This section of the research guide is specific to the local geographic area that Fairfield University (North Benson and Bellarmine campuses) stands on today.* The Library staff is grateful to the contributions of Fairfield University faculty members Sonya Huber and Peter Bayers, who helped collect the resources in this guide. Consult your professor’s or discipline’s preferred citation style manual to cite these sources fully.

The Golden Hill Paugussett Nation:

Paugussett traditional homeland extended from Milford to the Saugatuck River. After the Mystic Massacre near Mystic, Connecticut, and the subsequent Swamp Fight in present-day Westport in 1637, many members of the tribe were killed by English settlers, and women and children were either absorbed by other tribes, indentured, or sold into slavery. The Paugussett Nation was moved onto an 80-acre reservation on Golden Hill in present-day Bridgeport, and then settlers re-took that land and displaced them. Members of the Paugussett moved down to the South End of Bridgeport and bought land, keeping their traditions alive and helping to found the settlement of Little Liberia,** a community of free people of color including those with Black and Indigenous heritage from several nations, in the 1820s-1850s. Industrialization later displaced that community, and tribal leader William Sherman purchased the lot in Trumbull in 1875 that is now the quarter-acre reservation.

Throughout the 1600s-1900s, the Paugussett were recognized by the state of Connecticut, and their presence was noted through military records, tribal overseer documents, customs records, account books, and legal proceedings. The Golden Hill Paugussett Nation has applied several times since the 1980s for federal recognition and has been denied.

The Paugussett Nation was composed of various clans and sub-communities with the names of or located in areas including: Aspetuck, Saugatuck, Turkey Hill, Paugussett Proper, Unquowa, and Pequonnock, so in older source materials, these names may be used instead of “Paugussett.” The nation took on the name “Golden Hill Paugussett” sometime after being forced onto the 80-acre reservation in present-day Bridgeport.

Clan Mother Shoran Waupatuquay Piper is currently the tribal leader of the Golden Hill Paugussett Nation, based in Trumbull and Colchester, and grew up learning from the elders in her family. Her book, The Red Road, focuses on her Afro-Indigenous identity and corrects misconceptions about Indigenous culture. A gifted spiritual advisor, she is the daughter of Chief Big Eagle Piper, who was active in Indigenous rights all over the world. Today, her life’s work is to keep sacred traditions—including song, dance, stories, and spirituality teachings—alive.

*For an ever-expanding interactive map of Native and Indigenous territories, visit: https://native-land.ca/

**More resources on Little Liberia available at the Mary and Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community at: https://freemancenterbpt.org/