June 3, 2025 — The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) joined a lawsuit last week that is attempting to nullify the approvals of a large offshore wind energy project off the Vineyard’s shores.
The tribe, along with several Nantucket residents, fishermen groups and the ACK for Whales nonprofit, filed the suit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., claiming that several federal government agencies did not take enough into consideration when they greenlit the New England 1 and 2 projects.
The tribe and other plaintiffs argue that the approvals violate the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other laws around historic preservation.
“Like all the other plaintiffs, we as individual tribal members and our tribe as a whole are being harmed by these giant wind farms, making an industrial park out of our waters,” said Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, the tribal council chairwoman. “However unlike the other plaintiffs, the negative impacts to us go back as far as time immemorial and as deep as to who we are as Aquinnah Wampanoag people; harming our culture, traditions and spirituality, which connects us to the lands, waters, sky and all living things. Since individually we weren’t being listened to, we hope that maybe now with this lawsuit our collective voices will be heard.”