The following is a selection of colonial and Connecticut Indian laws that
created a matrix of control over both the state’s Indians and their lands
from the 1600s forward.

* 1649: “Foreigners” and Englishmen are forbidden from “trading with and
corrupting the Indians.” Towns must round up Indians annually and warn them
against drunkenness and the punishments, including a five-shilling fine and
being “openly whipped on the naked body.” Church elders are ordered to
“convey the light and knowledge of God and his Words to the Indians and
Natives among us.” The Sagamore of a tribe is held responsible for
punishing Indians, or else the colony can deliver the wrongdoer “to serve
or be shipped out and exchanged for neagers.”

* 1680: Permanent Indian “allotments” are set up within “English owned
land.” The allotments are inalienable; sales to Englishmen are voided and
the purchaser fined three times the value.

* 1821: County courts to appoint overseer to each tribe to care and manage
Indian lands “for the best interest of the Indians” and account annually to
the country court. Removes all control of land from Indians.

* 1875: The Superior Court may sell or exchange property of any tribal
member though an application to the overseer, and the overseer may purchase
the property for and in the name of the tribe, except for the Mohegans.

* 1961: Defines “Indian” as a person with one-eighth Indian blood from a
tribe for whose use a reservation was set aside. Defines “reservation” as
the Eastern Pequot reservation in North Stonington, the Golden Hill
reservation in Trumbull, the Schaghticoke reservation in Kent and the
Western Pequot (now Mashuntucket Pequots) reservation in Ledyard. Defines
“tribal funds” as those held in trust by the state for the use and benefit
of a tribe as distinguished from legislative appropriations. Indians must
prove their eligibility to live on a reservation to the commissioner. The
welfare commissioner is responsible for caring for reservation residents
and maintaining land and buildings, and is charged with conducting a survey
and setting boundaries.

* 1989: Tribes given jurisdiction over tribal members, reservations, leases
of reservation land, buildings and who may reside on reservations.
Reservation lands will continue to be held in trust by the state.