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NOVEMBER 7, 2000

Three Connecticut towns are asking the Supreme Court to reconsider a decision favoring the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation because they say the tribe is too wealthy.

The towns of Ledyard, North Stonington, and Preston oppose efforts by the tribe to expand its reservation in southeastern Connecticut. Along with the state, they are challenging a 1995 decision by the Department of Interior to take 165 acres of land into trust for the tribe.

Initially, the state and the towns prevailed. But in September, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with their interpretation of the 1983 Mashantucket Pequot Settlement Act.

The court said that Congress knew how to prevent the Interior from taking land into trust but didn't do so in the case of the Pequot Act. For instance, the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 contains such a prohibition.

But the court also applied a concept used in disputes involving tribes. If ambiguities exist in a treaty or law, a decision should favor the tribe, according to one of the Indian law canons of construction.

The Second Circuit ruled that the Pequot law does indeed prohibit the Interior from taking land into trust for them, but only if the land was bought with the settlement fund. That settlement fund ran out years ago and the now wealthy tribe purchases land with its own money.

It is this line of reasoning the towns are asking the Supreme Court to address. The towns believe the Pequot tribe shouldn't benefit from the protections afforded to other tribes because of their recent financial success.

But in other cases, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to reconsider treaties and laws in light of later history. When addressing reservation diminishment, for example, the Court has upheld the provisions of the 1877 General Allotment Act calling for the destruction of tribal land ownership in spite of its repeal by the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act.

The towns aren't the only ones who have advocated such a position involving wealthy tribes, however. In the past, Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn) has attempted to introduce legislation to prohibit the Interior from taking land into trust for financially successful tribes.

Get the Ruling:
Connecticut v. Babbitt (Second Circuit Court of Appeals. No. 99-6042. September 2000)

Related Stories:
Pequot law won't be changed (Tribal Law 10/06)
Towns want 'sloppy' legislation fixed (Tribal Law 09/27)
Does a Pequot empire await? (Tribal Law 9/27)
Court rules against anti-Pequot towns (Tribal Law 9/26)
Are Pequots a campaign issue? (The Talking Circle 09/22)
Lieberman wants BIA to start again (Tribal Law 09/05)
Lieberman's record resurfaces (The Talking Circle 08/22)
Towns optimistic about Pequot suit (Tribal Law 06/15)