Коннектикут штатындағы Алтын төбе Паугасетт тайпасы

State recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut, United StatesInfobox ethnic group
|group=Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation
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|population=Enrolled members:
100 They are among the five tribes recognized by the state. They were denied federal recognition in 2004. reserve in the Nichols section of Trumbull, Connecticut. Several members presently reside in Colchester, Connecticut, where the tribe has a second reservation. In 2009, a state court dismissed a challenge to the tribe's status as Indians, refusing to eject members of the Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe from reservations in Trumbull and Colchester.

While the history of the Paugusset people began long before the European encounter, the early written records are European accounts. Their language, called Quiripi by lexicographers, was one of numerous Eastern Algonquian tongues in the coastal areas of the Atlantic. In addition to the Paugussett, Quiripi speaking tribes included the Quinnipiack, Wampano, Unkechaug, Naugatuck, Mattabesic, and Schaghticoke. Quiripi has been extinct since at least the early 1800s. Historically, the Paugussett occupied a region from present day Norwalk to West Haven, and from Long Island Sound inland for as far as they could navigate by canoe on the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers. The tribe was made up of four primary sub groups, the Paugussett Proper in what is present day Milford, Derby and Shelton; the Pequonnock, along the coast; the Potatuck in Newtown, Woodbury and Southbury; and the Weantinock in New Milford. They had a farming and fishing culture. The women cultivated varieties of staple crops: corn, beans, and squash, and tobacco, which was used for ritual purposes. The men fished in both fresh and salt water. The size of midden shell heaps along the coast and the amount of cleared land attested to both a long period of occupation and a high degree of social organization among the people.

While the Paugusset did not have early direct contact with Europeans, they came in contact with other Native Americans who did, and were exposed to the smallpox epidemic in 1633–35, which caused many deaths. They learned of the English and allies' war against the Pequot in 1637, with the defeat of that nation. English settlers first arrived in Paugussett lands in 1638–39, establishing settlements in New Haven, Guilford, Milford, Stratford and Fairfield.

Within a few years, the Paugussett had been divested by the colonists of the vast majority of their lands. A reservation was set aside in 1639 at Golden Hill, site of a spring sacred to the tribe, in present day Bridgeport. Another reservation was established at Turkey Hill in present day Derby. In 1802, the state appointed tribal overseer sold Golden Hill. A replacement reservation was created at Turkey Meadows in Trumbull in 1841, but it was sold off in 1854. The last of Turkey Hill was also sold by the state in 1826 for the people's "own benefit".

According to Bridgeport City Historian Charles Brilvitch's history of the Golden Hill tribe, beginning in the 1820s a number of Paugussett, under the leadership of Joel Freeman, a Turkey Hill Indian from Derby, relocated to Bridgeport. They settled in the city's South End. The area became known as Ethiope or Liberia. While this community consisted substantially of residents who identified as Paugussett, it included Natives from the Mahican, Shinnecock, Nehantic, and Munsee Delaware nations as well. Freeman was followed by two of his sisters, Mary and Eliza, who built houses in 1848 that are still standing. They have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The confusion about cultural identification as Native Americans has affected other communities that have worked to demonstrate cultural continuity. Native American nations were used to absorbing people of other ethnicities and intermarried with neighbors. There has been disagreement among groups over an interpretation of the term "mulatto," which has a primary association of African European mixed race but has frequently been applied to other people of colour. In the resulting state court case, the court ruled in State v. Piper, No. CR21 57349 (May 3, 1996), that the tribe did not have exemption from the state requirement to collect taxes on sales of cigarettes as it was not federally recognized. Some scholars have attributed opposition to anti Indigenous and anti Black racism, noting the mixed race heritage of many Golden Hill Paugussetts. In a final determination in 1996, the Bureau of Indian Affairs denied recognition to the Golden Hill Paugussett. The tribe appealed under BIA provisions and submitted additional historic and genealogical documentation. They were denied federal recognition in 2004. In 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs revised the acknowledgment criteria, requiring petitioners to prove continuity only back to 1900 (rather than to the time of first contact) and accepting State recognition and the existence of tribal reservations as evidence of a continuing government to government relationship. Seeing that this would virtually guarantee recognition of the Paugussett and other state tribes, the Connecticut congressional delegation insisted on the insertion of a clause stipulating that tribes which have previously been denied federal recognition could not re petition. In 2017, the Golden Hill Paugussett announced their intention to contest the "no second chance" rule as unconstitutional and said that they were working on another application for federal recognition.

While the state has gained considerable revenues from its share of income generated by the two major established casino resorts, Connecticut officials have been opposed to recognition of additional tribes and addition of gambling sites in the state. State officials lobbied the BIA in opposition to recognition of the Golden Hill Paugussett.

Together with providing documentation and working to regain tribal status, the Paugusset filed land rights claims against the state, saying the state did not have the authority to manage or sell land on their behalf and had cost them the loss of substantial lands since colonial times. Lack of federal recognition has deprived them of automatic standing in such suits. Initiated by Chief Big Eagle, the Paugussett originally had claimed legal rights to of land running from Orange/Woodbridge in New Haven County though Fairfield County to Greenwich and extending North into Eastern Litchfield County up to the Massachusetts border. The Paugusset have since dropped these large claims. In 1992, Chief Quiet Hawk filed a lawsuit claiming 80 acres in Bridgeport, the site of Golden Hill, which the state had sold in 1802, as well as land in Trumbull and Orange. In 1993, the federal District Court judge Peter Dorsey concluded that Connecticut had violated the 1790 Non Intercourse Act by selling Indian lands without the approval of the federal government. But he dismissed the case, pending resolution of the BIA's review of the Paugusset petition for federal recognition. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal in 1999. Citing other cases, it noted that criteria for an Indian group's pursuit of land claims were not necessarily the same as for federal recognition. The Golden Hill Paugusset had contended that, since they were a Native American nation, the state did not have the authority to deal with them on land sales or dispose of their land. Since the United States was formed, the federal government had reserved to itself authority over dealings with Native American nations and required approval by the Senate of any sale of Indian lands.

Aurelius H. Piper, Sr. (1916–2008), Chief Big Eagle hereditary chief, died at age 92 in Trumbull. Beginning in the late 20th century, he encouraged revival of the Paugusset language. "It is a sacred obligation," says the Golden Hill Paugussett Chief, Big Eagle. "Indian people must keep their languages alive. If the language is not spoken, it must be made to live again." Aurelius H. Piper, Jr. (1945–2021), Chief Quiet Hawk appointed by his father, Big Eagle, to succeed him as Chief of Chiefs.