New Haven County Superior Court Indigenous People Cases Collection

Version: 6 (current) | Updated: 12/4/2025, 3:26:07 PM

Added description

Description

New Haven County Superior Court Indigenous People Cases Collection

Overview

The New Haven County Superior Court Indigenous People Cases Collection is a digitized archive of court documents from several 19th‑ and early‑20th‑century cases involving Indigenous individuals and the Turkey Hill Indians of Connecticut. The collection is housed by the Connecticut State Library and is part of the NHSC “Black, African American, and Indigenous” (BAAI) subject‑index series. Materials are presented as high‑resolution JPEG and TIFF scans with OCR‑extracted text, accompanied by JSON metadata that links each item to the NHSCBAAICasesPapersSubject database.

Background

The collection arose from the New Haven County Superior Court’s handling of disputes over land, trust‑fund management, and financial accountability for the Turkey Hill Indians. Key parties include overseers such as A. McClellan Mathewson and Watrous C. Wakeslee, attorneys Wooster & Torrance, and tribal members Roswell Moses, Eliza Franklin, Elizabeth Moses, and others. The cases span from the 1871 Moses vs. Turkey Hill petition to the 1909 Mathewson vs. Wakelee litigation, illustrating the legal mechanisms by which Indigenous land and resources were negotiated and contested in Connecticut.

Contents

The collection is organized into several sub‑collections, each containing the full set of court‑issued documents for a single case:
  • Petitions, Summons, and Complaints – original filings and notices.
  • Demurrers, Briefs, and Court Orders – responses and rulings.
  • Judgments and Appeals – final decisions and appellate opinions.
  • Decrees and Sale Reports – orders authorizing land sales and financial statements.
  • Supporting Documents – affidavits, financial schedules, and administrative orders.
  • Metadata – a PINAX JSON file providing structured information on parties, dates, and controlled subject terms.

All items are in English and are in the public domain.

Scope

The collection covers the period 1871–1910 and focuses on legal disputes involving the Turkey Hill Indians and other Indigenous individuals within New Haven County, Connecticut. It includes every extant court‑issued document related to these cases but does not contain external correspondence, oral testimony, or records of unrelated Indigenous matters. The archive is of particular interest to scholars of Connecticut legal history, Indigenous rights, and the BAAI archival project.

Entities

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Entity Relationships

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Raw Cheimarros Data

@roswell_moses:person {full_name: "Roswell Moses"}

@eliza_franklin:person {full_name: "Eliza Franklin"}

@elizabeth_moses:person {full_name: "Elizabeth Moses"}

@georgiana_moses:person {full_name: "Georgiana Moses"}

@thomas_phillips:person {full_name: "Thomas Phillips"}

@wooster_torrance:organization {full_name: "Wooster & Torrance", role: "Attorneys"}

@larivina_breckenridge:person {full_name: "Larivina Breckenridge"}

@gerijanna_moses:person {full_name: "Gerijanna Moses"}

@demurrer:concept {description: "Legal response challenging the sufficiency of a pleading"}

@derby_savings_bank:organization {full_name: "Derby Savings Bank"}

@new_haven_county:place {full_name: "New Haven County, Connecticut"}

@new_haven:place {full_name: "New Haven, Connecticut"}

@ansonia:place {full_name: "Ansonia, Connecticut"}

@derby:place {full_name: "Derby, Connecticut"}

@turkey_hill:place {full_name: "Turkey Hill, Connecticut"}

@subject_field:concept {description: "Controlled subject heading field used for indexing"}


@file_pinax -> created by -> [@a_mc_clellan_mathewson, @milton_c_schell, @milton_c_isbell, @howard_j_curtis, @edward_a_harriman, @tuttle_morehouse_taylor_co, @new_haven_county_superior_court, @roswell_moses, @eliza_franklin, @elizabeth_moses, @georgiana_moses, @thomas_phillips, @wooster_torrance, @frederick_w_holden, @larivina_breckenridge, @gerijanna_moses, @watrous_c_wakeslee]

@file_pinax -> subjects -> [@new_haven_county_superior_court, @turkey_hill_indians, @indigenous_rights, @legal_documents, @summons, @complaint, @financial_accountability, @demurrer, @trust_funds, @laches, @judgments, @legal_disputes, @court_records, @indigenous_cases, @legal_appeal, @superior_court_new_haven_county, @new_haven_county, @court_filings, @land_sale, @legal_petition, @derby_savings_bank, @land_ownership, @legal_petitions, @land_sales, @tribal_land, @legal_decrees, @court_orders, @native_american_history, @financial_accounting, @financial_records]

@file_pinax -> places -> [@new_haven, @ansonia, @derby, @new_haven_county, @turkey_hill]

@file_pinax -> uses subject field -> @subject_field


@file_pinax -> documents -> @mathewson_vs_wakelee_collection:document

@file_pinax -> documents -> @indigenous_cases_collection

@file_pinax -> documents -> @moses_vs_turkey_hill_collection

@file_pinax -> documents -> @pinax_collection:document


@a_mc_clellan_mathewson -> creator of -> @indigenous_cases_collection

@watrous_c_wakeslee -> creator of -> @file_pinax

@watrous_c_wakeslee -> overseer of -> @turkey_hill_indians


@indigenous_cases_collection -> indexed by -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject:concept

@mathewson_vs_wakelee_collection -> indexed by -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject:concept

@moses_vs_turkey_hill_collection -> indexed by -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject:concept


@moses_vs_turkey_hill_collection -> part of -> @indigenous_cases_collection:collection

@mathewson_vs_wakelee_collection -> part of -> @mathewson_vs_wakelee_collection:document


@indigenous_cases_collection -> subset of -> @nhsc_baai_cases_papers_subject:concept


@moses_vs_turkey_hill_petition -> led to -> @decree_585

@decree_585 -> ordered -> @sale_transaction:event

@sale_transaction:event -> recorded in -> @indigenous_cases_collection

@pinax_collection -> includes -> @sale_transaction:event


@file_pinax -> associated with -> [@new_haven_ct, @ansonia_ct, @derby_ct, @new_haven_county, @turkey_hill_indians]

Metadata

Version History (6 versions)

  • ✓ v6 (current) · 12/4/2025, 3:26:07 PM
    "Added description"
  • v5 · 12/4/2025, 3:08:45 PM · View this version
    "Added knowledge graph extraction"
  • v4 · 12/4/2025, 6:45:36 AM · View this version
    "Added PINAX metadata"
  • v3 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:54 AM · View this version
    "Set parent to 01KBKZZ7VHHY9D5YXJX4400CQW"
  • v2 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:43 AM · View this version
    "Added children"
  • v1 · 12/4/2025, 6:14:27 AM · View this version
    "Initial snapshot"

Parent

01KBKZZ7VHHY9D5YXJX4400CQW

Children (3)