Petition of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians to the Connecticut General Assembly concerning Indian Land Held in Severalty

To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut Now Setting at New Haven within and for State              

The petition of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians by and with the consent of their overseers humbly sheweth that whereas heretofore by virtue and in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly our overseers apparted and set out a considerable part of the lands belonging to said tribe to the individuals of said tribe to be by them held and improved in severalty and in said division the lands so set out belonging to the individuals of a family for the better accommodation in improvement were all laid contiguous together in one tract and it being a question whether upon the death of one of the family without issue, his part thus set out shall revert back to the tribe at large or remain in the improvement of the survivors of said family.  Wherefore to prevent any disputes and misunderstanding on that stead which may arise, we pray that Your Honors would enact and resolve that all the lands apparted out as aforesaid shall remain in the possession and improvement of the respective families to which they are appointed as long as any of the family or their1 descendants remain, and that upon the death of any individual of the family without issue, the particular part allotted to such individual shall not, as long as any of said family remains, revert back to the tribe at large but shall remain in the improvement of the survivors in said family, which regulation will give general satisfaction to said tribe and will greatly encourage and stimulate the possessors to make betterments in their improvements, when those betterments will in case of death inure to the particular advantage of their respective families, all which we humbly submit to Your Honors' wise determination.

And as in duty bound shall ever pray,

• 1. Deleted Text: ancestors