Connecticut Indian Land Claims Settlement
[1] The settlement act ended a lawsuit by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe to recover 800 acres of their 1666 reservation in Ledyard, Connecticut.
In a federal land claims suit, the Mashantucket Pequot charged that the sale was in violation of the Nonintercourse Act that regulates commerce between Native Americans and non-Indians.
Gaining federal recognition and sovereign control of their land enabled the Mashantucket Pequot to develop gaming on their reservation, specifically, the Foxwoods Resort Casino.
[4] In 1651, John Winthrop the Younger persuaded the Connecticut Colony to create a 500-acre reservation for the Pequot in Noank, removing them from their previous places of residence.
[6] By 1790 (the year that Congress passed the first Nonintercourse Act), the Ledyard reservation had been reduced to 1,000 acres, due to sales by white supervisors.
[8] In the 1970s, David Crosby of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, a non-profit law firm that was litigating Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton in Maine, began to discuss a land claim by the Pequot people.
[16] In March 1976, Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso certified to HUD that the Pequots were "an autonomous unit or government" for the purposes of the revenue-sharing program.
[17] On January 15, 1979, the Pequot filed a preliminary petition for federal tribal recognition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
[18] Historian Jack Campisi, who had previously worked as an expert witness with attorney Tom Tureen (known for his role in Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton (1975) and other Nonintercourse Act claims), prepared the petition.
[19] Following Congressional passage of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act in 1980, attorney Tom Tureen turned his attention to the Mashantucket Pequot case.
[22] The federal settlement bill included a $900,000 appropriation, the appraisal value of the 800 acres, which the Pequot would use to buy the land from the landowner defendants.
[23] Peter Taylor, the committee's general counsel, noticed that the bill did not limit the amount or location of the lands that the Pequot could buy with the settlement funds.
[25] William Coldiron, the solicitor general of the Department of the Interior, testified against the bill, which he viewed as circumventing the BIA's recognition process and as costing too much money.
[28] However, President Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill, opining that the state should pay more of the cost and that the Pequot may not meet the BIA's definition of a tribe.
[31] At a new set of hearings in July 1983, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs John W. Fritz declared that the administration would not object to the new bill.
[36] After Connecticut's chief state criminal attorney wrote the tribe a letter threatening to shut down the bingo operation if opened as planned, the Pequot filed for a federal preliminary injunction.
[40] In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) on October 17, 1988.
[49] The Mashantucket Pequot retained lobbyists, reached out to charity groups that used the "Las Vegas night" statute, and brought in Native American Rights Fund executive director John Echohawk to defeat Weicker's proposed bill.
