Today, Congresswoman Deb Haaland (NM-01) filed a bicameral, bipartisan amicus brief against unprecedented action to remove Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land from tribal trust status. The brief, signed by 25members of Congress, was filed in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe v. United States Department of the Interiors case in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.
Fourteen days after the United States declared a national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of the Interior revoked their prior decision to take the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land into trust that established the Tribe’s land in Massachusetts as reservation land. On March 30, 2020, the Tribe filed an emergency injunction and temporary restraining order in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent the Interior from disestablishing their reservation until a decision in the underlying case is rendered.
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