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SPACING="0" CELLPADDING="3" width="100%">The Pequot Letters

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JULY 17, 2000

Who would have thought so many people knew so much about the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation? Given the amount of opinions and views being voiced about the tribe's history and genealogy, you would think Connecticut is the hotbed of Indian scholarship.

Notwithstanding author Jeff Benedict's latest treatise on the subject (See Author advocates termination) here are some of the most recentl letters published in The New London Day. Ignoble or ignorant? You be the judge.

I READ THE BOOK, THAT'S WHY I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS
"If the Mashantuckets are not successors to the Pequot tribe, what does that say about the Mashantucket lawsuit that threatened innocent landowners, forcing them to incur substantial legal expenses just to defend what was already theirs? What does it say about the misrepresentations made before Congress to obtain an undeserved privileged status of limited sovereignty that is not subject to our democratic processes? What are we to think when the Mashantuckets become major campaign contributors, hire topnotch lobbyists and buy state cooperation through a slice of casino action?"
Do we ignore the discrepancies? (David L. Hemond. Letters to the Editor. The New London Day. 7/17)

I KNOW MORE ABOUT THE TRIBE THAN YOU DO
"The descent lines involved in the genealogical research are much more complicated than reporter Ms Hileman’s simplistic approach indicates. Her thesis appears to be that if a historic individual’s surname is George, and if that person’s name appears on a Western Pequot tribal overseer’s list, that individual and his descendants must be of Pequot ancestry. This is not always the case..."
Just living on a reservation doesn't make people Indians (James P. Lynch. Letters to the Editor. The New London Day. 7/17)

WE STOLE YOUR LAND. BUT YOU'RE THE GREEDY ONES
"Tim Love’s June 17 letter asserted that Jeff Benedict’s book “Without Reservation” is based on lies and motivated by greed. Greed is a curious accusation coming from the former chief of Maine’s Penobscot Indian Nation. The 1980 Maine Indian Claims Act granted federal recognition to Chief Love’s Penobscots and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. It provided $81 million for the tribes...In short, the Settlement Acts ensured that Chief Love and the Penobscots could live and prosper together, celebrating and perpetuating their heritage..."
Chief Love followed the money (Gerald Drury. Letters to the Editor. The New London Day. 7/17)