Quest For Federal Recognition
The Golden Hill Paugussetts have repeatedly been denied federal recognition. Lack of federal recognition has stymied economic development plans such as opening a tribal casino in southwestern Connecticut.
Lack of federal recognition has also made it difficult for them to pursue their claims to much of the land that was historically part of the Paugusset nation. They have claimed legal rights to 700,000 acres (2,800 km2) of land running from Orange/Woodbridge in New Haven County though Fairfield County to Greenwich and extending North into Eastern Litchfield County up to the Massachusetts border, though these claims have since been dropped. In 2006, a federal judge dismissed the Golden Hill Paugussetts' 14-year-old lawsuit claiming lands in Orange, Trumbull and Bridgeport citing the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs' rejection of the tribe's request for federal recognition.
Read more about this topic: Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
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