Ann Gilmore and Earl Mills on 1976 Mashpee Land Suit: case seeking return of land belonging to Tribe

Ann Gilmore, attorney, member of legal team representing the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and Earl “Chiefie” Mills, Chief of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, will present “Mashpee Land Suit,” Saturday, June 29, 1 to 3 PM, at UU Falmouth, 840 Sandwich Rd. East Falmouth.

This L.I.N.K. event, free of charge, sheds light on a law suit brought by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in 1976 seeking the return of ancestral land belonging to the Tribe that had been sold without their consent and without the required Congressional approval. Attorneys for the Tribe were unable to pursue their claim to the land because of the Court’s focus on a preliminary issue raised by the defense, as to whether the Mashpee Wampanoag in fact constituted a “tribe” under the law. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, having lived on this land for over twelve thousand years, found itself, paradoxically, required to prove its existence as a tribe in order to claim land that rightfully belonged to it.

Ann Gilmore was a junior member of the legal team representing the Mashpee Tribe during the land claim suit. She represented groups and individuals in civil rights claims for 20 years, followed by a second career as a special education teacher for middle and high school students. Through marriage and mother-hood she became part of an extended Mashpee Wampanoag family. She divides her time between Mashpee and Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Earl "Chiefie" Mills Jr., Mashpee Wampanoag, testified in the 1976 Mashpee Land Suit. He retired after 32 years with the United States Postal Service and now works part-time for the Native Land Conservancy. He studied agriculture at UMass Amherst, earning a degree in plant and soil sciences. Chiefie has been a member of the American Indian Movement since 1973. He is a former chairman and board member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and was recently asked to serve as the Tribe’s Chief.

The program, the sixth in the “2024 Educational Series,” is sponsored by L.I.N.K. (Linking Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Knowledge) in collaboration with UU Falmouth (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth). The Series is supported by The Fund for Science, The
Falmouth Fund of the Cape Cod Foundation, and Cape and Islands United Way. Held monthly, the free series covers a range of topics chosen in consultation with Elders and teachers in the
Mashpee and Aquinnah Tribes. L.I.N.K.'s mission is to raise awareness among Cape Cod residents of the Wampanoag people as the Indigenous people of the land; their culture; and the hard realities of their history.

More information is available at L.I.N.K.’s website, linkcapecod.org and at UU Falmouth’s website, uufalmouth.org.

Category: Community | Local / Community

Artists / Speakers: Earl "Chiefie" Mills, Ann Gilmore