As family members and friends gathered in a circle near the headstone of Golden Hill Paugussett matriarch, Chieftess Rising Star, to commemorate the death of her son, Chief Big Eagle, also known as Aurelius Piper Sr., a red-tailed hawk shot out of the nearby woods and circled over the group.

Tribal members and supporters said the hawk’s flight was an auspicious sign for the tribe’s future.

Big Eagle’s son, Aurelius Piper Jr. – Chief Quiet Hawk – could not attend his father’s memorial event, but his half-sister, Shoran Piper, read a letter he had written to honor his father:

“Today we are saying goodbye to our chief, a great man, a visionary, a man of honor and valor who has lead our tribe through turbulent times with integrity and honor. Today is also a day I must say goodbye to my father. He was not only a father to me, but also my very best friend.

“He was a warm-hearted man, sensitive and caring, but also bold and forceful. I love him dearly and it will be painful not to be able to look into his face, not to hear his voice or feel the touch of his hand.”

Addressing his father directly, he promised to continue his father’s legacy.

“Dad, you have given me a great task, to lead our tribe to the ultimate victory,” Quiet Hawk wrote.

“The tribe is still pursuing federal recognition. We still believe there is information out there that supports our petition and we’re working on retrieving that information to do that and we’ll probably mount a federal court challenge,” Quiet Hawk said in an exclusive interview with Indian Country Today.

The tribe filed a letter of intent to the BIA in 1982. Twenty-two years of controversy later, the tribe was denied federal recognition in a final determination in 2004.

Quiet Hawk said he believes some information that the tribe needs will emerge from the investigation surrounding convicted former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

“The Abramoff investigation is still going on. He’s being sentenced in September, but he’s still working with them [the Justice Department] and it looks like it’s broadened out, and I think that we’ll find some of the information we need somewhere in there.”

Although he said he was convinced that the rejection of the Golden Hill Paugussetts’ federal recognition is linked to the Abramoff scandal, he was circumspect about the details.

“I think it involves a number of things I don’t want to speculate on right now, but it is enough for us to be able to mount a court challenge based on a lot of other information we already have in the hopper so we’re just waiting for all the information to get out.”

Under Quiet Hawk’s leadership, the tribe filed 19 land claims – some in federal court and others in state court – for thousands of acres of land, setting off panic among landowners and a flurry of legal challenges. Those land claims could be revived.

Quiet Hawk said the tribe plans to file challenges to the tribe’s rejected federal recognition in both federal and state courts.

“One of the issues is that most of the land claims that everybody talked about are state land claims, so we would definitely have to go after the state. Everything would have to be re-filed.”

The Golden Hills’ federal recognition process was marked by controversy, stories of missing and withheld historical documents, but the tribe is not giving up.

“Oh no, not at all. We are constantly working both in Washington on the federal stuff and in the state, collecting documents.” said Quiet Hawk, who divides his time between Washington and the state.

“Back in the early days we found [state Attorney General Richard] Blumenthal holding back documents, and we know there are documents that have disappeared out of libraries and town halls. We’re just working hard to make sure we have all the information we can before we mount a court challenge.”

The tribe hopes to be in that position by the end of the year.