26-03-2025
Proposed commission would regulate tribal members' hunting, fishing rights
Southeastern Connecticut's federally recognized Indian tribes — the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans — expressed support this week for a bill calling for a 20-member commission that would regulate tribal members' hunting, fishing and gathering on nontribal lands and water in the state.
The tribes testified on the bill during a public hearing Monday conducted by the legislature's Environment Committee.
Introduced by Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, the measure would exempt members of Connecticut's five state-recognized tribes from paying hunting and fishing license fees. The tribes are the Mashantuckets, the Mohegans, the Eastern Pequots of North Stonington, the Golden Hill Paugussetts of Colchester and Trumbull, and the Schaghticokes of Kent.
'This legislation is a step forward in recognizing and respecting the sovereignty of Native American tribes in Connecticut,' Chuck Bunnell, the Mohegans' chief of staff, wrote in testimony submitted to the committee. 'By establishing the Connecticut Tribal Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the act ensures that tribes ... have a direct role in developing and administering hunting and fishing regulations for their members.'
Hunting and fishing, including shellfishing, sustained the Mashantuckets for centuries, providing the tribe with a critical source of food and economic activity, 'inextricably binding us to the lands and waters of this region,' the Mashantuckets said in their testimony.
'In short, hunting and fishing have been and remain fundamental to the survival of our tribal traditions and lifeways,' they said.
Both tribes suggested a change in the bill's language to clarify the bill would apply to their tribal members' activities on state land outside their reservations, which are located on land held in trust by the federal government. The tribes already regulate hunting and fishing on trust land.
Bumgardner said Tuesday the bill's final language would include the change sought by the tribes and would make it clear that the exemption from license fees would apply to members of all five state-recognized tribes. He said it has yet to be determined whether the bill would call for issuing tribal members free lifetime licenses or eliminating the licensing process altogether for tribal members.
The Connecticut Fisheries Advisory Council opposed the bill as written while supporting the establishment of a wildlife and fisheries commission. The nonprofit Friends of Connecticut Sportsmen opposed the bill on the grounds it would grant a group of citizens 'special privileges to hunt, fish and trap, etc. while excluding others.'
Bumgardner said courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of laws pertaining to tribes' hunting and fishing rights. He said a number of states, including Vermont, have enacted laws granting tribal members hunting and fishing rights and exempting them from license fees.
'It's time for Connecticut to fully recognize the sovereignty of tribes, not just through words but through policy,' he said. 'This bill ensures they will have a seat at the table when it comes to regulating (hunting and fishing). It's about justice and partnership.'
The 20 members of the proposed commission would include one member from each of the five state-recognized tribes; the commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection or the commissioner's designee; one member from each of DEEP's Fisheries, Wildlife and Forestry divisions; one member from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; one member for the state Department of Agriculture; one member from the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Aquaculture; one member from Connecticut Sea Grant; one member from UConn's Native American and Indigenous Studies Department; two Indigenous people chosen by the tribes; and the co-chairmen and ranking members of the legislature's Environment Committee.
Bumgardner said the Environment Committee could act on the measure Friday.
