lmost half of the members of the Nipmuc Nation, a Central Massachusetts tribe asserting the right to build a casino by virtue of its members' status as Indians, were only recently recruited into the group and are not Indians at all, according to a federal government finding released this week.
For that reason, among others, the Bush administration overtuned a last-minute ruling by Clinton officials giving the group federal recognition as a tribe, and with it the authority to build a casino.
Documents released this week show that only 54 percent of the approximately 1,600 members of the Nipmuc Nation descend from the historical Nipmuc tribe, according to an examination of the group's genealogies by federal officials.
The others -- some 704 members of the group -- are at best distantly related to Nipmucs, but not by blood. These people have no Nipmucs in their direct line -- grandparent to parent to child -- though they may have, for example, a great-great uncle who married a Nipmuc, and thus are collaterally related.
Further, the federal officials found that the Nipmuc rolls were deliberately inflated. "The evidence indicates that the current membership is to a considerable extent the result of a deliberate recruitment effort undertaken from 1989 through 1994," the government finding says.
Groups recognized by the federal government as tribes are supposed to show that all of their members descended directly from a historical tribe, or at least that the vast majority of them did.
When the Nipmuc Nation gained initial recognition in January, members immediately began planning a casino and resort off Interstate 84 in Sturbridge. The decision came on Jan. 19 -- the last day of the Clinton administration -- and was signed by Michael J. Anderson, who served as acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Anderson found that the Nipmuc Nation had met all the criteria for recognition, including showing that all or nearly all of its members descended from the historical tribe.
But once the Bush administration took office, it put a freeze on hundreds of last-minute Clinton decisions. Last week, Neal McCaleb, the new head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, overturned the Nipmuc decision. Documents released later revealed that the federal government believes almost half the tribe's members were not Nipmucs.
"Only 54 percent of the petitioner's members have documented descent from the historical tribe," McCaleb wrote. "This does not meet" the genealogical criteria, one of seven mandatory requirements.
Before making their findings, both Anderson and McCaleb were furnished with the same data submitted by the Nipmuc Nation and their lawyers and lobbyists.
The data were analyzed by the bureau's staff of historians, genealogists, and anthropologists. In detailed written recommendations to both Anderson and McCaleb, the bureau's staff recommended denial of recognition on the genealogical and other grounds.
Exactly how Anderson interpreted the data to conclude that the Nipmuc Nation met the genealogical requirement despite 46 percent of its members lacking documentary proof of ancestry is not known.
Anderson's Jan. 19 finding has been withheld from disclosure. Anderson, who is now a lawyer/
lobbyist for tribes in the burgeoning $10 billion casino and resort industry, did not return telephone calls to his Washington office.
A spokeswoman for the bureau said McCaleb declined comment.
"I can't give you an explanation for how Mr. Anderson reached his decision on this case," said spokeswoman Nedra Darling. "All I can say is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs responded officially in reversing Mr. Anderson's decision."
The inspector general's office of the Department of Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is investigating Anderson for possible wrongdoing in the Nipmuc case.
The Nipmuc Nation is based in Sutton. It holds an option to purchase hundreds of acres of land in Sturbridge. It also has a partnership with a company to help the tribe develop and manage a casino and resort modeled on the successful Foxwoods Resorts and Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort, both located in Connecticut.
Lakes Gaming Inc., a Minnesota-based gaming company, has already advanced the tribe nearly $2 million for expenses and salaries for lawyers, lobbyists, and members of the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council.
But many members of the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council are among those without documented ancestry, said William Gould, the council's former chairman.
Gould broke with the casino proponents over what he has said was too much control of tribal affairs by nontribal members, including Lakes Gaming representatives.
The Nipmuc Nation has 180 days to appeal McCaleb's decision. They could "purge" their roll of undocumented members to meet the genealogical requirement, according to lawyers familiar with Indian law.
A Nipmuc Nation spokesman declined comment, saying the matter was still under review.
The lawyers said the Bureau of Indian Affairs has never defined as a mathematical certainty the percentage of members who must be documented, though it has used words such as "predominantly."
McCaleb's decision also found that the Sutton group failed other mandatory criteria, including a showing that the Nipmucs operated continuously since pre-Columbian times as a distinct political and social entity.
A second group asserting that it descended from the historical Nipmucs, known as the Chaubungungamaug Nipmuck Indian Council, also applied for recognition. But when the Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized the Nipmuc Nation in January, it turned down the Chaubungungamaug. That decision was affirmed by McCaleb.
