The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territory in the 19th century. Today they retain a state-recognized reservation in the town of Trumbull, and have an additional reservation acquired in 1978 and 1980 in Colchester, Connecticut. They descend from the historic Quiripi speaking Paugussett, an Algonguian-speaking nation who historically occupied much of western Connecticut prior to the arrival of European colonists. They are among the five tribes recognized by the state. They were denied federal recognition in 2004. Present day The 100-member tribe lives primarily in urban areas of Southwestern Connecticut due to the minuscule size of its reserve in the Nichols section of Trumbull, Connecticut. Several members presently reside in Colchester, Connecticut, where the tribe has a second reservation. In 2009, a state court dismissed a challenge to the tribe's status as Indians, refusing to eject members of the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe from reservations in Trumbull and Colchester. History While the history of the Paugusset people began long before the European encounter, the early written records are European accounts. Their language, called Quiripi by lexicographers, was one of numerous Eastern Algonquian tongues in the coastal areas of the Atlantic. In addition to the Paugussett, Quiripi-speaking tribes included the Quinnipiack, Wampano, Unkechaug, Naugatuck, Mattabesic, and Schaghticoke. Quiripi has been extinct since at least the early 1800s. Historically, the Paugussett occupied a region from present-day Norwalk to West Haven, and from Long Island Sound inland for as far as they could navigate by canoe on the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers. The tribe was made up of four primary sub-groups, the Paugussett Proper in what is present-day Milford, Derby and Shelton; the Pequonnock, along the coast; the Potatuck in Newtown, Woodbury and Southbury; and the Weantinock in New Milford. They had a farming and fishing culture. The women cultivated varieties of staple crops: corn, beans, and squash, and tobacco, which was used for ritual purposes. The men fished in both fresh and salt water. The size of midden shell heaps along the coast and the amount of cleared land attested to both a long period of occupation and a high degree of social organization among the people. Encroachment by settlers While the Paugusset did not have early direct contact