Tag Archives: Connecticut

06/12/23

Connecticut Tribes Co-create State Social Studies Curriculum

Students visiting the Institute for Indian American Studies Museum in Washington, Conn. hear from Darlene Kascak, education coordinator and a traditional Native American storyteller with the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation.

Centering “our culture and our ways”

We are celebrating the huge movement in the state of Connecticut with our Connecticut tribes co-creating the new social studies curriculum.

The State Department of Education and five of us Connecticut tribal nations have been working together to meet a legislative mandate calling for Native American curriculum for K-12 social studies classes. Resources with localized information from the tribal nations – Eastern Pequot, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Schaghticoke and Golden Hill Paugussett – are expected to be available in January 2024.

This interview below, is a preview of this collaboration with educators from the Mohegan Tribal Nation and our Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, as well as State Department of Education social studies advisor Steve Armstrong.

Our STN traditional Native American storyteller, Darlene Kascak and education coordinator for the Institute of American Indian Studies explains the importance of centering, and distinguishing, each tribe’s story and voice.

This is a proud moment in our tribal history to have our voices seen, heard, and shared with the world.

Listen to the interview here

Guests in the interview:

  • Darlene Kascak: Education Coordinator, Institute of American Indian Studies; Traditional Native American Storyteller, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation
  • Sam Cholewa Tondreau: Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Mohegan Tribal Nation
  • Steve Armstrong: Social Studies Consultant, Connecticut State Department of Education
03/8/16

Chief Of Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Testifies At Public Safety Committee Public Hearing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chief Richard Velky
March 8, 2016

Email: chiefvelkystn@aol.com

CHIEF OF SCHAGHTICOKE TRIBAL NATION TESTIFIES AT
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING
Urges Legislators to Amend SB 357 to Allow All State Recognized Tribes the
Opportunity to Conduct Tribal Bingo Operations

Kent, Connecticut — Today, the Chief of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation (STN), Richard Velky, testified before the Connecticut General Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, urging legislators to amend Senate Bill 357 (An Act Concerning Gaming). During his testimony, Chief Velky asked the committee to “keep focused” on the bill’s stated purpose, which is to amend and correct the State’s bingo laws.

“…the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is a Connecticut recognized tribe, just like the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe. And as many of you know, we have been pursuing an opportunity to create our own gaming entity,” Velky remarked. “We therefore ask the Committee to amend S.B. 357 to give the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation…and all state-recognized tribes…an opportunity to conduct tribal bingo operations…and ensure STN is given equal consideration for any future commercial casino in Connecticut.”

“To us, tribal gaming is about creating an economic opportunity for an impoverished people and if we were permitted to pursue gaming, we would use that opportunity to create jobs for us and for the surrounding communities,” added Velky.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is one of the oldest state-recognized tribes in the U.S., formally recognized by the Colony of Connecticut in 1736.

Read Chief Velky’s full testimony here.

03/8/16

Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman On Board To Help Schaghticoke

Ana Radelat at the Connecticut Mirror –

The Schaghicoke Tribal Nation has hired former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman – who once fought against the tribe’s efforts to win federal recognition – to help them sue the state over a gambling law that allows only the state’s two gaming tribes to open a new casino…

Continue reading: http://ctmirror.org/2016/03/07/schaghticokes-hire-lieberman-to-help-sue-state-over-casino-law/

03/7/16

Hartford Courant: Schaghticoke Indians and MGM Team Up to Fight Casino Law

HARTFORD — The chief of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation said Monday that his state-recognized Indian tribe is working with gambling giant MGM Resorts to fight the state’s plan for opening a third casino in Connecticut.

Continue reading: http://www.courant.com/business/hc-mgm-schaghticoke-casino-20160307-story.html

03/5/16

Hartford Courant: Schaghticoke Chief Plans Lawsuit Over Third Casino

By Russell Blair

…”Without any competitive bidding or gaming study, Connecticut shut out [the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation] and awarded to one pair of Native American tribes the exclusive ability to develop a highly-valuable commercial enterprise,” Chief Richard L. Velky said in a statement. “Under the equal protection clauses of both the federal and state constitutions, [the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation] should have the same right to pursue this economic opportunity as anyone else.”

Velky said the lawsuit will be filed Monday…

Read more here: http://www.courant.com/business/hc-schaghticoke-third-casino-lawsuit-0305-20160304-story.html

03/27/15

In A Rare Moment, Blumenthal Agrees With Chief Velky

Gale Courey Toensing writes in Indian Country Today:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) rarely, if ever, agrees with Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Chief Richard Velky about anything having to do with federal recognition, but that rare moment has arrived.

Blumenthal, Connecticut’s former attorney general, now says that a third party veto provision he helped insert into the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ proposed revisions of the federal recognition rules is unconstitutional, the Connecticut Mirror reported. Velky said the same thing a year ago.

The provision would give third parties that were involved in litigation against tribes veto power over those tribes’ right to re-petition for federal recognition under the revised rules. A tribe would have to go to the same third party that fought its federal recognition at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals and/or in federal court to get consent to re-petition. In Connecticut, which has fought indigenous sovereignty for almost 400 years, the likelihood of that happening is slim to none, Indian leaders say.

“I’ve argued, and so have other parties, that [the third party veto] raises very severe constitutional questions,” said Blumenthal, who has successfully fought federal recognition of Connecticut’s three state recognized tribes – the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation (STN), the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (EPTN) and the Golden Hill Paugussett Indians (GHP)…

Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/27/blumenthal-flip-flops-federal-rec-third-party-veto-159772

10/9/14

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch Vouches For Reform Of Federal Recognition Process

Mayor Bill Finch | www.bridgeportct.gov

Mayor Bill Finch | www.bridgeportct.gov

By Gale Courey Toensing for Indian Country Today Media Network

. . . The mayor of Connecticut’s biggest city has written to the Bureau of Indian Affairs applauding the agency’s proposed new regulations for the federal acknowledgment process. The proposed regulations aim to reform a system that almost everyone has described as “broken” for the past two decades.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch objected to one item in the BIA proposal, however — a provision that would prevent the federal government from reconsidering the petitions of three tribes the state has recognized since the 17th and early 18th centuries when it started expropriating their lands. The provision would give third parties the power to stop tribes that have been denied recognition to seek reconsideration under the new regulations.

“If, as you say in your announcement released on May 22nd, that ‘Reform of the process is long-overdue’ and that a number of tribes were denied recognition under the current regulations, those tribes should be afforded due process under the revised provisions,” Finch wrote in a short letter to Interior Department Assistant Secretary — Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn on September 30. That was the last day of the comment period, which Washburn had extended for 60 days from its original August 30 deadline.

“A third party should not receive veto powers concerning reconsideration. That is not a state’s rights issue or the province of an individual or corporation,” Finch continued. “Rather, the third party should be offered the opportunity to submit documentation in the acknowledgment process that documents why a petitioner has not fulfilled the criteria for acknowledgment. All parties should receive appropriate notice but the regulations must address the Federal relationship with the Native American tribe without the outright denial by a third party without necessarily evaluating the facts of the petitioner.”

Finch’s support for Indian nations is at odds with the state’s entire congressional delegation of two senators, five representatives, Gov. Dannel Malloy, State Attorney General George Jepson and a coalition of town mayors and selectmen – all led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who has been an Indian fighter for more than 20 years. . .

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/10/09/voice-reason-connecticuts-anti-fed-rec-wilderness-157266