The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, continuously recognized from historic times by the Colony and State of Connecticut, has its base on an approximately 400-acre mountainous Reservation in Kent, Connecticut. Its 300 members now seek alternative dispute resolution to determine their tribal status, in order to safeguard what remains of their tribal holdings and to secure their survival into the next centuries.

Historically, the Schaghticoke people have had to survive the loss of their considerable original landbase to incoming settlers and to the payments exacted by “overseers” commissioned by the Colonial and State authorities to manage the resources of impoverished tribal members. As subsistence on the reservation became impossible, tribal members sought survival elsewhere, but always returned to their spiritual home, at least in death. Over time, the State’s “detribalization” policies sought to defeat even that last refuge, gradually attempting to force the last stubborn remnants from their reservation home, even burning homes to hasten abandonment.

The Schaghticoke Tribe has refused to abandon its home. Its attempts to preserve its heritage and defend its landbase have ranged from an unsuccessful claim filed in the Indian Claims Commission in 1949 to the present petition for federal recognition and pending land litigation. During that time, the State has continued its formal recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribe, even though the United States has not reached any conclusion about tribal status. But the United States has not let the Tribe’s presence deter it from routing the Appalachian Trail directly through the Reservation, without any authority to do so.

In recent years, the Tribe has been caught up in litigation connected to the United States’ efforts to acquire additional land for the Appalachian Trail right of way. The Tribe’s ability to defend itself from that land condemnation depends upon its federal tribal status. Administrative resolution of tribal status is charged to a bureau within the Department of Interior, the same agency that is seeking to acquire the Tribe’s land, and the same one that has been inviting the hiking public to use the Tribe’s land without permission for more than 60 years.

The United States filed its condemnation suit in 1985, and, over its many objections, that action was delayed pending the determination of Schaghticoke tribal status. Since the submission of the Tribe’s research in 1997, the Tribe has sought resolution of the litigation, but now the federal government seeks delay. In 1998, the Tribe reinstated its own claim to land within the previously acknowledged borders of its Reservation. The United States has refused the Tribe's request to begin review of its administrative petition. Instead, the agency has placed the Tribe's petition in its backlogged queue of petitions. By the agency's own estimate, it will not even begin review of the Schaghticoke petition for another five years or more, and that it will not reach a final determination of tribal status for seven to ten years or more. The Tribe has been unable to persuade a federal judge to undertake the determination of Schaghticoke tribal status, even though federal case law mandates judicial involvement over agency deferral in the face of inordinate administrative delay. Additionally, leaving the determination of the Tribe's status to the same agency seeking to acquire the land causes a conflict of interest. Through controlling the determination of tribal status, the agency controls its own ability to acquire the land. The land claim remains unresolved, and the federal trespass continues.

Over 250 years after sustained European contact, the Schaghticoke tribe continues to coexist peacefully with its neighbors. Official federal policy no longer tolerates depriving tribal entities of their traditional lands, federal practice should be no more tolerant. The federal government should participate in ADR to end intolerable delays.