Native American Tribes have inhabited the North American continent since approximately 14,000 BCE.  This created a long and rich history of Native American culture in what we now know as Connecticut. At the time of European colonization there were over sixteen distinct Native American tribes living on land  now known as the State of Connecticut. See data on the current CT native American population of over 34,000 people according to the US census.  These tribes are often considered to be part of the larger Mohegan Tribe, who were once part of the Delaware Nation.  While many native communities remain, there are only two federally recognized tribes in Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan Tribe.  Federal recognition allows tribes to exercise tribal sovereignty, such as sovereign immunity, a nation to nation relationship with the United States government, and the ability to govern themselves. In the United States There are 574 recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes, however over 400 tribes do not have federal recognition.  Since European Colonization began in 1492, forces outside of the many Native American tribes have driven drastic changes to both individual and tribal culture, day-to-day life, and fundamental rights.

Native American tribes had different relationships with colonial settlers, toggling between conflict and treaties. From 1778 to 1871, there were over 368 treaties between tribes and the US government, mostly broken. After US independence, the US policy towards Native Americans grew aggressive, and President Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the forced relocation of Tribes to the American West; the outcome was the Trail of Tears. Indian Appropriations Acts created the reservation system, which made people noncitizens (until 1924), with limited rights and ability to travel and work off reservations that had limited economic activity. Reservations began to shrink by the 1870s with the "Sell or Starve" Act seizing the Black Hills (7 million acres) from the Sioux Nation in 1877. The Dawes Act of 1887 split communal tribal land into family allotments that could be sold. Land allotment was predicated on a high enough Blood Quantum or someone's percentage of "Indian blood." Blood quantum was used to limit tribal membership and eligibility for land allotments, reducing the size of reservations and tribes.

From the Dawes Act until 1934, over 60 million acres of land were taken and sold, so many reservations have shrunk and are checkerboarded with private non-native owners, including for extractive industries including petroleum, natural gas, and more recently, lithium. QV’s campus is on unceded Native Land of the Nipmuc and Mohegan tribes in Northeastern Connecticut. Since European colonization, there has been almost continuous land loss; see this Time Lapse map of land loss from Slate. While the land is not being returned to Native Americans, the last decade has seen a rise in land acknowledgments in higher education (e.g., this university sits on unceded land of the….). See UConn’s Land Acknowledgement.  There is a critique that land acknowledgments are symbolic (a performance) without the return of land or transfer of resources to tribal communities. Many Native American tribes and members are calling for meaningful change.

Native American history is long and varied.  Listed below are only a few of the important events that have affected various Native American tribes in the United States.

• Sometime between 1200 to 1600 – The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (The Iroquois Confederacy), the first participatory democracy in North America was founded.
• 1675-1678 – The Native American tribes in New England participate in and are finally defeated in King Phillips War.
• 1830-1850 – 100,000 members of Native American tribes were forcibly relocated from the east of the Mississippi to areas in the west.
• 1851 – The Indian Appropriations Act created Native American reservations where members of Native Tribes were required to live.
• 06/25/1876 – The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place after Lieutenant Colonel George Custer was sent to forcibly round up Sioux Tribal Members who refused to move from their Black Hills ancestral lands.
• 10/6/1879 – 84 Lakota children were removed from their homes and sent to a boarding school in Carlisle, PA.
• 1887 – The Dawes Act allocated reservation land to individual Native Americans, and any reservation land left over was opened up to white settlement.
• 12/29/1890 – 153 Sioux men, women, and children were murdered at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Effectively ending the Ghost Dance movement.
• 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kaw ancestor become the first Native American Senator
• 1912 – Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox nation becomes the first Native American to secure a gold medal in the Olympics.
• 6/2/1924 – The Indian Citizenship Act declared that all Native Americans born in the United States were US citizens.
• 1978 – The Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act meant that Native tribes could operate their own schools, health care, and housing services.
• 7/15/1978 –28 individuals participated in The Longest Walk from San Fransisco CA to Washington DC protesting bills threatening Native American rights.
• 8/11/1978 – Indian Religious Freedom Act reversed years of the US Governments restrictions on Native Americans right to practice their religion.
• 1990 – The Native American Grave Protection and Reparation Act requires the return of all Native American grave goods, including human remains, to Native American Tribes.
• 2009 – Native Americans were awarded a $3.4 billion settlement to compensate for monies withheld to them by the Department of the Interior since 1887.
• 03/15/2021 – Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet in the United States Government (Department of the Interior).

Map of Connecticut, circa 1625, Indian trails, villages, sachemdoms