The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, located in Connecticut, suffered from disease and war, but rebuilt themselves and now own Foxwoods Resort, one of the world’s largest casinos. They have a reservation and operate a museum to educate visitors about their history and culture.
The Mashantucket Pequots are a small Native American tribe living in New London County, Connecticut. They share their tribal Algonquian language with other tribes of the northeastern United States. After years of disease, economic hardship, and dwindling numbers, the Mashantucket Pequots have rebuilt themselves. They now own and operate one of the largest casino resorts in the world called Foxwoods Resort.
The Mashantucket Pequots have called what is now southeastern Connecticut home for thousands of years. Historically, these natives commonly lived within a 250-mile (about 400 km) radius on land between the rivers Thames and Pawcatuck. The Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, established in 1666, is one of the oldest in the United States
Exposure to European diseases such as smallpox and the plague killed nearly half of the 17th-century Mashantucket Pequot people. War with European settlers killed the most. By the 1917s, there were only two residents left to live on the tribal lands: sisters named Elizabeth George Ploufee and Martha Langevin Ellal. When those sisters are dead, tribesmen from all over the country start moving back to the reservation.
As the tribe began to increase in number, it applied for federal recognition. The tribe was able to make its way by taking its case directly to the United States Congress, and in 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the Connecticut Indian Land Claims Settlement Act into law, recognizing the Mashantucket Pequot nation. Tribal members must prove they are descendants of tribal members included in the 1900 census.
The Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation is located in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Some of the land was won in a 1976 lawsuit against the state of Connecticut, alleging that the state had illegally appropriated tribal land. The remainder of the 2.17 square miles held by the Mashantucket Pequot is off-reservation property that has been purchased by the tribe.
In 1992, the tribe opened Foxwoods Resort, one of the largest casinos in the world. Studies have shown that the casino has had a mostly positive impact on the area. Tribal members who work for the casino benefit, as do area businesses that see an upswing in visitors due to tourism.
The tribe also operates the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which serves to educate visitors of all ages. The museum exhibits teach visitors about the thousands of years of Pequot history. The center also hosts artists of all stripes and rotates displays of artifacts to educate the public about the diversity that makes up Native American tribes.
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