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Federal recognition would provide The Nipmuc
Nation with sovereign nation status as a government. We would
have the opportunity for self-sufficiency and to share economic
benefits with Massachusetts’s residents. Recognition would enable
The Nipmuc Nation to work with governmental agencies and private
industry to access programs and grants; i.e. economic development
from manufacturing to high-tech, historic preservation programs,
housing, health care, education). We would also be able to
have lands within the Tribe’s general aboriginal area be put into
federal trust.
Federal recognition
was anticipated in spring, 2004 followed a
nearly 25-year official effort, and the filing of a final petition
(69A) containing 15,000 documents comprising some 45,000 pages. The
recognition petition pre-dates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of
1988 by 8 years. The process has been marked by countless
bureaucratic delays beyond those allowed, including the
preliminary recognition granted on Jan. 19, 2001 by the Acting
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, which was later and seemingly
wrongly reversed. The Nation then had to endure three further
extensions after that.
The Nipmuc
effort towards federal recognition as a Native American tribe has been supported continuously throughout
this process by Senators Kennedy and Kerry and Representatives McGovern,
Neal, Olver, Moakley, Lynch, Markey and Meehan; by proclamations from
all recent governors, by the Central MA Caucus of elected state senators
and representatives and by Senate and House leadership of both Democratic
and Republican parties; and by area municipal and town elected and
appointed officials.
Nipmuc Indians are connected to the communities in which they
reside. Areas of involvement have included an Industrial Development
Corporation which provided job training, first-time home buyer
seminars and other services; a Women’s Health Center; a regional
transportation system providing shuttle van services to the
elderly, disabled and others; welfare to work programs; education; individual involvement
in town governments and schools, as well as leadership roles in fraternal
and public service organizations. Federal recognition would provide
for a significant expansion of these and other services to tribal
members.
PETITION UPDATES
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