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When Quiet Hawk and his group won a fourth hearing for their claims last May, some wondered if the band had more political pull than did other applicants. Federal records show that Wilmot, the developer backing the Quiet Hawk group, has contributed nearly $100,000 over the past five years to the Democratic National Committee and individual Democratic politicians. Wilmot has given $3,000 to the re-election efforts of Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the ranking Democrat on the Indian Affairs committee, since 1995, when the Senator wrote to BIA to complain about its treatment of the Quiet Hawk group. Both Wilmot and staff members for Inouye deny any connection between the donations and the Senator's actions. Wilmot was host for a $1,000-a-person cocktail party-fund raiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate bid at his Rochester home three weeks ago, bringing in about $50,000.
Wilmot and Quiet Hawk's Paugussetts also have friends in high places in the tightly knit world of government-Indian relations. Kevin Gover, who counted Quiet Hawk's tribe among his clients when he practiced law, is Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. Back in 1996, Gover had helped coordinate the Clinton-Gore campaign's outreach to Native Americans. During the campaign, Gover wrote memos urging the White House to pay special attention to supporters, noting that "the tribes have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the D.N.C. and Democratic campaigns." In 1997 President Clinton named Gover, a Pawnee Indian, to the Indian Affairs post. In June 1998 Gover was given the Quiet Hawk group's appeal of the agency's latest rejection of its petition. Gover recused himself and assigned the matter to his deputy, Michael Anderson, a political appointee, who ordered a full review of the petition.
"We were disappointed and surprised that the initial decision was, in effect, reversed," says Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general who opposed federal recognition of the tribe. But other Connecticut officials say that if Quiet Hawk's Paugussetts win federal recognition and then agree to drop their pending land claims, Connecticut would probably agree to give the tribe land for its casino and reservation.
Quiet Hawk believes his group's efforts to develop the Bridgeport waterfront should be welcomed by all. "This would help the city," he says. "It would help the state, the poor and the minorities." Including, of course, the chief and his followers.