Seeking to Regain Federal Status

According to court documents, in 2004 -- only two months after the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation tribe received recognition by the federal government -- Republican Frank Wolf threatened to use his power to get then-Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton fired if she did not take away the tribe's federal recognition.

Indian Country Today reports:

There were plenty of witnesses to the politically-charged threat, which took place at a meeting in late March 2004 at Connecticut Republican Rep. Christopher Shays' office. Attending were other Connecticut congressmen, who themselves had vociferously lobbied Interior and the White House against the Schaghticokes' federal recognition and, in what may reflect a case of collective projection, had accused the BIA of political influence and corruption in recognizing the tribe.

''During that meeting, Representative Frank Wolf, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and one of the principal opponents of Indian gaming in Congress, threatened to go the President to have Secretary Norton removed from her job if she did not reverse the Tribe's Positive Final Determination,'' attorneys for the tribe wrote in a Jan. 12 brief for the tribe's appeal of the BIA's unprecedented reversal of its own previous decision.

Attorneys for the tribe seek to restore their federal status, "citing violations of due process and improper political influence."