Schaghticoke people

But in 2005, after strong opposition from the state and several local governments as well as one landowner, several Schaghticoke individuals and the SIT, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) reversed its decision, revoking recognition.

Following the Bureau of Indian Affairs' re-determined negative decision and resultant reversal of the STN's federal acknowledgment, the U.S. District Court dismissed the land claim case in 2010.

STN took its case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which in October 2010 denied to review the appellate decision.

It was not until four years later that the white men called "The Proprietors" finally got the drawn marks of several other native people who may not have had authority to sell the land.

[7] They "purchased" a 31,000-acre tract of land that is now called New Fairfield and Sherman, for the equivalent of about 300 dollars and on April 24, 1729, the deed was recorded on May 9, 1729, and is now deposited in the archives of the State Capitol in Hartford.

[8] European-American agents, appointed by the state, sold off more than 2,000 acres of tribal land between 1801 and 1911 without approval by the federal government.

This is the collective name of six statutes passed from 1790 to 1834, which said that only the federal government had the right to deal directly with Indian nations and had to approve all land sales for them.

By 2010, the cases were consolidated; the defendants were the federal government, the Connecticut Light & Power Company, and the Kent School.

The STN objected to the state's making the exchange for a lesser amount of land, threatening to close access to the Trail through the reservation.

[11] In October 2010 a federal court granted the defendants' request to dismiss the case, based on the argument of collateral estoppel.

The judge held that, as the BIA had determined in 2005 that STN did not meet the criteria for federal recognition as a tribe, it could not establish a prima facie case for land rights.

At the end of November 2012, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals set February 25, 2013, as the deadline for the parties to submit their briefs in the land claims case.

[17] During the nascent stages of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's petition process, several individual leaders, both elected and from within the community, disputed the STN leadership.

In December 2002, the BIA made a preliminary finding that the STN failed to satisfy two of seven criteria for recognition: proof of cohesive community and maintenance of a continuous political leadership.

The Mohegan Indian Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot had already developed increasingly successful, large casino resorts.

[20] Five requests were made to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals (IBIA) to review the BIA Final Determination to Acknowledge the STN, which had been approved on January 24, 2004.

The five requesters were (1) the "Coggswell Group," a group of individuals described as "descendants of the historical tribe known today as the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation;" (2) the Town of Cornwall, Connecticut; (3) the State of Connecticut together with the Towns of Kent, Bethel, New Fairfield, Newtown, Ridgefield, Greenwich, Sherman, Westport, Wilton, and Weston as well as the Cities of Danbury and Stamford; the Kent School Corporation; the Connecticut Light and Power Company; and the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials, (4) the Preston Mountain Club, Inc., a landowner; and (5) the Schaghticoke Indian Tribe, a group which has separately petitioned for Federal acknowledgment.

That same year, the IBIA also remanded the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation's (EPTN) positive final determination of federal acknowledgment to the OFA.

[23] In 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued new rules saying that tribes which have previously been denied federal recognition cannot re-petition.

They presented a petition to Governor Jodi Rell, calling for an end to land encroachment on the reservation, and destruction of sites there.

Accordingly, the court modified that portion of its earlier decision finding that STN was the governing authority for the Schaghticoke Indians.