Facebook Twitter Email
SEPTEMBER 5, 2000

While on a campaign stop in his home state of Connecticut, Vice-Presidential candidate and Senator Joe Lieberman said the Bureau of Indian Affairs should start all over with the federal recognition petitions of two Pequot tribes.

He said he felt there has been a lack of due process regarding the petitions from the start. He said three Connecticut towns who are opposing the tribes need to be able to make their case.

Among other allegations, the towns have complained the BIA has been slow to respond to their Freedom of Information Act requests. The understaffed Bureau has been sending documents by the thousands to the towns regarding the Eastern Pequot and Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribes.

The towns also claim Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover is biased and should be recused. But the Department of Interior recently ruled Gover will stay on as decision maker.

The towns have had the opportunity to make some of their issues entered into the public record via a meeting held last month in Washington, DC, to discuss the two tribes. Most of the questioning, however, came from the state of Connecticut, not the towns.

When Nicholas Mullane, first selectman for the town of North Stonington, said the BIA hasn't used much of the documentation they have submitted, a researcher said most of it was unreliable and unusable.

Lieberman's stated doubts aren't the first he has voiced about the Interior or decisions involving tribes in his state. In 1997, Lieberman introduced the Indian Trust Lands Reform Act, designed to prohibit the Interior from taking land into trust for financially successful tribes when the tribe intends to use it for commercial activities, including gaming.

Lieberman also cited concerns by local towns, who have objected to the Interior's decision to take 165 acres of land into trust for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. A decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals over the issue is pending.

Get the Story:
Lieberman troubled by BIA ruling (The New London Day 9/2)
Interior won't investigate Gover claims (Tribal Law 08/29)
Lieberman's record resurfaces (The Talking Circle 08/22)
State asks for Pequot extension (Tribal Law 08/17)
BIA: Towns not reliable (Tribal Law 8/9)
Towns optimistic about Pequot suit (Tribal Law 06/15)

Relevant Links:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs - www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html
Eastern Pequot Preliminary Recognition - www.doi.gov/bia/bar/epdx.htm
Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Preliminary Recognition - www.doi.gov/bia/bar/pepdx.htm