The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider a petition to determine whether the Wampanoag Indians, who are claiming 11,000 acres of land in the town of Mashpee, Mass., are legally a tribe.

In the 1976 lawsuit, the Indians say the town took away land in violation of a 1790 federal law that prohibited any transfer of Indian land without Congressional approval.

First Things First

An appellate court last February upheld a lower court ruling that the Indians must first prove they constitute a tribe before they may continue with the land dispute.

Tribe?

District Court Judge Walter J. Skinner dismissed the Indian's case last year after a jury ruled that the Wampanoags did not meet the legal definition of an Indian tribe.

The all-white jury ruled that although the state recognizes the Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, the Wampanoags were not a tribe on four key dates: in August 1976 when they filed the suit; in 1790, the date of a federal law that forms the basis for the land claim; and in 1869-70 when the Indian district of Mashpee was incorporated as a town.

All in Vain

Thomas N. Tureen, attorney for the Indians said yesterday, "the trial was going to be a futile act," because the U.S. Department of Interior will make the final decision regardless of whether its definition of a tribe differs from Skinner's. The department will base its decision on the findings of a panel of experts and tribal history archaeologists, Tureen added.

James D. St. Clair, attorney for the town of Mashpee, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In the appeal, the Wampanoags contended that the tribe never relinquished control of the 11,000 acres of Mashpee. The Indians said the Massachusetts legislature's incorporation of Mashpee as a town in 1870 violated the federal law.

Dire Straits

Since the trial began, residents of Mashpee have claimed it has caused economic strangulation and heightened personal tensions in the Cape Cod resort community.

The Indians' lawsuit placed all land titles in question, causing a sharp drop in tax revenue and land values, a Mashpee selectman said at the time.