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Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.''
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
: ''
Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...
g'' and
Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...
: ''Niitsítapi''), a
Quiripi Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of Gold Coast (Connecticut), southwestern Connecticut and ...
-speaking Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the ''Wampanoki'' (''i.e.'', "Dawnland"; ''c.f.'',
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
: ''Waabanaki'',
Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
: ''Wabanakiyik'') region, including present-day
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.


Introduction

The Quinnipiac (occasionally spelled ''Quinnipiack'') people—also known as
Quiripi Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of Gold Coast (Connecticut), southwestern Connecticut and ...
and Renapi—are speakers of the r-dialect of the Algonquian language family. (The Algonquian Language Phyla was the largest in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and covered about one-third of the continent above
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.) The Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi people are considered to be the first of the
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
peoples to be placed on a reservation (by the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
in 1638), under the first of several treaties which resulted in additional reservations at Branford,
Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
,
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
, and
Farmington Farmington may refer to: Places Canada *Farmington, British Columbia * Farmington, Nova Scotia (disambiguation) United States *Farmington, Arkansas *Farmington, California *Farmington, Connecticut *Farmington, Delaware * Farmington, Georgia * ...
.
James Hammond Trumbull James Hammond Trumbull (December 20, 1821 – August 5, 1897) was an American historian, philologist, bibliographer, and politician. A scholar of American Indian languages, he served as the first Connecticut State Librarian in 1854 and as Secr ...
was the first to recognize that the
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
band of the Quiripi was only one band or sub-sachemship and not the entire tribal nation. Linguist
Blair Rudes Blair Arnold Rudes (May 18, 1951 – March 16, 2008) was an American linguist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte best known for his expertise in Native American languages. He was hired in 2004 to reconstruct the long e ...
found that the Eastern Algonquian r-dialect group's "territory extended "... up to the Hudson in the west, including a portion of land in present-day New York state.... Furthermore... the same people occupied a portion of ... western Long Island ...." Since 1997, more extensive research, based on linguistics and early historical records, has extended the boundaries of the 1500-1600 AD Quiripi/Renapi/Quinnipiac confederacies to include all of what is now Connecticut, eastern
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, northern
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and half of
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
(prior to the immigration of the
Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...
/
Mohegan The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the easte ...
peoples into eastern CT).


Quinnipiac River History

The
Quinnipiac River The Quinnipiac River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 long river in the New England region of the United States, located entirely in the state of Conne ...
flows southward from Farmington, CT (Tunxis Sub-Sachemship) at Deadwood Swamp to the New Haven harbor on Long Island Sound. Its length is and its name means "long-water-country." The Quinnipiac people of the Long Water Land had several sub-sachemships and villages along its banks as well as main trails that criss-crossed its length. The Quinnipiac River and Quinnipiac Hiking Trail still run directly through
Sleeping Giant State Park Sleeping Giant (also known as the Blue Hills and Mount Carmel), (''Hobbomock'' in Quinnipiac), is a rugged traprock mountain with a high point of , located north of New Haven, Connecticut. A prominent landscape feature visible for miles, the Sle ...
, a sacred site revered by the Quinnipiac people as the petrified body of their culture hero, the Stone Giant, Hobbomock.


Quinnipiac Settlements and Self-Identity

The
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
and French called these people Quiripi (also spelled Quiripey), and the English knew them as Quinnipiac (also Quinnipiack, Quillipiac). Appellatives from the PEA-A (Proto-Eastern Algonquian/Archaic) dialects reflecting Self-Identity include the following: * ''Eansketambawg'' (meaning "Original People") is a generalized term used by the Dawnlanders (original inhabitants of NE USA and Eastern Canada) to identify the Algonquians of the NE Woodlands. * ''Rennawawk'' (meaning "
rue ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bl ...
Men") is the indigenous term for "aboriginal Native Americans." * ''Quiripi/Quiripey'' (meaning "long-water
land people Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various i ...
) is the archaic equivalent of Quinnipiac (n-dialect) and Quillipiac (l-dialect). * ''Renapi'' (also spelled ''Renape'', meaning "Real People") represents the true term of self-identity for the sachemships who spoke the r-dialect of the PEA-A region. * ''Wampano'' (also spelled ''Wappinger'', ''Wampanoo'', ''Wabeno'', meaning "Easterner") refers generically to the sub-tribal Renapi/Lenape Dawnland Confederacy, also known today as the Wappinger- Mattabesec Confederacy. The place name "Quinnipiac" derives from regional variations of ''Quinni/pe/okke'' which is similar to ''Quinneh/tukq/ut''. The first indicates "long-water-land" and the second indicates "at the long water estuary" which are two locations of the Renapi bands. One linguist theorizes that the name "Quinnipiac" means "turning point" (i.e., where we change our route), however, there is no historical or cultural evidence to support this assumption. Evidence does exist, however, to indicate that the original "long-water-land" related to the entire shoreline along
Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
. Bands of the Long Water Land Renapi were situated in Eastern New York, Northern New Jersey, and Connecticut, where their summer camps were on the shores and along the estuaries that ran into the Sound. In Pre-Columbian times, after the
glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
melted, there was a freshwater lake waterfall long. Legend has it that this was the derivation of the term "Long-Water-Land." Archaeological evidence of the ancient camps lie throughout the region. Quinnipiac River runs almost the width (top to bottom) of the state and the Connecticut (originally spelled Quinnehtukqut) River runs from the Sound all the way to the border between New Hampshire and Quebec, Canada.


Socio-political structure

The Quiripi/Renapi/Quinnipiac consisted of the following socio-political elements.


Primary sachemdom

A primary sachemdom (likened to a kingdom, aboriginal domain, etc.), where a hereditary Long-House Grand Sachem presided over an alliance of Stump-Chief Sachems (non-hereditary, but holding positions by virtue of marriage or appointment) and Sagamores/Sagamaughs (hereditary positions), all of whom acted as wise councilors. The Algonquian primary sachemdom was always located at the heart or center of the domain, where a traditional ''maweomi'' (central council fire) was positioned. The sachemdom was defended by Indian forts or ''menehkenum'' which the English called "entrenched castles."


Secondary sub-sachemships

Secondary sub-sachemships (bands) were genetically, culturally, politically, socially, economically, and linguistically related to and defended the central council fire. The central council fires in turn, were allied with a Great Grand Council known as a Confederacy.


Primary economic commodity

The primary economic commodity of the Long Water people was the production of ''wampum-peague'' or "shell-money" which has sacred origins. Huge piles of clam and oyster shells were stockpiled and archaeologists erroneously identified them as "refuse dumps" for lack of understanding. Shipments of these shells were sent to regional Algonquian Trade Centers. One of the most renown was at Cahokia, where archaeologists found these stockpiles with drills and drill bits, as well as large quantities of finished beads. There were two types. # Sun wampum were the red, white, and purple beads of cylindrical shape, drilled through the center, used to make strings of wampum and to make belts or sashes. In the belts, the colors were manipulated so that pictographic images told a symbolic story and these were given to honor important actions by the Great Grand Councils and ''Maweomis'' for peace treaties, wars, marriages, and other significant events. In the colonies of New Haven and Boston, ''wampum-peague'' became the first legal tender and it was used in fathoms. # Larger round beads like discs were known as moon wampum and they were strung together to make necklaces. Large crescent-moon wampums were hung from the necklaces to denote the ''maweomis'' which were set up in large crescent moon shapes, with the Grand Sachem at the center and his sachems at his side. Other commodities included raw copper, mined from West Rock (''Mautumpseck'') in large nuggets. Samples weighing a few tons can be viewed at the Peabody Museum of Natural History on Whitney Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut. These nuggets were sent to regional trade centers where artisans turned them into beads, amulets, knives, and axes.


Long Water Land Renapi Sachemdom

The Long Water Land Renapi (Quinnipiac Algonquians of the Renapi Nation) Sachemdom included the following sachemships (circa 1500-1650 AD). * Quinnipiac/Quirripeokke:
Quinnipiac River The Quinnipiac River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 long river in the New England region of the United States, located entirely in the state of Conne ...
confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
,
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
* Meriden (meaning "Pleasant Valley")
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, North Haven and Meriden * Mioonkhtuck: East Haven, Fair Haven * Totoket: Branford, North Branford * Menunkatuck:
Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...
,
Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
* Hammonasset:
Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...
, Saybrook * Nehantic: Durham, Haddam * Tunxis:
Farmington Farmington may refer to: Places Canada *Farmington, British Columbia * Farmington, Nova Scotia (disambiguation) United States *Farmington, Arkansas *Farmington, California *Farmington, Connecticut *Farmington, Delaware * Farmington, Georgia * ...
* Mattatuck: Waterbury * Naugatuck:
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
, Ansonia, Orange * Wepawaug: Milford * Paugusset: New London * Potatuck:
Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
* Wangunk: Mattabesec or Middletown * Podunk: Windsor Throughout the sachemdom, the ''menuhkenumoag'' (Indian forts) were positioned along the main trail system, known as ''Mishimayagat''. Trails and rivers served as highways for war and trade. The Mattabesec Sachemship in the heart of Wangunk sub-sachemships was the easternmost entrance to the Wappinger-Mattabesec Confederacy and prior to the major epidemics of the 16th-17th century, this eastern door was where Rhode Island is now (and the eastern border of Connecticut).


Populations and treaty reservation land


Population prior to contact with Europeans

Prior to the devastating epidemics (according to contemporary scholars Snow, Grumet, Bragdon, et al.), the estimated population was about 25,000 in Connecticut, an additional 25,000 in Eastern New York and New Jersey (Northern Mountains). This equates to roughly 1,000 to 1,200 per band or sub-sachemship (called 'sub-tribes' by ethnologists). ''The Connecticut Scholar'', per Collier & Collier, indicates that the figures estimated by DeForest (and emulated by Townshend) circa 1850–1900, are no longer taken seriously.


The Quinnipiac Reservation

The Quinnipiac reservation at Mioonhktuck (East Haven) is said to be the first reservation in what would become the United States over a century later, as a result of the first Quinnipiac/English Treaty signed in November 1638. Additional reserved lands were recorded by the late John Menta in his thesis and subsequent work about the Quinnipiac. There were three major treaties, and one ratification by Naushop, the son of Shaumpishuh. These treaties were with the British Crown and, as such, were ratified by the U.S. Constitution, according to U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Reserved land locations included: * reserve at Mioonkhtuck, East Haven * reserved lands at Indian Head, Totoket, Branford * reserved lands at Ruttawoo (East River), Madison * reserved lands at Menunkatuck, Guilford, West Pond * reserved lands at Derby, Orange, Turkey Hill * reserved at Waterbury (negotiated but never solidified).


Quinnipiac refugees

The "Quinnipiac Trail of Heartaches" refers to the numerous relocations of the Quinnipiac people who became
refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
as a result of the encroachment, religious conversion, and
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
by the Puritans. Large groups, who could not remain at the regional reserved lands, embarked on a series of removals to other Algonquian groups. Some of these included, but were not limited to the Schaghticoke enclave, which began in the year 1699, after old Joseph Chuse married Sarah Mahwee (Mahweeyeuh). Sarah told Ezra Stiles of Yale that she was born at East Haven and Dr. Blair Rudes confirmed that she was indeed Quinnipiac. Joseph was a Paugusset and they were a sub-sachemship of the Long Water People, as noted by James Hammond Trumbull. The last families who had been at Turkey Hill/Naugatuck moved to
Kent, Connecticut Kent is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located alongside the border with New York, the town's population was 3,019 according to the 2020 census. Kent is home to three boarding schools: Kent School, the Marvelwood School ...
, where the Schaghticoke emerged. Today they have split into the Schaghticoke Nation and the Schaghticoke Tribe. Other groups of refugees migrated to Brotherton at Oneida, New York, then to the White River and
Muncie, Indiana Muncie ( ) is an incorporated city and the county seat, seat of Delaware County, Indiana, Delaware County, Indiana. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the legendary Delaware Chief.http://www.delawarecountyhistory.org/history/docs ...
; some to
Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridge is h ...
, and
Stockbridge, Wisconsin Stockbridge is a village in Calumet County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 686 at the 2020 census. The village lies within the Town of Stockbridge. History Stockbridge is known as "The Sturgeon Capital of the World," and was ...
; some to Odenak (St. Francis) and Quebec, Canada. Others who migrated went to Pennsylvania, eastern
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, and northern
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, at the Ramapo Mountain refugium (see Ramapough Mountain Indians), by moving from rock shelter to rock shelter, in order to survive. From the 1850s to 1900, the Quinnipiac began to return to the Long Water Land.


War and peace

The Quinnipiac/Quiripi were known as "grandfathers" in the Dawnland Confederacy, with their
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
cousins. Although they were a people of peace and commerce, when forced into war, they were fierce warriors and outstanding soldiers. Eastern Connecticut, originally inhabited by the Quinnipiac Nation's sub-sachemships of the Eastern Nehantic, Podunk, and Wangunk, as well as the Narragansett, suffered more losses than western Connecticut, and so in 1506, after 80% population losses due to epidemics, the
Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...
oog moved into the area from the upper Hudson region and pushed the survivors of the Narragansett into what is now Rhode Island, and the Nehantic wedged in close to the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
( Old Lyme). A rogue sachem, named Uncus, angry for having been passed over to lead the Pequotoog, took his followers and struck out on his own, founding the
Mohegan The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the easte ...
Band. Uncus and his warriors joined with Nepaupuck (a Quinnipiac War Captain) and entered into several treaties with the English. In the "Direful Swamp Fight," 150 Quinnipiac and Mohegan warriors joined with 350 English troops and, in December 1675, they defeated the powerful Pequotoog. Quinnipiac warriors served in many wars and battles as soldiers and sailors and as subsequent refugees, who migrated to Stockbridge, merged into an alliance to help the Sons of Liberty defeat the English in the American Revolution because of the betrayal by English allies in land dealings. The Sons of Liberty changed their name to the Sons of King Tammany (a Munsee Grand Sachem whose title, Tamanend, means "The Affable One"). The original thirteen colonies adopted the socio-political structure of the Quinnipiac Wampano Confederacy, with each state having its own totem and calling their leader a sachem.


Quinnipiac culture

The Long Water Land people lived in their fishing camps along the shores during the spring (''Sequan'') and summer (''Nepun''). Their horticultural patterns produced
corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
, beans, squash, pumpkins, fruits, nuts, berries, all in a plantation-style setting. They used a slash-and-burn technique to replenish the soil and rotated their plantation sites regularly. They used horseshoe crabs and ''menhadden'' ( alewives) as a natural fertilizer. They caught shell- and scalefish and dried them in the sun or on racks over a fire. The Quinnipiac were avid falconers, using
hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...
s to keep crows away from the corn. The bean and squash plants were planted in the valleys between rows of corn, so that the beans would curl around the corn stalks and weeding was unnecessary. Many other plants considered weeds today were used by the Long Water people for food, beverages, medicine, and for making mats. In the fall (''Taquonck'') the Long Water people moved inland along their trails to the winter (''Pabouks'') grounds, and, along the way they hunted fowl,
rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit specie ...
,
beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
, and other small game, until they came to Meriden "the Pleasant Valley," where oaks provided shelter against high winds and the
acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...
s were main staples for deer and wild turkey, another winter staple. During the Colonial period, Quinnipiac men hired out as laborers, fishermen, and guides (the English often got lost), and Quinnipiac women sold their crafts. The Quinnipiac and other Algonquians lived in dwellings known as wigwams (elliptical houses with sapling frames covered with bark, mats, skins, or sod) and ''quinnekommuk'' ( longhouses that were rectangular and two or three times as long as their width, covered with similar coverings). Quiripi/Quinnipiac longhouses averaged thirty to one hundred feet long, by twenty feet wide, and about fifteen feet high. The bigger dwellings were sachems' houses, which often had five or six fire pits in one dwelling (because they often had their extended family living with them). Religious Society (Wampano or "Men of the Dawn," Powwauwoag, Medarennawawg, and others) had the biggest longhouses for ceremonial purposes.The algongin use shells as money. The Long Water Land people were well known for their elm bark canoes (light and fast for easy portage), and to dugout canoes, used for trade and war. They reckoned the passing of time by a lunar calendar and an eight-part ceremonial cycle, using various lithic and earth features as observatories to determine the phases of the sun, moon, and stars for planting, harvest, and ceremonies.


Individuals of importance in Quinnipiac history

Momauguin, Quinnipiac Grand Sachem in 1638, signed the First Treaty with the English planters at Quinnipiac (New Haven), "along with others of his council," granting the English the use of Quinnipiac land at New Haven, the Central Council Fire of the Sachemdom, while retaining full rights to the "reservation" as well as full rights to fish and hunt all property. Mantowese, sachem of Mattabesec (Middletown), to the north of New Haven, signed the Second Treaty with the English, granting them use of land in his sub-sachemship. Mantowese, the son of Sowheag, served on Momauguin's Grand Council and was the nephew of Sequin. Shampishuh, sister to Momauguin, was the female sachem (sunksquaw) of the Menunkatuck (Guilford) Sub-sachemship, who signed the Third Treaty with the English, granting them the use of land near Madison and Guilford, but reserving land east of Kuttawoo River for her people. Shampishuh was the sister of Momauguin and niece of Quosoquonch, the sachem of nearby Totoket (Branford). Shampishuh' son, Naushop, signed the ratification of her treaty with the English. Quosoquonch, the sachem of the Totoket Sub-sachemship and uncle of Shampishuh, worked with Shaumpishuh in 1639 to draw up a map (for Rev. Henry Whitfield and John Higginson) of the Quinnipiac sachemdoms from the Quinnipiac River in the west to beyond Hammonasset in the east, which included landmarks. Sarah Mahwee (Mahweeyeuh), was born in East Haven (Mioonkhtuk Sub-sachemship). In 1699 she married Joseph Chuse (Paugusset Sub-sachemship) and together they began the Schaghticoke enclave. Elizabeth Sakaskantawe Brown was born around 1850 and lived to be well over 100 years old, living on about near Branford, Connecticut. Sakaskantawe (Flying Squirrel) was the last matriarch of the Totoket Band and was a descendant of James Mah-wee-yeuh, a Sachem of the Mioonkhtuk Band (East Haven), who died near Cheshire in 1745.Ruth Mahweeyeuh Thunderhorse, ''Following the Footprints of a Stone Giant'', InfinityPublishing.com, 2007, p. 17.


Language, religion, and folklore

The Quinnipiac Language is the PEA-A R-Dialect, known today as WAMPANO-QUIRIPEY. It was originally spoken throughout the Dawnland around 1500 to 1600 AD. After contact with the Europeans, which caused the epidemics and resulted in a shift of regional dialects, the language was spoken in western Connecticut, eastern New York, half of Long Island, and northern New Jersey. From 1770 to the 20th century, the dialect became a pidginized hybridization of the n, l, y, and r dialects, until ACLI began reviving the original dialect. Today QTC (Quinnipiac Tribal Council) Press (ACLI series) has a 295-page ''Complete Language Guide'' and has been training people to speak, write, and understand the archaic r-dialect. The Quinnipiac people practiced a number of traditional religious ceremonies, hosted by seven medicine societies. Chapter 12 of the ''Complete Language Guide'' preserves these teachings according to linguistic and cultural traditions, while Chapter 13 preserves the ancient graphical writing systems of the Eastern Algonquians, used by the sachems and shamans. As noted by contemporary scholars, the Quinnipiac/Algonquians remained the strongest group to resist the Puritan
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
. Rev. Pierson was taught by Rev. John Eliot, who founded Puritan Praying Towns, where any Quinnipiac who "converted" had to renounce everything "Indian", including religion, language, dress, ceremonies, homes, businesses, freedom, and families, and live like Europeans in square houses, but with stringent rules of conduct not imposed on Europeans. Many converted just to stay alive; some pretended to convert in order to remain in their homeland and/or to avoid being sold into slavery; others converted but relocated at missionary refugee camps that boasted better treatment; still others migrated to refugiums on land of other Algonquian or Iroquoian peoples. Contrary to popular assumptions, those who did relocate were not absorbed into the receiving tribe. They were made part of Dawnland Grand Council Fire Circles, which is their traditional mode of socio-political existence. This is known as socio-political preservation and is how many of the Algonquian groups obtained state recognition in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, after they had been rendered "extinct" with the stroke of a pen in the legislatures of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. Basically, Quinnipiac/Algonquian Shamans, called ''powawaus'', prayed and made offerings of tobacco, etc., to the spirits ('' mandooak'') of game animals to ensure successful hunts. The warrior-shamans called ''Pinessi'' (plural is ''Pinessisok'') were dedicated to the Thunderer who bestowed supernatural powers on them. Offerings were also made to the ''mandooak'' of the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, oceans, the Little People, and the Stone Giants, Hobbomock and Maushop. Women tended all crops except tobacco and herbals, which were planted by shamans only. The Algonquians used over twenty herbals in smoking their ceremonial pipes. The Quinnipiac Stone Giant Twins (Hobbomock and Maushop), as the primary culture heroes, acted as the epitomes of good and bad, right and wrong, honorable deeds and mischievous behavior. The Puritans refused to acknowledge any of this. Religious conversion and cultural ethnocide operated to redefine many Quinnipiac ancient traditions and language definitions. For example, the Puritan families refused to honor Quinnipiac teachings. Hobbomock was, to the Quinnipiac, a benevolent spirit who taught the people how to hunt, fish, and survive the Ice Age, earthquakes, famines, etc., and he was the one prayed to when assistance was needed. The Puritans knew this, yet they forced the Long Water people to teach the children that Hobbomock was a " Bogeyman." The Puritans redefined Hobbomock, Maushop, and other Quinnipiac spirit helpers as "devils." Today some believe that the Quinnipiac have vanished from the earth. As the motto of the New England Algonquian Alliance proudly proclaimed after the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, "WE ARE STILL HERE"; so today do the Quinnipiac.


Quinnipiac legacy in greater New Haven and Connecticut


Population and whereabouts today

The Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council (ACQTC), the primary representative of the Quinnipiac people and heritage, has three forms of membership: full, confederate, and honorary. Full membership includes those whose lineages trace back to the family names of Manweeyeuh, Mahwee, Cockenoe, Nonsuch, Soebuck, Redhead, Sock, Brown, Adams, Griswold, Parmalee, Curley, Skeesucks, LaFrance, Quinney, Ninham, Dean, Thompson/Tompson, Peters, Montour, Marchand, Klingerschmidt, Moses, Cornelius, Higheum, Waubeno, Douglas, Scott, Anthony, Butler, Burnham, Rouleau, and Hazel and these total about 50 to 100 families. Confederate membership includes refugee families who trace their ancestry to the refugiums and enclaves cited above at NY, MA, PA, RI, IN, OH, WI, KS, TX, and Quebec (Canada)—which total about 100 families. Honorary membership are adoptees who "enter into the sacred BOND OF THE COVENANT with the ACQTC Central Council Fire and ACQTC Grand Council Fire Confederacy to honor, protect, and revitalize our language, religion, and traditions, and to honor our traditional obligations as Gechanniwitank (aboriginal land-stewards), under our 'aboriginal title to land' rights, where Quinnipiac ancestors worshipped the creator and creation at certain landmarks within our ancestral sachemdom." These include about 25 to 50 families.


References


Bibliography


Digital and online


ACQTC online

''We the People Called Quinnipiac'', QTC Press e-media e-book on CD-ROM (available through ACQTC)

"Setting the Record Straight: A Linguistic-Ethnographic Study of the True Identity of the Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi Nation Structure" by Iron Thunderhorse





Quinnipiac University — History and Mission Statement

Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum, Archives and Library

Benjamin BRETON (2008) The Quinnipiac: New Haven's First Inhabitants. Communication on Contemporary Anthropology 2:e12.


In print

* ''The Complete Language Guide for Learning, Speaking, and Writing the PEA-A WAMPANO-QUIRIPI R-DIALECT'', 2007 revised ed, QTC Press/ACLI Series, ACQTC, Inc. 201 Church Street, Milltown, IN 47145. * "The Quinnipiac of New England" by Iron Thunderhorse in ''Whispering Wind'', Vol. 32, No. 5, 2002. * ''Cultural Conflict in Southern New England: A History of the Quinnipiac Indians'' by John Menta, Yale Press, New Haven. CT. * ''Some Helps for the Indians 1658 Bilingual Catechism'', by Rev. Abraham Pierson, reprinted in "Language and Lore of the Long Island Indians" ''Readings in Long Island Archaeology and Ethnohistory'', Vol. IV, 1980. Stony Brook, NY, Suffolk County Archaeological Association. * "East Rock (Wappintumpseck): A Sacred Landmark In the Traditions of the Quinnipiac and Its Relationship to the Algonquian Ethos" by Iron Thunderhorse, 1996. Paper submitted to Connecticut Historical Commission and University of Connecticut at Storrs, CT. * "The Strange Case of Nepaupuck: Warrior or War Criminal?" in ''Journal of the New Haven Colony Historical Society'', Vol. 33 (2) 12–17, 1987, by John Menta. * "The Quinnipiac Reservation: Land and Tribal Identity," by Richard Carlson in ''Rooted Like the Ash Trees'', Naugatuck, CT: Eagle Wing Press, 1987–1988. * "Shaumpishuh, 'Squaw Sachem' of the Quinnipiac Indians," by John Menta in ''Artifacts'', 1988, Vol. 16, No. 3-4, pp. 32–37. * "Resurrecting Wampano (Quiripi) from the Dead: Phonological Preliminaries" by Blair A. Rudes, in ''Anthropological Linguistics'', Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring 1997. * "Indian Names of Places, etc. In and on the Borders of Connecticut with Interpretations of Some of Them," by
James Hammond Trumbull James Hammond Trumbull (December 20, 1821 – August 5, 1897) was an American historian, philologist, bibliographer, and politician. A scholar of American Indian languages, he served as the first Connecticut State Librarian in 1854 and as Secr ...
, 1881 (reprinted 1974 by Archon Books). * "The intricate nature of sachemdoms" by Iron Thunderhorse in ''Branford Review'', 9-7-02. * ''Itineraries and Memoirs of Ezra Stiles, 1760-1762''. Beineke Rare Books Library, New Haven, CT. * ''Visible Saints: West Haven, Connecticut, 1648 - 1798,'' by Peter J. Malia, (Cheshire, CT: The Connecticut Press, 2009).


Further reading

* ''Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650'', by Kathleen J. Bragdon, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. * ''Algonquians of the East'', Time-Life Books, 1995. * ''The New England Indians'', 2nd ed. An Illustrated SourceBook of Authentic Details of Everyday Indian Life by C. Keith Wilbur, Globe-Pequot Press. * ''Wampano: Algonquian Dawnlanders of Southwestern New England, 1500-2000'', by Iron Thunderhorse. Birdstone Publishers, Institute for American Indian Studies (reprint by QTC Press Archives series, ACQTC, Inc. 201 Church Street, Milltown, IN 47145) * ''Quinnipiac Lunar and Ceremonial Calendar'', 2003–2004, by Iron and Ruth Thunderhorse, QTC Press, 2003, ACQTC, Inc., 201 Church Street, Milltown, IN 47145.


External link

{{authority control Wappinger Native American history of Connecticut Native American tribes in Connecticut Algonquian ethnonyms Algonquian peoples Unrecognized tribes in the United States