Shortly thereafter, Tureen and Margolin successfully challenged Connecticut’s attempt to stop the Pequots from opening a high-stakes bingo hall. As in Maine, the Pequots agreed to be subject to state civil and criminal law but – critically, it would turn out – not regulatory authority.
Through 19, Tureen and his law partner, Barry Margolin, helped the Pequots negotiate a land claims settlement of their own, by which the 50-member tribe received $900,000 to buy another 800 acres. Although the last inhabitant of their 214-acre reservation had died years before, the Pequots would, with Tureen’s help, become among the wealthiest tribes in North America. Subscribe - Holiday Gift Subscriptions Sign In My Account Logout Primary Menu ☰ Xīy 1980, Tureen had already been associated with lawsuits involving more than a dozen tribes in six Eastern states, including a tiny group of Indians in rural southeastern Connecticut calling themselves the Mashantucket Pequots.
