However, by the 1930s, the tribe began to be divided over questions of identity, aggravated by competition for resources and limited space on the Eastern Pequot Reservation.

[3] An Eastern Pequot chief in the 1930s challenged the membership rights of dark-skinned descendants of one Tamar Brushel, an early 19th-century resident of the reservation.

Others denied membership to dark-skinned descendants of Emmanuel Sebastian, a mulatto immigrant from the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands.

[7] The Eastern Pequots contended that they satisfied federal criteria: In 1998, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was reviewing both petitions together.

Ronald Wolf Jackson, the treasurer of the Eastern Pequot, characterized the groups' differences as a "leadership dispute" and said that a "fair review" of their petitions would demonstrate that there was one tribe.

[8] During its final review, the BIA encouraged the two groups to reunite, noting that the historical evidence showed that they were members of one tribe with common ancestors and history on the shared reservation.

[9] In January 2012, the Eastern Pequots filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Washington, D.C. seeking to reinstate the BIA's recognition.

[11][12] The tribe has not pursued seeking recognition through the United States Congress due to anti-gaming sentiments in the Northeast, which would make passage unlikely at this time.