A special superior court sitting is now set for next month in Edgartown on a case that will ultimately decide whether the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has the power to police itself when it comes to local zoning rules. The case will also decide the much larger issue of whether the tribe cannot be sued because of sovereign immunity.

The case has attracted little attention, despite the fact that the outcome could have far-reaching implications for every town on the Vineyard.

For the first time since the mid-nineties, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is looking at favorable odds in its bid to build a high-end casino in southeastern Massachusetts.

For months now, Wampanoag tribal chairwoman Beverly Wright has been telling her constituents and at least one federal agency that the tribe's finances are in terrible shape, riddled with debts from failed business ventures.

A general store, a delicatessen and a shellfish hatchery - they were all supposed to add up to profits for the only federally recognized Indian tribe in the state, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

A federal mediator yesterday waded into the dispute between officials in Aquinnah and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) over the tribe's plans to form its own police force.

The question of whether claims of sovereignty entitle the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to skirt local and state laws will be decided in Dukes County superior court, rather than a federal district court in Boston where lawyers for the tribe wanted the case tried.