The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s most recent failure to take action to preserve and protect the Tribe’s reservation.

Last week, the U.S. House unanimously approved U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s bill to repeal the prohibition of distilleries on tribal land.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell called last week’s DOI decision, which reverses the decision made by the Obama Administration in 2015, a “grave injustice.”

For the Mashpee Wampanoag, losing their trust status would also mean losing major economic development programs that benefit Tribal members and the entire region.

In 1834, the 23rd United States Congress passed “an Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers.” In section 21 of this law,