WampaGate

Friends Of Glenn = a dense FOG

   Even some Wampanoag Council members are in denial

   So what hope is there for the rest of the tribe without their Wamp Card?

"I don't think Glenn Marshall raped anyone. I mean, you how it is... people go to a party and they drink and things happen." "I don't think Glenn Marshall raped anyone. I mean, you how it is... people go to a party and they drink and things happen." The man who spoke these words to me recently is a very well-known member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. He is also well-known in political circles and now even has a job with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, complete with official business cards. There appears to be a new meteorological phenomenon in Mashpee, FOG. FOG stands for Friends of Glenn.

Perhaps the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs should issue two identification cards to Mashpee Wampanoags: the first would be the standard so-called Wamp card identifying the bearer as an enrolled member of the tribe recognized by the U.S. Government as an Indian and the second would be a FOG card identifying the bearer as a Mashpee Wampanoag who does not believe Glenn Marshall raped anyone or lied about his military record. The FOG card would also serve as a free pass to a mysterious new ATM. It is located at the FOG Bank.

Wamp Card holders having an easier time paying their bills

Members of FOG are now finding it easier to pay their bills because a number of them have found employment with the tribal council. One lucky winner is none other than Gayle Andrews. She is a Mashpee Wampanoag, now. But, a few years ago she renounced her Mashpee membership, as did her mother and other family members, and applied for and was granted admission to the rolls of the Aquinnah Wampanoag. When a year-long investigation determined that she had submitted false genealogical information, she was ousted by the Aquinnah and was eventually allowed back onto the Mashpee rolls. All is forgiven. FOG covers a lot of sins.

Gayle spent nearly two decades in television news reporting on Florida politics for the Tallahassee CBS affiliate. She left that career to become a Democrat political consultant and campaign public relations consultant and eventually left her business and debts behind to return to Mashpee, under cover of a heavy FOG. She was rumored to have been paid $6,000 per month to serve as a spokesperson for the tribe. Until her arrival the tribe's official spokesman had always been Scott Ferson, the white Democrat political hack from Boston who is paid by outside investors to tell the tribe what it thinks. The tribe cannot fire Ferson because they do not pay him. Now Andrews is frequently the source for press comments.

Andrews has a contract with the tribal council valued well into the six figures...A well-placed source within the tribe informs that Andrews has a contract with the tribal council valued well into the six figures. For this sum she is providing various services. One is the tribe's newsletter and another is a local television program she produces and organizes. Andrews also does... other things for the tribal council, presumably. She does general PR work and she, well, she does a lot of stuff.

Glenn may be "down", but he's hardly "out"

Not a few members of the tribe are curious about Glenn Marshall. His ouster as head of the tribal council cost him nearly $50,000 in annual earnings but he still maintains his standard of living: cars, motorcycle, trips, etc. Unemployment has not slowed him down. Perhaps his wife's beauty salon is a bigger earner than it appears to be. Some even wonder if Glenn has an arrangement with Gayle, perhaps some quiet consulting, but very hush - hush. Money does not grow on trees and Glenn was never much of a farmer anyway.

As far as money is concerned there are new questions emerging from the mist in Mashpee.

Two years ago, at the annual Wampanoag Ball, according to the FOG member who does not believe Glenn Marshall raped anyone, Herb Strather the self-described philanthropist and actual gambling speculator and real estate developer from Detroit announced to the tribe that he was forgiving their debt to him. Strather claimed to have injected as much as $15 million into the tribe to fund its drive for federal recognition. His claim to have forgiven the debt is at odds with what Scott Ferson told me in August of 2007. Ferson said that the new investor group led by Mssrs. Kirzner and Wolman had bought Strather's interest in the tribe's gambling plans.

How can that be? Strather and the tribe had signed an agreement by the terms of which they had become partners. If Kirzener and Wolman are now in possession of Strather's share of that agreement, Strather forgave nothing; he sold the tribe out. Strather, of course, is the first non-Indian member of FOG.

Here comes the really important question

   What is the source of all the money being spread around by the tribal council?
   Where is the tribal council getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are paying Gayle Andrews?Now comes a very important question; what is the source of all the money being spread around by the tribal council? Where is the tribal council getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are paying Gayle Andrews and where are they getting the money for all the new jobs they are handing out to card-carrying FOGGERS?

Since gaining federal recognition more than a year ago the tribe has delivered $250,000 to the town of Middleboro as the first payment of their scheduled payments to the town for their proposed gambling operations, and on and on. One member of the tribe has spoken of this mystery money as a "loan."

The theory is that the Mashpee Wampanoags are being loaned money by outside investors and that much of this money is being used to cultivate loyalty to the investors in the hearts of a select few, the FOGGERS. One has to wonder if this tribe is for sale or for lease. In February of 2009 there will be a tribal election that could see an entirely new group of Mashpee Wampanoags in control of the tribal council. Perhaps then the clouds will lift and the FOG will clear.