American Ethnic History

THE STATUS OF THE PEQUOT INDIANSFROM THE 20TH CENTURY TO PRESENTINTRODUCTIONThe affirm-day(prenominal) members of two tribal nations are descendants of a northeastern group of American Indians who largely populated the areas of computed axial tomography to certain parts of present-day Rhode Island around the 17th century . Before the arrival of the settlers , the Pequot s macrocosm is estimated to be around 6 ,000 but it dwindled to less than a hundred individuals after several centuries . The world decline was a result of the small pox epidemic brought about by the early settlers and the Pequot warfare , during which the early European settlers had massacred the Pequot tribes and systematically campaigned to expunge their existence as a tribal nation (Bee , 1990Remaining Pequots who survived the Pequot War were either banished or placed under the control of other tribes in the area . Among these tribes are the Mohegans , from whom the present-day Pequots trace their product line It is from this remaining group of Pequots that the east Pequot Tribal Nation and the more well-known Mashantucket Pequot trace their lineage (Richter , 2001Before the end of the 1600s , two reservations were effected for the Pequots , mainly because the surviving members of the tribe experienced harsh discourse from their Mohegan hosts . The Ledyard reservation which was inhabited mainly by the Mashantucket was established in 1666 while the Lantern Hill reservation was opened in 1683 for the east Pequot (Richter , 2001Although separated from their Mohegan hosts , the Pequots were forced to support Mohegan braves during their war campaigns . They were also not al starting timeed to call themselves Pequots . In time , more and more Pequots left field their reservations to seek employment and a better way of flavor and this led to a dramatic decline in their population . By the time when the 1910 census was conducted , the number of Pequot Indians in Connecticut was around 66THE PRESENT-DAY PEQUOTSThe population of the Pequot grew steadily from a low of 66 .

By 2000 there are 590 Mashantucket Pequots and 1 ,300 Eastern Pequots (US Census 2000For the Mashantucket Pequot , the change in their numbers between the periods of the mid-seventies to the 1980s was brought about by several factors First , the tribal nation was given federal recognition after taking a suit against landowners who occupied part of their reservation . Parcels of modestness land were illegally sold by the State in 1856 . In a seven-year suit between the two parties , the Pequot claimants and the present landowners finally reached an agreement that the sale was illegal . The Connecticut state regime supported the resolution by petitioning the federal government to recognize the sovereignty of Mashantucket Pequots (Richter , 2001In 1983 , this move was realized when Pres . Ronald Regan signed the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act , which not only gave the native people recognition but also to reacquire the land that was missed to them . The group was awarded a 900 ,000 settlement by the government (Richter , 2001With prexy Skip Hayward at the...If you want to get a large essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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