The Unilateral Termination of Tribal Status: Mashpee Tribe v. New Seabury Corp.

Mashpee Tribe v. New Seabury Corp. is the first reported case in which a federal trial court decided the question of an Indian group's existence as a tribe. In Mashpee, the issue of tribal existence arose as a defense to a claim brought by the Mashpee Indians for recovery of lands comprising most of the Town of Mashpee, Massachusetts. At the time of suit, these lands were held by a class of defendants who, according to the Mashpees' complaint, held interests or title acquired without the consent of Congress in violation of the Nonintercourse Act. Based upon the jury verdicts, the district court dismissed the plaintiffs claim for lack of standing as a tribe of Indians entitled to protection under the Nonintercourse Act. On appeal of the judgment to the First Circuit, the dismissal was affirmed. Approving the standards utilized in jury instructions by the district court, the appeals panel ruled that a tribe can lose its status by a "knowing and willing and voluntary abandonment" or by a "voluntary assimilation" into the non-Indian community. This note will focus on the appellate court's construction of the legal standards governing abandonment of tribal relations and assimilation of a tribe into the non-Indian community.