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MAY 3, 2001

When a case over a land-into-trust dispute involving the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation returns to federal court, three Connecticut towns and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal plan to argue the tribe is too rich and doesn't need any more land.

The state says the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 doesn't apply because the Pequot Tribe was only state-recognized at the time. Besides that, they say the BIA violated its own land-into-trust and other environmental regulations.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals last fall said nothing prevents the Department of Interior from taking land into trust for the tribe. The court also remanded the case to federal court in Connecticut to consider additional legal issues it hadn't addressed.

Get the Story:
State, towns try new tack in attempt to halt expansion (The New London Day 5/3)

Related Stories:
EDITORIAL: Pequot tribe too affluent (5/2)
Supreme Court turns down Pequot land case (5/1)