The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe gained federal recognition in 1983 by an Act of Congress (Public Law 98-134). In addition to being recognized by the federal government they were awarded lands for a reservation. This was done to settle a land claim the tribe had filed against the 27 owners of 800 acres of land in the town of Ledyard, CT  in 1976.

However, when a map delineating the reservation was drawn to accompany the legislation, it included not only the 800 acres but an additional 1000 acres that was never part of the original land claim or reservation. The map was never shown to the landowners of the 800 acres in question who would have noticed the discrepancy.

Section 3 of the legislation calls for the tribe to receive 800 acres from the landowners, the 214 acre state reservation, a 20 acre cemetery and the Cedar Swamp. The town of Ledyard has researched several maps which show the cedar swamp to be no larger than 500 acres and on none of them does it include the area where the Indian casino complex now stands. In fact, if it had been built in the swamp it would have been in violation of federal wetlands laws and we are assured that is not the case.

This map was supposed to be filed with the Secretary of State of Connecticut but is not in those files. No one has been able to locate the original. Congress must investigate where it is and why there is this huge discrepancy.

It is important because the Foxwoods Indian casino is built on land that may never have been intended to be part of the reservation. If it is on "fee land" (taxable) the town of Ledyard may be due reparations .

Annexation
In 1993 the Mashantucket Tribe filed an application to annex 247 acres of "fee land" to their reservation. The towns of North Stonington, Ledyard and Preston are concerned because once annexed, those towns will no longer collect taxes on that property nor will they have any planning or zoning control over it. No matter what would get built on it or how extensively it is developed there would not be any taxes coming in to offset the costs of development.

In May of 1995, despite much opposition from these towns, the Department of the Interior, parent agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA), decided to allow the Mashantuckets to annex the 165 acres. 165 acres? I thought you said 247 acres? Yes, it was discovered that some of the land OFF the reservation had been purchased with some of the $900,000 federal tax dollars given to the tribe by the Settlement Act to buy only land WITHIN the reservation boundary.

The tribe argued that it needed to annex more land for its future economic self sufficiency. But if the tribe is found to have received hundreds of extra acres by the Settlement Act Map than what Congress intended, that would dampen their argument that they need more.

The towns of Ledyard, Preston and North Stonington were not convinced that the BIA had followed its own rules in determining that this tribe met the criteria for annexation  and so they sued the BIA. The State of Connecticut is part of that suit and filed for an injunction to stop the annexation from proceeding until the suit is settled. The suit was argued in Federal Court in Hartford and Judge Robert Chatigny rendered his decision in favor of the towns in December of 1998.

(This is where it is important to remember that this happened because a group of regular people decided to not roll over and be subject to injustice but to sign petitions and rally 'round a just cause.)

The Justice Department, which was arguing the case for the Department of Interior, filed an appeal. The case has been presented in Federal Appeals Court and we await the decision.

Click  here to sign our online petition.