S.O.S. Paugeesukq Nation
inobu@aol.com
Wed, 10 Jan 1996 07:35:57 -0500
I have the honor of addressing you as a judge of the tribal
court of the Golden Hill Paugeesukq Tribal Nation. Though the tribe
I serve is recognized by a Connecticut state statute that has its
roots in treaties honored since the seventeenth century, and has
been updated within the last decade, the state is now attempting to
commit this tribe to the all too long list of Indian nations that
have become milestones of genocide, part of America's violent and
disgraceful (though not sufficiently disgraced) past. I address
this letter to people of conscience and courage of the United
States who I believe love justice and believe that good government
protects all in this country equally.
I am writing to you about nothing less than genocide in the
State of Connecticut. In the banality of evil which administers the
destruction of a community, there are no limits to the extremity of
the tactic employed by the persecutor, other than the level of
tolerance of wrongdoing of the dominant community. Today, the State
government believes that, in Connecticut, there is not, a tolerance
for unprovoked violence against the native community. However, this
government believes that there is sufficient dislike of
Connecticut's natives, to allow the State to use the courts as a
weapon of genocide. At present, the State of Connecticut is
opposing every action of the Golden Hill Paugeesukq Indians, and
litigating on so many fronts that the destruction of the community
is the obvious goal. It is up to every individual to inform the
government that the level of acceptance of genocide is that of
total rejection of genocide, no matter what the tactic.
That this is an intentional goal is clear from the factually
contradictory stands taken by the State. The only pattern to the
State's stands concerning the Paugeesukqs, is that whatever is
harmful to the tribe is good for the State. This is stated as
policy in a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), wherein
the State government states that it is in the interest of the
majority of the people of Connecticut to oppose the Tribe's
petition for Federal Acknowledgement. I believed, perhaps naively,
that with the end of statutory apartheid in this country, in the
aftermath of the civil rights movement, that the majority interest
in a state could not be allowed to disfranchise the minority, by
state actions and policy.
The contradictory policies of the State are extraordinary. In
1993, the Paugeesukq Tribal Council went to court, to withdraw land
claims against a large portion of the state. These claims were made
by an individual member of the tribe, against the interests of the
tribe, and without the necessary consultation and direction of the
tribal council and governors. This individual, Quiet Hawk, had been
removed from office as one of several chiefs. He retaliated by
"banishing" one of the other chiefs, Moonface Bear. The State filed
papers in opposition to Quiet Hawk's land claims, using
pronouncements of the Tribal Council and Chief Moonface Bear as
evidence, purporting that the actions of the Council and Moonface
Bear, were actions of the Paugeesukq Governing body. In the same
year, the State of Connecticut refused to enter negotiations for a
compact on the selling of cigarettes on the Tribal reserve at
Colchester. Under the direction of the Tribal Council, mentioned
above, Chief Moonface Bear and the Tribal Governors opened a
cigarette shop. In response, the State brought criminal charges
against Chief Moonface Bear, as an individual, claiming that he was
not an Indian because he was banished by "Chief" Quiet Hawk.
Reality was inverted. The same Attorney General who stated Quiet
Hawk was an individual and not leadership now claims he is the sole
leader of the tribal nation. Further, the Attorney General states
that the government of the tribe, endorsed against Quiet Hawk is no
longer a government in the eyes of the State.
Presently, the State is attempting to oppose recognition of
the tribe by the federal government, although, this tribe is
specifically recognized in Connecticut law. There is evidence that
the State has encouraged the BIA to act on a petition brought by
Quiet Hawk, without approval of the tribal council. At the same
time, the State has ignored a request for documents, from the BIA,
in the form of a Freedom Of Information Act request (FOIA). This
FOIA material would fill gaps in a record, which the BIA states
contains no negative material, but rather has some gaps, which this
material may help fill.
The tribe is now seeking to bring suit to stop the BIA from
acting on a petition which was not put before the federal
government by the tribe. This is being done because Quiet Hawk has
not accounted to the tribe for government grant money to research
the factual claims in the petition. It has been reported to the
tribe that Quiet Hawk now lives in a style greatly above that of
any other tribal member, but as no one in the tribe can locate him,
it is not possible to connect this reported rise in standard of
living to the grant money. However, for anyone who claims to be
leadership of a community, accountability to the governed and
oversight by the governed is necessary.
The tribe fears that it will not have the resources to
continue this suit and others, as the State of Connecticut is
bringing the equivalent of "slap suits" in opposing tribal actions.
These legal actions are either brought by the State or by the tribe
in light of the State's refusal to enter any negotiations with the
tribe. It is the right of an encapsulated people to be able to use
diplomacy rather than litigation to receive minimal rights. To
date, the tribe is fighting a costly litigation on the cigarette
tax criminal case, an action to unfreeze tribal assets (frozen by
a default judgement against Quiet Hawk's debts, after no service
was made on the tribe, and the tribe was unaware of the pending
litigation), a land claim against a portion of the town of
Bridgeport (which the tribe is willing to enter negotiations to
remedy), an action on a writ of mandamus to compel the governor to
enter negotiations with the tribe, and we are told that the state
is about to levy taxes on the small quarter acre reserve in
Trumbull. This reserve is the last original land, occupied by
Paugeesukqs for thousands of years before the recorded histories of
the people who now seek to take the land from the Paugeesukqs.
I urge you to take a small bit of time from your life, to do
what no generation in the United States has ever done before. Stand
between the juggernaut that has destroyed Indians for centuries and
the community to be destroyed. Demand that the state government of
Connecticut protect the rights of its smallest minority with the
same energy that it protects the interests of the majority in the
state. Each of us owes a better history for our children to inherit
than this country has provided in the past. Please be the
generation that ends the destruction of Indian communities. In the
name of the dignity of the people of the United States, I beg you
to act, to write, to march, to stop the genocide.
To form Golden Hill Paugeesukq Defense Committees
Write to " " " " "
Golden Hill Paugeesukq Reserve
95 Stanavage Rd.
Colchester CT. 06457 - 4015
Or e. mail InOBU@AOL.COM
Lawrence Otway
Tribal Judge
Golden Hill Paugeesukq Tribal Nation