It was a vision that would not die, one that endured through years of hardship and loss. It was the dream of a small group of Mashantucket Pequot Indians to rebuild their nation and to bring its members home. That was the legacy of Elizabeth George, who protected the Pequots' right to live on the Mashantucket reservation and who instilled in those around her a love for and desire to keep their land, at any cost.
That cost was dear. The Pequots, who flourished in Southeastern Connecticut until the early 17th-century, had been ravaged by disease and fierce war with the colonists. By the early 1800s, there were only about 30 or 40 in residence at Mashantucket, as members sought work and housing elsewhere because of poor conditions. Illegal land sales by the State of Connecticut had reduced the original 3,000-acre reservation of 1666 to 989 acres in 1761, and finally, to 213 acres by 1856.
Throughout the 1970s, Pequots both old and young began returning to Mashantucket. Many of them were the nieces, nephews and grandchildren of Elizabeth George. After her death in 1973, a new leader was elected, in 1975 -- her 27-year-old grandson, Richard (Skip) Hayward -- who began rebuilding the Tribe. "The first thing we have to do is move people back to the reservation," Hayward has explained. "We can't have people spread out all over the country. If we are going to be a tribe, people have to be here." The task, however, was daunting. The reservation -- isolated, with no roads, rocky soil, two houses and no businesses -- was not a magnet for the Pequots who had left years before. "There was nothing here in the way of housing," recalled Hayward, "and until we could start building homes on the reservation, there weren't that many people who were ready to pull up and come live here in a trailer."
The Tribal Council -- which held its meetings in a yard or homes until getting a trailer -- sought help from the state authorities and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and they responded. By 1981, 15 new homes had been completed. The tribal members called their part in the project "sweat equity" -- clearing lots, sanding, staining and finishing interior woodwork, and continually battling the rocky soil.
But homes were only part of the equation. The Tribe desperately needed business enterprises to survive. "We tried to instill a sense of tribalness, working together," said Hayward.
The Tribe’s first attempt at achieving economic self-sufficiency was a swine project, which began with 18 pigs. "They would get loose and they'd run all over town here, and we'd be out chasing the pigs," recalls Loretta Libby, a tribal elder. "We couldn't kill the animals," notes Theresa Bell, Executive Director of the Mashantucket Museum and Research Center. "We could feed them, we could grow them bigger than anybody else but we had a hard time when it came to butchering them because we fell in love with the animals."
Another venture was the community garden. The Pequots began growing vegetables, hoping to sell the produce to raise money, but the rocky soil made tilling extremely difficult. They sold cord wood, and, with money from state, federal, local and private sources, built a state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse to grow lettuce. But without access to regional markets, the lettuce business was unable to survive.
The Pequots also invested in a maple syrup operation, tapping the trees, carrying buckets a quarter of a mile to the sugar house, and boiling sap in an evaporator. The maple syrup sold well, but the business was seasonal and therefore not profitable enough to sustain a tribe.
Meanwhile, the Pequots were also trying to regain lost land and, in 1976, the Tribe sued more than 20 property owners in Ledyard, Conn., to recover land that had been sold by the state in 1856. Seven years later, an agreement was reached with the landowners, who concurred that the 1856 sale had been illegal. In 1983, after tribal members had spent years searching through town hall records, culling documents, and petitioning the federal government, The Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act was enacted, granting the Pequots $900,000 for land acquisition and economic development. The money enabled them to purchase a favorite local restaurant called Mr. Pizza. "It was successful," said Theresa Bell. "It helped the Tribe have a steady cash flow -- something the Tribe was not used to having. But it wasn’t enough for the growth of the Tribe."
Then the Tribe considered bingo. "We were very concerned about different kinds of things that it might bring here -- crime, prostitution, and all the bad things that you hear even today that go along with gaming," said Theresa Bell. "It took the Tribe three years to finally decide on going with high-stakes bingo."
Even then, it was not always smooth sailing. The Pequots had to petition the Federal District Court to build a bingo hall on their reservation, and then they didn't have the money to complete it until they acquired a loan from the United Arab American Bank.
In July 1986, Mashantucket high-stakes bingo opened. It became a phenomenal success. "From the bingo monies, the Tribe for the first time had a cash flow that enabled it to build a tribal infrastructure -- the centralized water system, better electric service throughout the reservation, and the opportunity for all tribal members to have a job," recalled Ms. Bell.
And more Pequots began returning home. "People saw that now we have housing, now we have some jobs, now we have some substantial income," said Hayward. "And the word is starting to spread amongst the members. Something is happening. Something is going to happen."
The dream had finally become a reality.
In 1992, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation established Foxwoods Resort Casino, whose success put an end to generations of economic struggle and provided the income and impetus for the creation of the state-of-the-art Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which opened to the public on August 11, 1998.
