Tribal leaders cheer focus from CT lawmakers
State lawmakers have filed nearly a dozen bills this year to recognize and address indigenous issues
Stretching across the heart of eastern Connecticut like a praying mantis, the senate district of state Sen. Cathy Osten, DSprague, either surrounds or passes within a few miles of four of the state’s five recognized Native American tribes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Osten has long been closely tied with many of the legislative battles related to the rights and recognition of local tribes throughout her five terms in Hartford. As part of those efforts, Osten has successfully pushed for a Native American curriculum to be taught in public schools, as well as punishing districts that continue to use Native American imagery or mascots.
As lawmakers near the halfway mark of this year’s legislative session, however, Osten has been tracking nearly a dozen proposed bills that touch on Native American issues. For the most part, they are the work of her colleagues.
“A lot of people associate the Native American legislation only with me, and that’s not true,” Osten said. “At least certainly not this year, [not] any longer.”
Among the issues that have attracted the support of Osten’s colleagues this year are a bill to rename the Thames River to reflect its centuries-old association with the Mohegan and Pequot tribes.
There’s a bill to grant members of federally-recognized tribes in Connecticut free tuition at any of the state’s public colleges and universities. Another would end the taxation of private business entities located on tribal lands — a milliondollar issue for the retailpacked casinos at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
One lawmaker, state Rep. Christopher Rosario, DBridgeport, has filed a resolution to formally recognize that all of the land in Connecticut was once Native American territory.
And while one long standing target of Osten’s ire — the State Capitol statue of John Mason, the perpetrator of the Mystic Massacre against the Pequots — remains standing for now, other lawmakers have introduced their own legislation that would begin the process of identifying other potentially harmful public displays throughout Connecticut, as well as identifying new and diverse figures to add to the Capitol’s statuary.
“We are seeing more of it, frankly we’re seeing more of it over the last couple of years,” said Chuck Bunnell, the chief of staff for the Mohegan Tribal Nation. “I think Sen. Osten has taken a lead, but others have introduced legislation that are important to the relationship between the tribes, the local governments and the state.”
The chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, Rodney Butler, said that the debate over Mason’s statue at the Capitol is an example where nearly decades of tribal advocacy has resulted in lawmakers stepping forward “organically” to address the state’s fraught legacy with its indigenous inhabitants.
“This started with us scratching and clawing to get any kind of attention,” Butler said. “It’s been a decade in the making of building relationships, showing the state that we’re what we’ve always been known to be, that we’re good partners and that we can work together… We’re not at the point where we have to fight so hard to be heard.”
Not all of the state’s Native American tribes share the same sentiment about the legislation being put forward by lawmakers. William Buchanan, an advisor to the Schaghticoke Indian Tribe in Kent, accused legislators of being preoccupied with helping the state’s two federally-recognized
tribes, the Mohegans and Mashantucket Pequots, while ignoring the three smaller, state-recognized tribes. (Buchanan, who has been assisting the Schaghticokes in their fight for federal recognition, said he is not an enrolled member).
“They’re proposing all this legislation, which pertains to tribal issues, but yet they’re not including any of the tribal leaders in the conversation,” Buchanan said. “Once again, they’re saying we’re going to do what’s best for you.”
Representatives of Connecticut’s two other state-recognized tribes, the Golden Hill Paugussetts and the Eastern Pequots, could not be reached for comment.
None of the lawmakers proposing bills related to Native American issues are enrolled in either of the state’s federallyrecognized tribes, and their interest in filing legislation has spawned in several ways.
Rosario said his focus on land-recognition resolution stemmed from a conference he attended last year with other Latino legislators in San Diego, where he learned about similar acknowledgements that are common in places like Canada. A few months later, on a family trip to Puerto Rico, Rosario
said he began digging into his own Taíno heritage and the desire to address native issues grew.
“It literally just sparked that fire from the conference,” Rosario said. “This was my way of, kind of honoring my traditional Taíno roots. I live in Connecticut, I was born and raised in Bridgeport, I’m of Puerto Rican descent, but I want to honor those stewards of the land that we sit on.”
Another lawmaker, state Rep. Anthony Nolan, D- New London, said he first became interested in the story of how the Thames River in his hometown got its name several years ago during a local tour (the river was named by English settlers, in a poorly-pronounced homage to the river in London). After discussing the area’s history with Butler, he filed a bill earlier this year to change the name to the Pequot River, in honor of the local tribe.
“There was really no reason for them to change the name,” said shortly after he filed the bill in January. “They changed it just because they wanted to be from a place overseas, in Europe. That didn’t sit right with me.”
After hearing objections from the Mohegan tribe — whose reservation abuts the west bank of the river — Nolan and other lawmakers agreed to amend the bill to allow time for both tribes, along with the Eastern Pequot, to come up with a compromise name for the river.
Bunnell, the chief of staff for the Mohegans, said that while communication between lawmakers and the tribal leaders is “near excellent,” he pointed to the debate over the river’s name as one example where the different tribes have conflicting views.
“It’s equally important that we make sure that the lines of communication are wide open, that’s really important to us,” Bunnell said. “Talking to one tribe doesn’t mean you’re talking to all the Indians.”
In a interview this week, Osten she had also encouraged lawmakers to reach out to tribal leaders and conduct their own research if they are interested in filing legislation addressing Native American issues. As a member of the state’s southeastern delegation, she said she meets monthly with members of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, and less frequently with leaders of the other tribes.
“They have all come up with it on their own,” Osten said. “I want to show that this is something that is not Sen. Osten’s way of looking at things, this is other people reading about the history, hearing about the history, looking at things and coming up with ways to deal with it.”
Rosario, however, made a point of crediting Osten, who has made a point of personal privilege several times on the Senate floor to recognize the native peoples that inhabited Connecticut for centuries, for raising awareness of Native issues to her fellow lawmakers.
“She literally was the first one that was kind of trumpeting to the legislature these issues,” Rosario said. “If it wasn’t for someone like her, to keep the issue alive… sometimes it just needs that one voice to spread it to other people.”