NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. — A lot of people may have grown up learning, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
Monday commemorated the day the Italian explorer landed in the Bahamas, but Connecticut also marked Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
It’s a way to recognize the reality of genocide and land theft after Columbus’ arrival, but Connecticut tribes say they are fighting for recognition year-round.
“It's hard to hate someone you know a lot about,” said Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, vice chair of the Council of Elders for the Mohegan Tribe.
The Mohegan Tribe uses their land, and museum, to carry on oral tradition, re-discover much of their past, educate young native youth on their identity, and share their story with non-natives.
“Native people here in Connecticut can actually make you feel more connected to your state,” explained Tantaquidgeon Zobel. “When you learn that Connecticut is a native American word, right? It means the land of the Long Tidal River. When you learn what some of those funny place names mean in Connecticut.”
Part of that work is in classrooms — all five state-recognized tribes, including the Mohegans, are taking part in writing state curriculum.
“Connecticut has an ancient history that belongs to all of us and people should learn it,” Tantaquidgeon Zobel said. “We shouldn't feel that we come from a new place.”
While Mohegan’s well-preserved story speaks to the larger, indigenous experience in many ways, on Eastern Pequot land — just a few towns away — they face a different level of erasure.
“We have one of the oldest continuously occupied reservations in the country,” said Brenda Geer, vice chairwoman of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Council. “We have been stewards of this land all that time.”
The Eastern Pequots are one of the state’s three tribes without federal recognition.
Theirs’ was taken away by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2005, mostly due to how splintered their tribal nation has been since the devastating Pequot War. That’s when Connecticut colonialists tried to take control of the traditional fur and wampum trade.
They’ve now had to compile 70,000 pages of evidence and petition signatures to prove their self-governance and existence.
“We were disconnected from a lot of our rituals and our language, it was illegal for us to even speak it,” Jelani “Black Bear” Fletcher, councilor for the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation said. “As a matter of fact, it was illegal to even say the word Pequot in Connecticut at that time, for a long time. We are also still rediscovering ourselves and this is a process of rebuilding a nation, reconnecting our past and redefining our future.”
Some state lawmakers continue to actively fight their reinstatement, fearful it will empower the tribes to file land claims and open casinos, but elders say that’s not what it’s about.
Instead, they want resources to educate those in their tribal nation, and to fund healthcare and the overall infrastructure to be self-sufficient on their rightful land.
“I know behind me is all of the ancestors that we have lost, that have fought and fought and fought and I just think that we've got to make this right,” Geer said. “The state of Connecticut and the politicians should be really ashamed of themselves of what they've done to the Connecticut tribes.”
“We have to reach back to a history that was denied us,” added Fletcher. “We were separated from our land, we were separated from our history, our language.”
“People want to tie everything up neatly in a bow, but history is messy,” said Tantaquidgeon Zobel. “There was this conscious effort to really put the story of native people to rest. It sort of gave us a lot of impetus to go out there and tell our story.”
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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