State officials are claiming government immunity in response to a lawsuit by a Native American tribe seeking more than $610 million for land it says the state seized from 1801 to 1918.
State officials asked a state judge in Hartford on Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation filed in October. The tribe alleges the state took 2,000 of the 2,400 acres in the tribe's reservation in western Connecticut and sold the land, but never compensated the tribe.
The motion includes the state's first public response to the lawsuit and says it's immune from the lawsuit.
It also questions the tribal nation's standing to file the lawsuit because at least two other factions of the tribe claim leadership authority.
“We look forward to responding to the State’s motion to dismiss, which we are confident will be denied,” Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Chief Richard Velky said in a statement.
