TAUNTON — With a tent filled to capacity with tribal members, financial backers and politicians, Cedric Cromwell was elated and nearly beside himself with joy. “This is a historical day in the tribe’s history. It’s a signal that something great is about to happen,” Cromwell said Tuesday morning.

Cromwell at one point exultantly said, “We did it! We did it!”

SURVEY: HOW WILL THE CASINO AFFECT TAUNTON'S FUTURE?

The tribal chairman of the Mashpee Wamponoag Indian tribe was celebrating the groundbreaking of his tribe’s First Light resort and gambling casino — a $1 billion investment that he said will deliver jobs and prosperity for Taunton and the surrounding region.

“Economic growth is on the horizon,” Cromwell said, adding that “Southeastern Massachusetts is now on the map.”

He also stressed that the project — with its casino, water park, hotel, restaurants and retail shops — signifies the end of a long struggle.

By approving a land-into-trust application last September, the federal government set aside reservation land in both Mashpee and East Taunton for a tribe that traces its existence back 11,000 years.

First Light, Cromwell said, will provide his people with a sense of self-determination.

“We are returned home,” Cromwell, 50, said, during a prayer marking the opening of the groundbreaking ceremony.

Cromwell said First Light will provide more than 2,600 permanent jobs and 1,000 construction jobs.

Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr., to whom Cromwell referred as the “greatest mayor in the entire commonwealth,” was also in an ebullient mood.

“Guess who’s gonna be first to market?” Hoye asked the crowd, which cheered back.

Hoye reiterated the benefits to the city, including at least $8 million per year in slots-related revenue and millions of dollars in “mitigation” improvements to roads and intersections, as well as money for hiring more police and fire personnel.

The tribal casino is the first to break ground in Southeastern Massachusetts, which the state’s gaming commission refers to as Region C. A group called Mass Gaming and Entertainment is vying to build a casino in Brockton but has yet to receive state approval for what would be a second gaming facility in Region C.

Michael Speller of Genting Group, the Malaysian group financing the project, said First Light will provide not just jobs but careers to people who want to work at the 151-acre site adjacent to the Liberty and Union Industrial Park.

“Bar none this is going to be the finest project in the state,” Speller said.

Las Vegas gaming mogul Steve Wynn is also working toward a casino worth $1.5 billion in Everett but has faced opposition mounted by the mayor of Somerville.

First Light is scheduled to open by the summer of 2017, albeit not a completed version.

Dan DaRosa, who sold his building to the tribe and moved his B&D Construction company to Raynham, said the project “puts Taunton on the map, and I’m glad to be part of it.”

“This will be a milestone for Taunton, and we’ll look back on it someday as being that,” DaRosa said.

Cromwell, meanwhile, lightly mocked those who for the past three years have opposed his tribe’s quest to have land into trust approved by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“We have land into trust, we have land into trust!” Cromwell bellowed to his supporters, which included members of Taunton’s city council, State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, and state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, R-Taunton.

“Prosperity not persecution,” Cromwell added. “We are building a modern tribal nation.”

The compact agreement between the tribe and state calls for a 17-percent revenue payment to the state if the tribe operates the only Region C casino. It would be required to pay nothing if a competing, commercial casino opened in the same region.

MGM Springfield casino, which will be one of three casinos in the state, is slated to open in that city in 2018.

Tuesday's press conference included prayers, songs and chants using the Algonquin dialect -- during which the taking of photos and video were prohibited.

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