A New Generation of Leaders In the early 1970s, a young generation of Pequots began returning to Mashantucket. Many were the nieces, nephews and grandchildren of Elizabeth George, who passed away in 1973 after a lifetime of fighting for her tribe's survival. “Her death really was the initial point for the tribe to realize that they needed to get together and stand united to meet the goals that they had and talked about for years, but had never formally pursued,” says tribal member Bruce Kirchner. The Pequots chose a new leader, 27-year-old Richard Hayward. This grandson of Elizabeth George would lead an effort to rebuild the tribe, and undo three hundred years of steady decline. The ambitious plan would start with simple steps. "Well, the first thing we had to do is move people back to the Reservation,” recalls Richard “Skip” Hayward. “But in the beginning, there was no mad rush to get back to the reservation. We were even making phone calls trying to attract people. There was nothing here in the way of housing, and until we could start building housing on the reservation, there weren't that many people that were ready to pull up and come live here in a trailer.” “This area was really isolated,” says Bruce Kirchner, “so how were you going to make a living?” “It was scary for people. We were looking for ways to make money. I remember when one of our budgets was like $400 a year, and I remember having arguments over whether we’re going to buy gas for the chainsaw or pay the phone bills. So we were looking for anything.” They spent their weekends cutting cordwood, or tending vegetables in the community garden. The Pequots tried just about everything they could, and every member of the tribe contributed to the effort. “In the early projects, it wasn’t a major success financially,” says tribal member John Holder, “but it was a major success internally because it provided the vehicle to bring the people back to work together.” “The more we did, the more interested people were in what we were doing,” says Skip Hayward. “And even though we didn’t have a lot of money then, I think people had this sense that we were going to do something, that we cared about this enough that we were going to make something happen ... ”