Eastern Pequots and the Mashantucket Pequots in this period. An Eastern Pequot chief in the 1930s challenged the membership rights of dark-skinned descendants of one Tamar Brushel, an early 19th-century resident of the reservation. Others denied membership to dark-skinned descendants of Emmanuel Sebastian, a mulatto immigrant from the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands. Both men had married Pequot women in the 19th century, and their descendants were considered tribal members. Quest for federal recognition The Eastern Pequots started seeking federal recognition in 1979. In 1990, about 150 members initiated a separate petition for federal recognition as the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribe, but most members of both groups have continued to live on the 224-acre reservation. The Eastern Pequots contended that they satisfied federal criteria: they had maintained identification as an Indian tribe within the community they have been a distinct community they maintained political authority over members the current members are descended from members of a historical Indian tribe a majority of members lived on or near the reservation and had family ties In 1998, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was reviewing both petitions together. Ronald Wolf Jackson, the treasurer of the Eastern Pequot, characterized the groups' differences as a "leadership dispute" and said that a "fair review" of their petitions would demonstrate that there was one tribe. Some supporters of the Paucatuck contended that the Eastern Pequot wanted a casino gaming deal, although both groups denied interest in a casino. In March 2000, the BIA recommended recognition of the tribes in its preliminary finding. During its final review, the BIA encouraged the two groups to reunite, noting that the historical evidence showed that they were members of one tribe with common ancestors and history on the shared reservation. In June 2002, the Secretary of the Interior granted recognition to the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation. The Attorney General of Connecticut Richard Blumenthal filed an appeal with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals the following October, worried that the tribe would develop a third casino in the state, and Connecticut officials contended that the BIA had erred in granting recognition to the united tribe. The BIA revoked their recognition in 2005, after additional internal review. They had already revoked recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in Connecticut, which it had recognized in 2004. In January 2012, the Eastern Pequots filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Washington, D.C. seeking to