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

Upon the Memorial of Henry Quaquaquid, John Cooper, Robert Ashbow, etc.,1 of the Tribe of Mohegan Indians by and with the consent of their overseers,2 shewing to this Assembly that in pursuance of a former Act of Assembly apportioned 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. Whereupon to prevent disputes and misunderstanding which may arise, praying that a resolve might be passed by this Assembly declaring that all the land apportioned out as afford shall remain in the possession and improvement of the respective families to which they are apportioned as long as any of the family or their descendants remain and 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 remain revert back to the tribe at large but shall remain in the improvement of the survivors in said family which regulations will give general satisfaction to said tribe and will encourage and3 industry, as per memorial on file, and it appearing to this Assembly that granting the prayer of said memorial would greatly encourage industry and economy in said tribe.

Therefore, it is resolved by this Assembly that all the lands apportioned and set out as aforesaid, shall remain in the possession and improvement of the respective families to which there are now apportioned, agreeable to4 a former act of this Assembly,5 and that said land shall descend to the families to which the same have been apportioned in the same manner as is prescribed by the statute law of this State relating to the distribution of intestate estates,6 and should any individual of said tribe decease without leaving any heirs, the said lands which were apportioned out or7 held by such individual, the same shall8 revert back to said tribe at large and be subjected to be divided out by the overseers of said tribe in the same manner as the division was formerly made at the discretion of said overseers.

• 1. Deleted Text: chiefs
• 2. Deleted Text: Richard Law, Esq., and Mr. James Haughton
• 3. Deleted Text: stimulate
• 4. Deleted Text: the
• 5. See An Act for the Settlement of Testate and Intestate Estates, Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut in America (1796), Part 1, § 12, pp. 165-166.
• 6. Deleted Text: and on the failure of any of the families or individuals of issue in the representatives of said issue or any
• 7. Deleted Text: and
• 8. Deleted Text: be