Following the death of Chief Black Hawk in 1974, Piper (Chief Big Eagle) assumed full leadership of the tribe and took up residency on the Trumbull reservation. He obtained grants to purchase land in Colchester, Connecticut for the community in 1978 and 1980. This land was granted formal reservation status by the state legislature in 1981. On May 1, 1991, due to advancing age, Chief Big Eagle named his son, Aurelius H. Piper, Jr. (b. 1945), as Chief of Chiefs and Hereditary Chief of the Golden Hill Tribe. Known as Chief Quiet Hawk, Piper is an ex-Marine and former social worker who was then serving as executive director of American Indians for Development, Inc. Immediately upon assuming leadership he launched the Golden Hill Indian Development Corporation, with the purpose of economic development of the reservation properties for the benefit of the tribal membership. In September, 1992, Quiet Hawk filed a lawsuit to reclaim lands taken from the tribe in violation of the federal Nonintercourse Act. The tribe at first sought to reclaim the 12-acre Nimrod Lot and the 8-acre Rocky Hill Lot in the city of Bridgeport, both sold off by the State of Connecticut in 1802 without the stipulated approval of both houses of Congress. In November, 1992, he advanced the claim to include the 19 3/4-acre Turkey Meadows Reservation in Trumbull. Concurrently, the tribe sued for the remainder of the 80-acre Golden Hill Reservation in Bridgeport. Within a few short weeks historic reservation lands in the towns of Milford, Orange, Woodbridge, Stratford, and Shelton were added; intent was made known to press claims in 24 state municipalities, comprising $44 billion worth of property and 640,000 defendants. An overriding priority of Chief Quiet Hawk's administration has been the quest for federal recognition. A grant for this purpose was obtained from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1992. Another priority has been to utilize modern technology to facilitate interaction among tribal members and to strengthen community bonds and spiritual focus. In 1993 the tribe made national headlines when it opened a tax-free cigarette shop on the Colchester reservation, asserting its sovereignty in selling the product without taking taxes. An armed standoff with state police ensued that ended without violence when Chief Moon Face Bear (Kenneth Piper) agreed to close the shop. 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.