Mashantucket Pequot Tribe Mashantucket Pequot Tribe The Mashantucket Pequot are a federally recognized Native American country in the state of Connecticut.
They are descended from the Pequot citizens , an Algonquian-language tribe that dominated the southern New England coastal areas.
Within their reservation in Ledyard, New London County, the Mashantucket Pequot own and operate Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Beginning in the late 20th century, the tribe filed a federal territory claims suit against the state and US government, charging that it had been illegally deprived of its territory through state actions, which were not ratified by the Senate.
As part of the settlement of this suit, Congress passed a bill and gave federal recognition to the tribe, in addition to approving financial compensation so that the tribe could buy land.
The Mashantucket Pequot were the eighth tribal country to gain recognition through an act of Congress; this was a political solution clean water the administrative process established by the Department of Interior inside the executive branch.
Tribal membership is based on proven descent from members of eleven Pequot families who were listed in the 1900 US Census. The MPT is one of two federally recognized tribes in Connecticut; the other are the Mohegan Indian Tribe.
In addition, the state recognizes three tribes having reservations set aside in the colonial era: the Schaghticoke tribe, whose reservation dates from 1736; the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, with a reservation from 1683; and the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation, with a reservation from 1639.
The Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation is a territory base in Mashantucket, Connecticut, in New London County, in the Norwich-New London metro area.
As a federally recognized tribe, the Mashantucket Pequots have the authority to determine their membership criteria.
The tribe requires its members to be of proven lineal descent from Mashantucket Pequots listed in the U.S.
The 2000 census showed a resident populace of 325 persons living on reservation land, 227 of whom identified solely as Native American, while the rest identify as having more than one ethnicity, including non Pequot spouses.
The seven members of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council are: The Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, a research and development office at the University of Connecticut, analyzed the casino's effects on the Connecticut economy.
Their report stated that the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and its Foxwoods casino have had a positive economic impact on the neighboring suburbs of Ledyard, Preston, and North Stonington, as well as the state of Connecticut, which has received more than $4 billion in slot revenue to date. The Mashantucket Pequot claim descent from the historic Pequot, an Algonquian language-speaking citizens who dominated the coastal region from the Niantic River of present-day Connecticut east to the Wecapaug River in what is now Rhode Island, and south to Long Island Sound.
Various tribal oral histories also attest to primary migrations of tribes and the emergence of new tribes over time.
By the time the English colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were being established, the Pequot had established dominance of the political, military, and economic spheres among Native Americans in what is now central and easterly Connecticut.
Occupying the coastal region between the Niantic River of present-day Connecticut and the Wecapaug River in Rhode Island, the Pequot numbered some 16,000 persons in the most densely inhabited portion of southern New England. The smallpox epidemic of 1616 19, which killed roughly 90% of the Native inhabitants of the easterly coast of present-day New England, floundered to reach the Pequot, Niantic and Narragansett.
In 1637, Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay colonies overwhelmed the Pequot amid the Pequot War.
When the military forces of the two colonies, led by John Mason and John Underhill, launched an assault on the Pequot stronghold at Mystic, a momentous portion of the Pequot populace was killed. But, many of the Pequot descendants, while multi-racial, retained a sense of culture and continuity. They combined the rest into their culture and identified as Pequot.
The Mashantucket Pequot reservation was created by the Connecticut Colony in 1666.
In 1976, under the leadership of newly appointed tribal council chairman, Richard "Skip" Hayward, son of Elizabeth George, the Mashantucket Pequot filed a federal territory claim against the state.
The suit's settlement was documented by federal legislation in 1983: the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act encompassed the tribe's federal recognition, and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
Also filing a federal territory claims suit against the state of Connecticut for its sale of territory in 1855. The tribe accomplished political success by persuading Congressmen and appropriate committees in making the case for recognition and territory claims.
In this period, some tribes based in New York filed territory claim suits against its state government, winning in court.
On October 18, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the Connecticut Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, which encompassed federal recognition of the Mashantucket Pequot.
They were the eighth American Indian tribe to gain federal recognition through an act of Congress clean water through the administrative process of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Department of Interior. At least one other case of recognition had also been tied to settlement of a tribe's legitimate territory claim.
The Mashantucket Pequot have since added to their reservation by purchase and placed the additional lands into trust with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on behalf of the tribe.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs had established criteria, in consultation with federally recognized tribes, by which tribes seeking recognition had to document cultural and improve continuity, a political organization, and related factors.
Trump said that the tribal casino owners "did not look like real Indians." This comment revealed his ignorance of the history of this and other Native American tribes, which has encompassed adoption of and intermarriage with citizens of European American and African Americans lineage and the tribe's incorporation of citizens of multi-racial lineage into their culture.
In his book Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods the World's Largest Casino (2001), Jeff Benedict suggested that the Mashantucket were not descended from the historical Pequot tribe, but rather from the Narragansett tribe. The Pequot denounced the book.
Laurence Hauptman, a State University of New York Distinguished Professor of History and specialist in Native American history, disputed many aspects of Benedict's work.
In 2002, the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation of North Stonington, Connecticut, attained federal recognition, as did the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in 2004.
The Mashantucket Pequot tribe receives various requests from individuals applying for admission as members.
In addition, the Mashantucket Pequot have begun to require genetic testing of newborn kids whose parents apply to enroll them as members, to ensure the child is descended from the parent claiming tribal membership. Since the late 20th century, the interpretation of laws related to tribal sovereignty of federally recognized tribes has enabled some tribal nations to precarious new businesses and sources of revenue.
Particularly meaningful has been the evolution of gaming casinos and related resort facilities, which have generated substantial revenues in some locations for the tribe to invest in other economic evolution and welfare of the tribe.
Next to to Foxwoods, the tribe maintains the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
Hauptman, "A Review" of Jeff Benedict's Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods, the World's Largest Casino, Indian Gaming, 17 March 2009 William Hubbard, The History of the Indian Wars in New England 2 vols.
Cave, "The Pequot Invasion of Southern New England: A Reassessment of the Evidence", New England Quarterly 62 (1989): 27 44 For Mason and Underhill's first-person accounts, refer to John Mason, A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637 (Boston: S.
Green, 1736); and John Underhill, Nevves from America; or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England: Containing, a True Relation of their War-like Proceedings these two yeares last past, with a figure of the Indian fort, or Palizado (London: I.
Lion Gardiner, "Relation of the Pequot Warres" in History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent, and Gardiner (Cleveland, 1897), p.
Jeff Benedict (2001), Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino, New York: Perennial, ISBN 978-0-06-093196-4, retrieved 2007-02-14 Mashantucket Pequot Indian Claims Settlement Act (1983), S.
Spilde, "A Review": Jeff Benedict, Without Reservation: The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and Foxwoods, the World's Largest Casino, Indian Gaming, 17 March 2009 A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637/Written by Major John Mason, a principal actor therein, as then chief captain and commander of Connecticut forces; With an introduction and some explanatory notes by the Reverend Mr.
Nevves from America; or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England: Containing, a True Relation of their War-like Proceedings these two yeares last past, with a figure of the Indian fort, or Palizado.
Mashantucket Pequot Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, Connecticut United States Enumeration Bureau Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Rose to Power and Built the World's Largest Casino (New York, NY: Perennial, 2001).
"The Pequot Invasion of Southern New England: A Reassessment of the Evidence", New England Quarterly 62 (1989): 27 44.
Revenge of the Pequots: How a Small Native American Tribe Created the World's Most Profitable Casino (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001).
Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History (New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003).
The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993).
Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), pp.
Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620 1984 (Dartmouth, NH: University Press of New England, 1986).
Map of the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, 2009, US Enumeration Bureau
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