Part of the solution, Wright and others believe, is to use casino revenues--which federal law requires be spent on the tribe--to establish new programs to support tribe members and bring them together.

Although the final distribution has not been decided, Madison says the money will go to providing health care, day care and care for elderly Wampanoags. A percentage will also go to establishing a scholarship for the study of the lost Wampanoag language.

Madison acknowledges some tribe members' qualms about the morality of gambling, but says that if gambling is an evil, it's a necessary one.

"Some people are opposed to gambling, and I respect that," Madison says. "But can you tell me how we can recover the lost Wampanoag language...? Is that going to happen without money? Are we going to be able to build housing and provide health care for our people without money? Those programs cost money."

But in trying to bring the tribe closer together, the council may instead be tearing the Wampanoags apart.

Though the tribal council has denied widespread dissent, placing the number of opponents within the tribe at "about one percent," tribal members said last week they have serious misgivings about the casino.

Though some oppose the casino on moral grounds, others say they're simply appalled by the heavy-handed rule of the current tribal government.

"The tribal council has pretty much isolated themselves from the tribe in this," Widdiss says. "This has been orchestrated by Mrs. Wright and her cronies."

Widdiss, who calls the tribal government's push for the casino "blatant corruption," says the issue was never brought to a tribal vote.

In fact, 14 months after discussion of the proposal first began, the council is only next weekend holding its first open hearing on the project.

Madison says the issue hasn't been put to the tribe because there's no other option for financial stability; in short, the case is closed.

"I don't think that we need to achieve unanimity," Madison says.

And in the end, a project designed to promote tribal unity has resulted in fragmentation and discord.

"There are factions," says Marden, who has not made up his mind about the casino. "The divisions are sharp."

One thing everyone agrees on is the need for an economic upswing. Years of stagnation--and the accompanying increase in unemployment--are repeatedly cited by leaders of both the tribe and the City of New Bedford as the driving force behind the casino plan.