Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut

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Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut (1705–1773) was the first indigenous land rights litigation in history in a common law jurisdiction.^[1] James Youngblood Henderson, professor of law, calls the case "the first major legal test of indigenous tenure."^[2] Robert Clinton calls it the "first formal litigation of North American Indian rights."^[3]

Mark Walters has noted that the case established that "in certain circumstances native nations on reserved lands in British colonies were subject, not to colonial jurisdictions established for settlers, but to their own traditional customs."^[4] The Mohegan claim was not a claim to aboriginal title, but a claim that certain lands were held in trust by the descendants of John Mason on behalf of the Mohegan.

In 1979, the Mohegan Indian Tribe filed a suit against the state for possession of lands in Montville, Connecticut. In this re-litigation, the judge held in 1980 that the 1790 Non-Intercourse Act applied to the case, a ruling upheld on appeal. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In 1994 the tribe gained federal recognition by the Department of Interior; in addition, that year Congress passed the Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act, which authorized the US to take 800 acres of land into trust for the tribe for use as its reservation, and allowed it to have gambling operations on the property.