.
Eventually, the occupying group dispersed, but concerns of another potential event left the tribal offices on edge. The Tribal Council authorized a security patrol provided by the Dukes County Sheriff’s Association for the weeks following the occupation, according to an April 1993 tribal newsletter.
“The CIA has complained that the tribal council is spending tribal funds unwisely [on security]. To that end, an agreement was offered to CIA representative Mark Widdiss stating that if they would sign an agreement guaranteeing that the office employees could carry out their duties unencumbered, the tribal council would terminate security. The CIA has refused to sign,” the newsletter reads.
Immediately after the occupation, the tribe began pursuing gaming options related to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, according to the newsletter.