Plymouth (MA) Reserving Historical Commission Seats For Tribal Members is Unconstitutional – Equal Protection Project
Reserving the seats for members of the federally unrecognized Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it limits eligibility for public office based on ancestry.
The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) not only challenges discriminatory scholarships, programs, and campus housing, it leads the way in other areas to fight race- and ethnicity-based discrimination.
The latest is a Demand Letter sent by EPP together with our friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) to the Town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, calling for elimination of ancestry-based eligibility criteria for two seats on the Plymouth Historical Commission. The letter explains that reserving the seats for members of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, which is not a federally-recognized tribe, likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it limits eligibility for public office based on ancestry.
The letter explains that, outside the limited federal Indian-law context, tribal membership operates as a proxy for ancestry and race and therefore is subject to strict scrutiny. Citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the letter notes that government classifications based on race are constitutional only in exceedingly narrow circumstances, such as remedying specific instances of past discrimination by the government or addressing imminent threats to human safety. According to the letter, Plymouth has identified neither justification for reserving the commission seats.
The demand letter details that during public meetings in December 2025, members of the Select Board proposed expanding the Historical Commission by two seats specifically for members of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe to increase their representation. The Board subsequently voted to advertise two additional commission seats with preference for tribal members, and the Historical Commission’s website identifies Seats 6 and 7 as Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe positions, effectively creating a permanent ancestry-based quota for those positions.
EPP and PLF requested that the Town inform them by July 31, 2026, whether it intends to eliminate tribal membership as an eligibility criterion for serving on the Historical Commission. The organizations stated they would determine whether further legal action is warranted after receiving the Town’s response.
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Comments
Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them
This is going to sound like the most insensitive comment of all time but they’re going to have one hell of a time filling those vacancies because the natives are too busy being drunk and stoned to be able to participate. Substance abuse is endemic in the native communities in question. It’s a sad realization but altogether true unfortunately.
Yes, that is insensitive and wrong. I doubt any of these people are drunks or drug addicts, and they no doubt know more members of their tribe who are likewise not drunks or drug addicts, and well able to fill these seats.
I’m from that area (used to travel the “Wampanoag Trail” every day to school until college, but they’ve renamed it, because they can never make up their minds whether honoring Indians by naming things after them is racist or woke). I’m pretty sure the Wampanoag don’t even have reservations. They’re a tribe, but they’re assimilated about as much as New York Italians, which is pretty darn assimilated. They aren’t a hapless community governed and neglected by the BIA, they’re just neighbors in the next house. I strongly suspect their level of drug and alcohol use is on a par with any of the other residents of Plymouth, Mass.
I’ve been to the first light casino owned by the Wampanoag tribe, they sure look more like Italians than Indians. (Wait, native Americans)
I think you’ve gone too far with this one. Given the specific history of Plymouth, and its relationship with the Wampanoag, it makes sense to have representatives of them on the historical commission. If there are any Mayflower descendants who have lived in the Plymouth area the entire time since 1620, I would reserve spots for them too. (Apparently there are approximately 35 million documented Mayflower descendants, but almost all no longer have any connection to that area.)
My wife has a descendant that was on the mayflower, too bad we don’t live out in that area.
Unless your wife is a time traveler, or just extremely old, I don’t think she can have a descendant who was on the Mayflower. But she can easily have such an ancestor. Apparently 35 million people do. But like you, they don’t live in that area.
“ Given the specific history of Plymouth, and its relationship with the Wampanoag…”
Irrelevant. This is discriminatory access to a public position.
The proper way to do this is by merit, not simply by some accident of ancestry. Can you find a historical professional with tribal blood? Fine, nominate them to the council and I’m sure he’ll have no trouble getting public support. But don’t just shoehorn in some Wampanoag plumber.
Looks like South Carolina has a new rule that only members of the Graham family can be US Senators.
At most the tribe members on the Commission would demand that the Plymouth rock be removed and replaced with the sign one sees so often in MA: Do you know you’re standing on stolen tribal land? yaddyyaddyah….
I know. And I don’t care.
Maybe, but so are you, and at least I was polite enough not to deface it with a damn sign.