Appeals court denies Mashpee Wampanaog claim to ancestral land
Friday, July 30, 2010
Filed Under:
Law
Two members of the
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts lost their land claim before the
1st Circuit Court of Appeals today.
Amelia Bingham and her son, Steven, sued the state for depriving them of their right to land that was deeded to Mashpee ancestors in the late 1600s.
The deeds said the land was to be owned by "the South Sea Indians: and their[] Children for ever: and not to be sold or given away from them by any one:
without all their[] Consents there unto."
The Binghams said they are descendants of the South Sea Indians but the 1st Circuit said they didn't show how their ancestors held an actual interest in the land at issue. "Plaintiffs
must show they had an individual interest in the property rights
granted in the seventeenth-century deeds in order to show they were
personally injured by the later state actions affecting those
property rights," the court noted.
"Plaintiffs can do so only if the deeds conveyed
to plaintiffs' individual ancestors discrete property interests
that passed through successive generations," the court continued. "Even when viewing all facts in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, and taking all
reasonable inferences in their favor, plaintiffs have not alleged
sufficient facts to surmount this bar."
The Binghams filed the lawsuit on their own behalf. The tribe itself has not filed a land claim.
1st Circuit Decision:
Bingham v. Massachusetts (July 30, 2010)
Related Stories:
Appeal set for Mashpee Wampanoag land claim
(7/24)
Judge asked to reconsider
Wampanoag land claim (5/27)
Judge
dismisses Mashpee Wampanoag land claim (5/7)
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