Wamps May Still Save The Sound

The Wampanoag tribes of Aquinnah and Mashpee may be the last hope for SOSers. The two tribes are trying to get the entire sound listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Their opposition to the project is the same as the rest of the NIMBY camp: the view. A view that is a connection to their history and their spiritual being.

The Wampanoag are the people of the first light, and likely the first casino in Massachusetts, and require an unobstructed view of the sunrise. Bettina Washington, from Aquinnah, tells the Boston Globe that their ancestors walked in the forest that lays below Horseshoe Shoal, and buried their dead there.

Maybe this is another delay tactic, the tribe is being helped by the Save Our Sound group, but their opposition and concerns have been consistently voiced over the last seven years and this designation, looks to VT like the last exit. State officials tell the Globe that designation of the Sound as a nationally historic place would not automatically stop the project but would make permitting more difficult.

A decision on the request must be made before the Interior Secretary makes a final ruling on the Cape Wind project.