Boston's 330 year old law banning Indians scrapped

Lawmakers to Repeal American Indian Ban
By THEO EMERY
Associated Press Writer
Published May 20, 2005

BOSTON (AP) - Gov. Mitt Romney signed a bill Friday repealing a 330-year-old law that barred Indians from setting foot in Boston.

The 1675 law, adopted when settlers were at war with the Massachusetts Bay Colony's tribes, had not been enforced for centuries, but was still a source of anger for Indians.

"It is our hope that signing this bill into law will provide some closure to a very painful and old chapter in Massachusetts history,'' Romney said. "This archaic law belongs in the history books, not the law books.''

With little fanfare, the Massachusetts Legislature voted unanimously on Thursday to strike the law from the books.

Chris "Quiet Bear'' Montgomery, a Nipmuc Indian who lives in Revere, testified at a legislative hearing that the law was "a black mark against the state of Massachusetts. Not just Boston, but the whole state.''

Indians and activists worked for about eight years to get rid of the law. Before the Democratic National Convention last year, a Cape Cod coalition of Indian tribes called for its repeal.

Mayor Thomas Menino filed a petition in the fall to dump it, and the City Council passed it. But the petition did not go anywhere in the Legislature until this week.

The renewed effort came as a national organization of minority journalists was considering whether to hold its 2008 convention in Boston. Unity: Journalists of Color had said it might pass over Boston because of the law. Hosting the convention would mean 8,000 or so journalists converging on Boston for four days and spending an estimated $4.5 million.

"It is a deal-breaker, because we couldn't in good heart come to a city that banned one of our members, or any group,'' said Unity executive director Anna M. Lopez. The group will pick a host city in June.

The colonial Legislature, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, approved the statute when tensions between colonists and Wampanoag leader Metacom broke out in violence. The war lasted a year, ending when Metacom was killed.