and Eliza Freeman Houses identified the builders as African Americans, the BIA disputed whether the sisters and Joel Freeman could be considered members of the Paugusset community. However, Charles Brilvitch, who ironically had authored the 1998 nomination, maintains that his African American identification was merely a mistaken attempt to interpret the term "coloured" used in documents of the period The confusion about cultural identification as Native Americans has affected other communities that have worked to demonstrate cultural continuity. Native American nations were used to absorbing people of other ethnicities and intermarried with neighbors. There has been disagreement among groups over an interpretation of the term "mulatto," which has a primary association of African-European mixed race but has frequently been applied to other people of colour. Restoration of the land base Around 1857 William Sherman (1825-1886), a whaler by trade withdrew from the Liberia community and settled in the village of Nichols Farms in the Town of Trumbull, Connecticut, the site of the 1841-54 Turkey Meadows reservation. In 1875, he purchased a quarter-acre plot of land that contained a Paugussett burial ground; he used funds from the Golden Hill Tribal Fund to construct a house on it. He is referred to in local histories of the 1880s as the chief of the tribe. Prior to his death in 1886, Sherman turned the property over to the state overseer in trust for the Golden Hill tribe. The land was accepted by the State of Connecticut in that year as an official reservation. Subsequently, his son George Sherman (b. 1871) took over the leadership of the Golden Hill people; he lived on the reservation and led the people until his death in 1938. He was succeeded by his son Edward (1896-1974), who was known as "Chief Black Hawk." Meanwhile, Edward's sister, Ethel (1893-1993), was installed in 1933 as "Chieftess Rising Star". Ethel was active in the Pan-Indian movement and was a staunch advocate of Indian rights, fighting many battles in the courts of law and public opinion. She named her son Aurelius H. Piper (1916-2008) as "Chief Big Eagle" in 1959. Following the death of Chief Black Hawk in 1974, Piper (Chief Big Eagle) assumed full leadership of the tribe and took up residency on the Trumbull reservation. He obtained grants to purchase land in Colchester, Connecticut for the community in 1978 and 1980. This land was granted formal reservation status by the