Three tribes in Connecticut have sought and been denied federal recognition in the past. They are the Eastern Pequots, the Schaghticokes, and the Golden Hill Paugussetts. The Bureau of Indian Affairs said it may give expedited recognition to groups which have maintained state reservations over several decades.

Governor Dannel Malloy has written to President Obama protesting the proposal, saying future land claims by newly recognized tribes could be devastating to Connecticut property owners and towns.

But Bethany Berger, who's a professor of law at UConn, said a 2005 court ruling has removed that threat. “Since then, essentially land claims have become pretty toothless,” she told WNPR’s Where We Live. “Tribes can no longer bring land claims against the state that are going to be recognized in this area, so that’s no longer an issue.”