South Coast Today reports that in a 13-page letter to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs dated September 4, Gov. Deval Patrick's chief counsel, Mark Reilly, details the state's support for the Mashpee Wampanoag application to take 316 acres into trust.
The tribe seeks to have 170 acres in Mashpee in 11 different parcels — and 146 acres in Taunton — a combination of 13 parcels — taken into federal trust as an initial reservation, the South Coast Today report states.