Summer 2006

Federal Recognition Update

In October of 2005, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued its Reconsidered Final Determination To Decline To Acknowledge the Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Indians of Connecticut and its Reconsidered Final Determination To Decline To Acknowledge the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. This is the first time that the Bureau has reversed its decision to grant federal recognition.

The Schaghticokes had been acknowledged as a Tribe in January of 2004. The Eastern Pequots and the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots had been acknowledged as one Tribe (the Historical Eastern Pequots) in July of 2002. In May of 2005, the final decisions in both cases were vacated and sent back for reconsideration because the Board of Indian Appeals found that both of the original decisions put too much weight on the fact that the Tribes had been recognized by the State of Connecticut. In both Reconsidered Final Determinations, the Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department found that neither Tribe could meet criteria (b) and (c) of the required criteria used for establishing federal acknowledgement ("b" requires that a Tribe show that it is a "community that has existed from historical times until the present"; "c" requires that the Tribe has exercised political influence or authority during the same time period).

The Deputy Secretary found that there were gaps of several years where there was not enough evidence to show either community or political influence and that the state recognition was not enough to fill in those gaps. In addition, with regard to the Pequots, the Secretary found that the fact that the Eastern Pequots had split into two different communities demonstrated lack of community and lack of political influence. He concluded that: "The two separate communities that existed after 1983 were not the same community as existed previously, although they shared a common origin."