An Act of Tribal Jurisdiction

On March 12, 2021, four days before Congresswomen Deb Haaland was confirmed as the first ever Native American US Secretary of Interior, the Mattakeeset Tribal Nations Public Safety Department took the “just do it” initiative and posted a sign alongside of the Bridgewater Conservation Commissions sign that states “Mattakeeset Tribal Jurisdiction, Please Respect our Sacred Lands” outside of the 27 acres of “open space” being “managed”by the “Bridgewater Conservation Commission” which is just a very small 27 acre fraction of the tribes original 1664 perpetual restrictive covenant land deed where the tribes largest burial site is located and has already been desecrated between 1946 to 1951 by a man named Dr. Maurice Robbins, who was the Director of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society who led an excavation project on the tribes sacred burial ground in partnership with Harvard University Peabody Museum where they unearthed a total of 26 ancestral remains of the Mattakeeset people and over 6000 artifacts from the site. Today the tribes sacred burial site is in use by the local boys scouts as a camp site and as a recreational open space for dog walking, partying and a dump site of local resident trash. The Mattakeeset Tribes effort to place a 20 inch wide by 36 in long sign on an area of open space left of the Bridgewater Conservation Commissions sign is to bring light to tribal sovereignty based on the administrative obligation of the Mattakeeset tribes 1664 land deed to their reserve and to bring about public and constructive notice to all who visit their ancestral homelands.