Free Memorandum in Opposition to Motion - District Court of Connecticut - Connecticut

Case 3:00-cv—00820-PCD Document 89-7 Filed 06/30/2005 Page1 0f4
EXHIBIT 5

Cese 3:00-cv—00820-PCD Document 89-7 Filed 06/30/2005 Page 2 of 4
. Summary under the Criteria and Evidence for
Proposed Finding
i Schaghticoke Tribal Nation _
_ Prepared in response to a petition submitted to the Secretary ofthe i
Interior for Federal Acknowledgment that this group exists as an
Indian tribe. A I
E C 5
I Approved: D O NO2
I . ` ·
` \’
Assi ant Secr ta - Indian Affairs
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Case 3 :00-cv—00820-PCD Docu ment 89-7 Filed 06/30/2005 Page 3 of 4
Proposed Finding, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation ‘
I these persons who were adults in 1860 appeared on subsequent overseer’s reports and some later
g resided on the reservation.
If it were the overseer’s intention to calculate them among the tribal membership, then the portion
. ofthe members resident on the reservation would be less than 50 percent. The current state of
the evidence is not suiiiciently firm to conclude that more than 50 percent ofthe Schaghticoke I
tribal members constituted a geographical residential settlement that, under 83.7(b)(2)(i), would
I be sufficient in itselfto demonstrate community and would provide carryover evidence in regard
i to criterion 83.7(c). _
I Endogamous Marriage. For the proposed finding, neither the petitioner nor the interested parties
g presented analysis designed to determine whether the Schaghticoke from 1801 through 1860 had
a rate of endogamous marriages of more than 50 percent, which would provide evidence of
. community sufiicient in itself under 83.7(b)(2)(ii) and would provide carryover evidence in regard
"‘(...oontinued)
, tiles on the Schaghticoke as Narragansett) (477)
gi ( Nancy M. (Kelly) Kilson aka Nancy Mora, Nancy Morey (wife of Joseph D. Kilson) (487)
_ Mary Jane (Kelly) Kilson (ex-wife of Joseph D. Kilson) (497)
t J On the basis of the overseer’s reports from 1801-1861 and the 1860 census, combined with data from local
E historians, this is all the Schaghticoke adults who are known to be alive in 1860. lf three of the undocumented
E Indian spouses, Henry Harris aka Henry Pann, John Harris, and Riley Cogswell, were also of Schaghticoke descent,
Y this version of the tentative reconstruction would also reach the overseer’s estimate of 52 Schaghticoke membersi
{ Of the adults known to have been alive in 1860, at least 14, and possibly 17 (counting Eliza and Nancy Kelly an
Henry Harris), were on the reservation within a year of that date (between 27 percent and 33 percent).
Of the adults known to have been alive in 1860, at least 22 and possibly 28 (counting Marianne, Flora Kelly, Eli
· Kelly, Nancy Kelly, Mary Jane Kelly, and Henry Harris) are known to have resided on the reservation at some
. time in their adult lives (between 42 percent and 54 percent).
i Of the adults known to have been alive in 1860, at least 31 were mentioned by name at some time in the overseers’
. reports (58 percent). Only Harvey S. Roberts and "Jim" on the 1860 overseer’s reports do not have documented _
kinship connections to other Schaghticoke. Any one of the reconstructions of the residential settlement on the
; reservation and the kinship connections of the residents to those Schaghticoke living olf the reservation provides
i strong evidence for the existence of community in the 19“‘ century. However, the level of residency in the year `
under analysis, 1860 (between 27 percent and 33 percent) is not high enough to provide "suflicient in itse1f’
I evidence under 83.7(b)(2)(i) and thus not high enough to provide carryover to criterion 83.7(c).
Q There may have been other Schaghticoke descendants who were unknown to the overseer and no longer interacting
with the group. For example, there was an Indian listed in the Town of Bozrah census for 1870 as "Abraham
Shen·y," age 65 (Brown and Rose 1980, 372). lt has been suggested that he was possibly descended from the
Tscherry family among the Schaghticoke, but no research has been done on this topic. The issue of descendants
who had abandoned tribal relations and who have no descendants among the petiti0ner’s membership is not of
· relevance for the evaluation under the criteria.
H t » 89
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Case 3:00-cv—00820-PCD Document 89-7 Filed 06/30/2005 Page 4 of 4
Proposed Finding, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation
to criterion 83.7(c). They may wish to address this issue in their comments on the proposed
finding. _
Extemal Observations. In addition to the overseer’s reports and the Federal census records, there
i are several external observers who reported on the Schaghticoke during the first half of the 19th
century. The majority of these observations were focused upon the person of Eunice Mauwee.
i One ofthe endorsers of Abraham Fuller’s 1801 petition had been Barzillai Slosson, who also
I served as the General Assembly’s examiner of the Schaghticoke overseer’s accounts between _
1808 and 1812. In his History of Kent, written in 1812, he described the Schaghticoke in terms
( taken almost word—for—word from Fuller’s last petition:
( At the time the General Assembly sold the public lands on the west side ofthe
Ousatonic they reserved for the use of the Indians the tract on which they were
i settled comprising about 1000 acres. Of that tract about one hundred acres was
I intervale ('?) of a very productive soil. While any portion of industry remaned [sic]
among the Indians they were enabled to raise a sufliciency of com for their own
’ consumption and lived in a state removed from want. But a habit of extreme
, idleness and intoxication has long prevailed amongst them and almost without
exception their lands have remained uncultivated. In the year 1804 the legislature
E i directed about 600 acres ofthe tract sold and the interest ofthe vail1('?) to be
, A armually appropriated to the charges of such of the tribe as from sickness of age
g · were in necessitious [sic] circumstances. This forms a iimd which produces
between two and three hundred dollars which has hitherto been a sum sufficient to
provide for those for whose benefit it was designed. The constant and universal
habit of drunkemiess among them has degraded them to a stateion [sic] but little
superior to the beasts (Slosson 1812a, 5).
In 1836, a local historian reported that:
f A granddaughter ofthe sachem, Eunice Mauwehu, and two or three families, are
. all that now (1836) remain ofthe tribe at Scatacook. The place where Mauwehu
i resided was sold by the state for about 3,000 dollars, the interest of which is
- annually appropriated for their benefit. This farm has been recently sold by Mr.
i Raymond for 18,000 dollars. The tribe still possesses about 300 acres of land,
, lying south of this farm; the greater part of which, however, lies on the mountain
j e west ofthe valley, and is valued from 1,500 to 2,000 dollars (Barber 1849b, 471).
( Lawrence's handwritten "Biographical Sketch of Eunice Mauwee, the Indian Woman of Kent, CT.
taken from herself during a visit to her home, August 8, 1852." "She is near one hundred years,
though her exact age no one knows" (Lawrence 1852a, 1). He reported her memories of her
birthplace, Derby, and the family’s move to Kent. She stated that there had been only five Indians
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