Although admitting the Simonds clan would allow the Mashantucket Pequot to more closely fit the Federal criteria for an Indian tribe, the Mashantucket Pequot claim state and Federal laws give them the unchallenged right to decide tribal membership.

But the Simonds say the current membership laws can be challenged in Federal court.

Ancestors of the Simonds are listed on an 1858 census of the reservation and on every surviving census taken before that. But they are not on the 1900 or 1910 lists.

During the late 1850's and 1860's the Simonds family left the reservation to find work in Griswold, said Joan Simonds, 42, of Norwich.

As the family grew, members settled throughout the Norwich and New London areas, some eventually setting up small businesses, a few even entering professions like law and medicine.

But as recently as the 1970's, Lawrence Simonds, who owned two restaurants in Norwich, would take food to Eliza George, the grandmother of Richard A. (Skip) Hayward, chairman of the Tribal Council, said Lawrence Simonds's daughter Joan Simonds.

Eliza George, who died in 1973, was the sole resident of the reservation from the late 1960's through the mid 70's. For most of the 20th century, the Mashantucket Pequots had no cohesive tribal life, Joan Simonds said. Although the family would go to Narragansett and Mohegan powwows, there were no Mashantucket Pequot gatherings to go to, she said.

By 1974 the Simonds family started hearing about the tribal organization being formed by Mr. Hayward. In 1975 he was a young man who had moved back to the reservation and was forming a tribal government composed of members of his immediate family.