filed land rights claims against the state, saying the state did not have the authority to manage or sell land on their behalf and had cost them the loss of substantial lands since colonial times. Lack of federal recognition has deprived them of automatic standing in such suits. Initiated by Chief Big Eagle, the Paugussett originally had claimed legal rights to of land running from Orange/Woodbridge in New Haven County though Fairfield County to Greenwich and extending North into Eastern Litchfield County up to the Massachusetts border. The Paugusset have since dropped these large claims. In 1992, Chief Quiet Hawk filed a lawsuit claiming 80 acres in Bridgeport, the site of Golden Hill, which the state had sold in 1802, as well as land in Trumbull and Orange. In 1993, the federal District Court judge Peter Dorsey concluded that Connecticut had violated the 1790 Non-Intercourse Act by selling Indian lands without the approval of the federal government. But he dismissed the case, pending resolution of the BIA's review of the Paugusset petition for federal recognition. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal. Citing other cases, it noted that criteria for an Indian group's pursuit of land claims were not necessarily the same as for federal recognition. In 2006, a federal district court judge dismissed the Golden Hill Paugussett's 14-year-old lawsuit claiming lands in Orange, Trumbull and Bridgeport, based on the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs' rejection of the tribe's petition for federal recognition. The Golden Hill Paugusset had contended that, since they were a Native American nation, the state did not have the authority to deal with them on land sales or dispose of their land. Since the United States was formed, the federal government had reserved to itself authority over dealings with Native American nations and required approval by the Senate of any sale of Indian lands. Notable Golden Hill Paugusett people Aurelius H. Piper, Sr. (1916 - 2008), Chief Big Eagle - hereditary chief, died at age 92 in Trumbull. Beginning in the late 20th century, he encouraged revival of the Paugusset language. "It is a sacred obligation," says the Golden Hill Paugussett Chief, Big Eagle. "Indian people must keep their languages alive. If the language is not spoken, it must be made to live again." Aurelius H. Piper, Jr. (1945 - 2021), Chief Quiet Hawk - appointed by his father, Big Eagle, to succeed him