Quinnipiac
Encyclopedia
This article is about the Native American nation. For the university, see Quinnipiac University
.
The Quinnipiac — rarely spelled Quinnipiack — is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; c.f. Ojibwe: Anishinaabe
g and Blackfoot
: Niitsítapi) a Native American
nation of the Algonquian
family who inhabited the Wampanoki (i.e. Dawnland; c.f. Ojibwe: Waabanaki, Abenaki
: Wabanakiyik) region, including present-day Connecticut
.
of the Algonquian
language family. (The Algonquian Language Phyla was the largest in North America
and covered about one-third of the continent above Mexico
.) The Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi people are considered to be the first of the indigenous
peoples to be placed on a reservation
(by the English
in 1638), under the first of several treaties which resulted in additional reservations at Branford
, Madison
, Derby
, and Farmington
. J.H. Trumbull was the first to recognize that the New Haven
band of the Quiripi was only one band or sub-sachemship and not the entire tribal nation. Blair Rudes 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
, northern New Jersey
, and half of Long Island
(prior to the immigration of the Pequot
/Mohegan
peoples into eastern CT).
The Quinnipiac River
flows southward from Farmington, CT (Tunxis Sub-Sachemship) at Deadwood Swamp to the New Haven harbor on Long Island Sound. Its length is 38 miles (61 km) 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
, a sacred site revered by the Quinnipiac people as the petrified body of their culture hero, the Stone Giant, Hobbomock.
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:
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
. Bands of the Long Water Land Renapi were situated in Eastern NY, Northern NJ, 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 melted, there was a freshwater lake waterfall 100 miles (160.9 km) 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
.
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 drillbits, as well as large quantities of finished beads. There were two types.
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, CT. These nuggets were sent to regional trade centers where artisans turned them into beads, amulets, knives, and axes.
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).
reserve at Mioonkhtuck, East Haven
, and ethnic cleansing
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
, 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
; some to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
, and Stockbridge, Wisconsin
; some to Odenak (St. Francis) and Quebec
, Canada
.
Others who migrated went to Pennsylvania
, eastern New York
, and northern New Jersey
, at the Ramapo Mountain refugium (see Ramapough Mountain Indians
), by moving from rock shelter to rock shelter, in order to survive. In the 1850s to 1900, the Quinnipiac began to return to the Long Water Land.
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
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
(Old Lyme
). A rogue sachem, named Uncus, angry for being passed over to lead the Pequotoog, took his followers and struck out on his own, founding the Mohegan
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 of 1675, they defeated the powerful Pequotoog. Quinnipiac warriors served in many wars and battles as soldiers and sailors and their 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.
patterns produced corn
, 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
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, beaver
, and other small game, until they came to Meriden “the Pleasant Valley,” where oaks
provided shelter against high winds and the acorns were main staples for deer
and wild turkey
, another winter staple.
During the Colonial period, Quinnipiac men hired out as laborers, fishermen, and guides (where the English constantly got lost), and the 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 Sachem’s 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 Long Water Land people were well-known for their elm
bark canoes (light and fast for easy portage), and 20 feet (6 m) to 40 feet (12 m) dugout canoes, used for trade and war.
They reckoned the passing of time by a lunar calendar
and an 8-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.
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 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) near Branford, CT. 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.
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
. Rev. Pierson was taught by Rev. John Eliot, who founded the 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 epitome 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 of the Quinnipiac ancient traditions and language definitions. For example, the Puritanical 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.” Some Puritan descendants still maintain a paternalistic attitude towards Quinnipiac traditionalists and refuse to acknowledge even their existence, by choosing to hold on to the lie 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.
(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.
Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park...
.
The Quinnipiac — rarely spelled Quinnipiack — is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; c.f. Ojibwe: Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
g and Blackfoot
Blackfoot language
Blackfoot, also known as Siksika , Pikanii, and Blackfeet, is the Algonquian language spoken by the Blackfoot tribes of Native Americans, who currently live in the northwestern plains of North America...
: Niitsítapi) a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
nation of the Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
family who inhabited the Wampanoki (i.e. Dawnland; c.f. Ojibwe: Waabanaki, Abenaki
Abenaki language
The Abenaki language is a dialect continuum within the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine...
: Wabanakiyik) region, including present-day Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Introduction
The Quinnipiac (occasionally misspelled Quinnipiack) people — also known as Quiripi and Renapi — are speakers of the r-dialectQuiripi language
Quiripi was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island, including the Quinnipiac, Naugatuck, Unquachog, Mattabesic, Potatuck, Weantinock, and Paugussett. It has been effectively extinct since the end of the 18th century,...
of the Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
language family. (The Algonquian Language Phyla was the largest in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and covered about one-third of the continent above Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.) The Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi people are considered to be the first of the indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
peoples to be placed on a reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
(by the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1638), under the first of several treaties which resulted in additional reservations at Branford
Branford, Connecticut
-Landmarks and attractions:Branford has six historic districts that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places . These include buildings in Federal, Arts and Crafts, and Queen Anne styles of architecture...
, Madison
Madison, Connecticut
Madison is a town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The population was 18,812 at the 2000 census....
, Derby
Derby, Connecticut
Derby is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 12,391 at the 2000 census. With of land area, Derby is Connecticut's smallest municipality.The city has a Metro-North railroad station called Derby – Shelton.-History:...
, and Farmington
Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel...
. J.H. Trumbull was the first to recognize that the New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
band of the Quiripi was only one band or sub-sachemship and not the entire tribal nation. Blair Rudes 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
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, northern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, and half of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
(prior to the immigration of the Pequot
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
/Mohegan
Mohegan
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
peoples into eastern CT).
Quinnipiac River History
Quinnipiac River
The Quinnipiac River is a river in the New England region of the United States, located entirely in the state of Connecticut.It rises in west central Connecticut from Dead Wood Swamp west of the city of New Britain...
flows southward from Farmington, CT (Tunxis Sub-Sachemship) at Deadwood Swamp to the New Haven harbor on Long Island Sound. Its length is 38 miles (61 km) 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 (Connecticut)
Sleeping Giant of south-central Connecticut, with a high point of , is a rugged traprock mountain located north of New Haven. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the...
, 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 DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
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 DawnlandersWabanakiWabanaki, Wabenaki, Wobanaki, etc. may refer to:In geography* area referred as the "Dawn land" by many Algonquian-speaking peoples to describe the Eastern region of the North American continent, generally described as being New England in the United States, plus Quebec and the Maritimes in CanadaIn...
(original inhabitants of NE USA and Eastern Canada) to identify the Algonquians of the NE Woodlands.
- Rennawawk (meaning “[True] Men”) is the indigenous term for “aboriginal Native Americans.”
- Quiripi/Quiripey (meaning “long-water[-land people]”) 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 WappingerWappaniThe Wappinger were a confederacy of Native Americans whose territory in the 17th century spread along the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Primarily based in what is now Dutchess County, New York, their territory bordered Manhattan Island to the south, the Mahican territory bounded by the...
-MattabesecMattabessetMattabesset or Mattabeseck refers to the Native American group which had its principal settlement at the Mattabeseck River of what is today Connecticut, United States. It is presumed that the portage offered the Mattabeseck additional opportunities for trade...
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
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
. Bands of the Long Water Land Renapi were situated in Eastern NY, Northern NJ, and Connecticut, where their summer camps were on the shores and along the estuaries that ran into the Sound. In Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
times, after the glaciers melted, there was a freshwater lake waterfall 100 miles (160.9 km) 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
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
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 clamClam
The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...
and oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
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
Cahokia
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the area of an ancient indigenous city located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds...
, where archaeologists found these stockpiles with drills and drillbits, 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 wampumWampumWampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
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
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, 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, CT. 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 RiverQuinnipiac RiverThe Quinnipiac River is a river in the New England region of the United States, located entirely in the state of Connecticut.It rises in west central Connecticut from Dead Wood Swamp west of the city of New Britain...
confluenceConfluence (geography)In geography, a confluence is the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where two streams flow together, merging into a single stream...
, New HavenNew Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and... - Meriden (meaning “Pleasant Valley”) CheshireCheshire, ConnecticutCheshire is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 28,543 at the 2000 census. The center of population of Connecticut is located in Cheshire. In 2009 Cheshire was ranked 72 in Money Magazine's 100 Best Places to Live.Likewise, in 2011 Cheshire was ranked 73 in...
, North HavenNorth Haven, ConnecticutNorth Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut.North Haven is less than ten miles from downtown New Haven and Yale University. It is near Sleeping Giant State Park and home the Quinnipiac University School of Health Sciences, the School of Nursing,...
& MeridenMeriden, ConnecticutMeriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 59,653.-History:... - Mioonkhtuck: East HavenEast Haven, ConnecticutEast Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 28,189. The town is just 3 minutes from downtown New Haven...
, Fair HavenFair Haven, ConnecticutFair Haven is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city of New Haven, Connecticut located between the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers. The northeast section of the neighborhood is also known as Chatham Square.... - Totoket: Branford, North BranfordNorth Branford, ConnecticutNorth Branford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,906 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 26.6 square miles , of which 24.9 square miles is land and 1.7 square miles is water...
- Menunkatuck: GuilfordGuilford, ConnecticutGuilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...
, MadisonMadison, ConnecticutMadison is a town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The population was 18,812 at the 2000 census.... - Hammonasset: ClintonClinton, ConnecticutClinton is a town located on Long Island Sound in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,094 at the 2000 census. The town center along the shore line was listed as a census-designated place by the U.S...
, Saybrook - Nehantic: DurhamDurham, ConnecticutDurham is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Durham is a former farming village on the Coginchaug River in central Connecticut. The population was 6,627 at the 2000 census. Every autumn, the town hosts the Durham Fair, the largest volunteer agricultural fair in New...
, HaddamHaddam, ConnecticutHaddam is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 7,157 at the 2000 census. The town was also home to the now decommissioned Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Reactor.-Geography:... - Mattabesec: MiddletownMiddletown, ConnecticutMiddletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...
- Tunxis: FarmingtonFarmington, ConnecticutFarmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel...
- Mattatuck: WaterburyWaterbury, ConnecticutWaterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...
- Naugatuck: DerbyDerby, ConnecticutDerby is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 12,391 at the 2000 census. With of land area, Derby is Connecticut's smallest municipality.The city has a Metro-North railroad station called Derby – Shelton.-History:...
, AnsoniaAnsonia, ConnecticutAnsonia is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, on the Naugatuck River, immediately north of Derby and about northwest of New Haven. The population was 19,249 at the 2010 census. The ZIP code for Ansonia is 06401. The city is serviced by the Metro North railroad...
, OrangeOrange, ConnecticutOrange is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,233 at the 2000 census. A 2007 Census Bureau estimate puts the population at 13,813. The town is governed by a Board of Selectmen.-History:... - Wepawaug: MilfordMilford, ConnecticutMilford is a coastal city in southwestern New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located between Bridgeport and New Haven. The population was 52,759 at the 2010 census...
- Paugusset: New LondonNew London, ConnecticutNew London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
- Potatuck: Housatonic RiverHousatonic RiverThe Housatonic River is a river, approximately long, in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. It flows south to southeast, and drains about of southwestern New England into Long Island Sound...
- Wangunk: Connecticut RiverConnecticut RiverThe Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
, both banks - Podunk: WindsorWindsor, ConnecticutWindsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....
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
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
is now (and the eastern border of Connecticut).
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 50 acres (202,343 m²) 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 as a result of the encroachment, religious conversionReligious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
, and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
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
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
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, Connecticut
Kent is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, alongside the border with New York. The population was 2,858 at the 2000 census. The town is home to three New England boarding schools: South Kent School, Kent School and The Marvelwood School. The Schaghticoke Indian Reservation is also located...
, where the Schaghticoke emerged. Today they have split into the Schaghticoke
Schaghticoke (tribe)
The Schaghticoke are a Native American tribe of the Eastern Woodlands consisting of descendants of Mahican , Potatuck , Weantinock, Tunxis, Podunk, and other people indigenous to what is now Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. They amalgamated after encroachment of white settlers on their...
Nation and the Schaghticoke Tribe.
Other groups of refugees migrated to Brotherton at Oneida, New York
Oneida, New York
Oneida is a city in Madison County located west of Oneida Castle and east of Canastota, New York, United States. The population was 10,987 at the 2000 census. The city, like both Oneida County and the nearby silver and china maker, takes its name from the Oneida tribe...
, then to the White River
White River (Indiana)
The White River is a two-forked river that flows through central and southern Indiana and is the main tributary to the Wabash River. Via the west fork, considered to be the main stem of the river by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the White River is long.-West Fork:The West Fork, long, is...
and Muncie, Indiana
Muncie, Indiana
Muncie is a city in Center Township, Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. It is the principal city of the Muncie, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 118,769...
; some to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
, and Stockbridge, Wisconsin
Stockbridge, Wisconsin
Stockbridge is a village in Calumet County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 649 in the 2000 census. The village lies within the Town of Stockbridge.-History:...
; some to Odenak (St. Francis) and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Others who migrated went to Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, eastern New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and northern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, at the Ramapo Mountain refugium (see Ramapough Mountain Indians
Ramapough Mountain Indians
The Ramapough Mountain Indians, also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain in...
), by moving from rock shelter to rock shelter, in order to survive. In 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 LenapeLenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
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
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
oog moved into the area from the upper Hudson
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
region and pushed the survivors of the Narragansett into what is now Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, and the Nehantic wedged in close to the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
(Old Lyme
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Main Street of the town is a historic district. The town has long been a popular summer resort and artists' colony...
). A rogue sachem, named Uncus, angry for being passed over to lead the Pequotoog, took his followers and struck out on his own, founding the Mohegan
Mohegan
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
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 of 1675, they defeated the powerful Pequotoog. Quinnipiac warriors served in many wars and battles as soldiers and sailors and their refugees, who migrated to Stockbridge, merged into an alliance to help the Sons of Liberty
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766...
defeat the English in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
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
Tamanend
Tamanend or Tammany or Tammamend, the "affable", was a chief of one of the clans that made up the Lenni-Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley at the time Philadelphia was established...
, means “The Affable One”). The original thirteen colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
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 horticulturalHorticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
patterns produced corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, 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
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
their plantation sites regularly. They used horseshoe crabs and menhadden (alewives
Alewife
The alewife is a species of herring. There are anadromous and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye...
) as a natural fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
. They caught shell
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
and scalefish and dried them in the sun or on racks over a fire. The Quinnipiac were avid falconers, using hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
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
Fowl
Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl...
, rabbits, beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
, and other small game, until they came to Meriden “the Pleasant Valley,” where oaks
Oaks
-Horse races:"Oaks" is generally used to describe a Thoroughbred horse race restricted to 3-year-old fillies. Among the best-known races using the term are:*Epsom Oaks, The Oaks Stakes, at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey, England; the original "Oaks" race...
provided shelter against high winds and the acorns were main staples for deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
and wild turkey
Wild Turkey
The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...
, another winter staple.
During the Colonial period, Quinnipiac men hired out as laborers, fishermen, and guides (where the English constantly got lost), and the 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 Sachem’s houses, which often had five or six fire pits in one dwelling (because they often had their extended family
Extended family
The term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
living with them). Religious Society (Wampano or “Men of the Dawn,” Powwauwoag, Medarennawawg
Midewiwin
The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as Mide...
, and others) had the biggest longhouses for ceremonial purposes.
The Long Water Land people were well-known for their elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
bark canoes (light and fast for easy portage), and 20 feet (6 m) to 40 feet (12 m) dugout canoes, used for trade and war.
They reckoned the passing of time by a lunar calendar
Lunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
and an 8-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 1200 acres (5 km²) “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 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) near Branford, CT. 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.
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
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
. Rev. Pierson was taught by Rev. John Eliot, who founded the 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
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
; 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
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, 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 epitome 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 of the Quinnipiac ancient traditions and language definitions. For example, the Puritanical 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
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, 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
Bogeyman
A bogeyman is an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten children into compliant behaviour...
.” The Puritans redefined Hobbomock, Maushop, and other Quinnipiac spirit helpers as “devils.” Some Puritan descendants still maintain a paternalistic attitude towards Quinnipiac traditionalists and refuse to acknowledge even their existence, by choosing to hold on to the lie 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
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Public Law No. 95-341, 92 Stat. 469 , codified at , is a United States federal law and a joint resolution of Congress that was passed in 1978. It was enacted to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of American...
in 1978, “WE ARE STILL HERE”; so today do the Quinnipiac.
Quinnipiac Legacy in Greater New Haven and Connecticut
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Thimble Islands Ghost Island redirects here. For the island in Japan, see Hashima Island.The Thimble Islands is an archipelago consisting of small islands in Long Island Sound, located in and around the harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut.The archipelago of islands made up of... ) Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the... ) Sleeping Giant (Connecticut) Sleeping Giant of south-central Connecticut, with a high point of , is a rugged traprock mountain located north of New Haven. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the... East Rock East Rock of south-central Connecticut, United States, with a high point of , is a long trap rock ridge located on the north side of the city of New Haven... ) |
Population and Whereabouts Today
The Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal CouncilAlgonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council
The Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council is an alliance dedicated to the history and culture of the Quinnipiac, the aboriginal peoples of the North American region now known as Connecticut. ACQTC, Inc...
(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.
Digital and Online
- ACQTC ON-LINE: http://www.acqtc.com.
- We the People Called Quinnipiac, QTC Press e-media e-book on CD-ROM (available through ACQTC, see http://acqtc.com/Store/HomePage)
- ”Setting the Record Straight: A Linguistic-Ethnographic Study of the True Identity of the Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi Nation Structure” by Iron Thunderhorse, http://www.acqtc.com/Articles/SettingtheRecordStraight
- Quinnipiac River History (http://ColdSpringSchool.org/griver/oldeq.htm)
- The City of New Haven — Land of the Quinnipiac (http://www.yale,edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/4/97.04.01.x.html.)
- Quinnipiac University — History and Mission Statement (http://quinnipiac.edu/xioii.xml)
- Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum, Archives and Library (see http://acqtc.com/NewsEvents/200606)
- Benjamin BRETON (2008) The Quinnipiac: New Haven’s First Inhabitants. Communication on Contemporary Anthropology 2:e12. (http://comonca.org/2008012.aspx)
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 ThunderhorseIron ThunderhorseIron Thunderhorse, Biwabiko Paddaquahas, is CEO and Legal Sovereign of ACQTC, Inc., and Hereditary Grand Sachem and Powwamanitomp of the Quinnipiac Thunder Clan.-Ancestry and childhood:...
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 ThunderhorseIron ThunderhorseIron Thunderhorse, Biwabiko Paddaquahas, is CEO and Legal Sovereign of ACQTC, Inc., and Hereditary Grand Sachem and Powwamanitomp of the Quinnipiac Thunder Clan.-Ancestry and childhood:...
, 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 TrumbullJames Hammond TrumbullJames Hammond Trumbull was an American scholar and philologist.He was born in Stonington, Connecticut. He studied at Tracy's Academy in Norwich and at Yale University from 1838, but ill-health prevented his graduation, he was enrolled in 1850 and received an honorary LLD in 1871...
, 1881 (reprinted 1974 by Archon Books).
- “The intricate nature of sachemdoms” by Iron ThunderhorseIron ThunderhorseIron Thunderhorse, Biwabiko Paddaquahas, is CEO and Legal Sovereign of ACQTC, Inc., and Hereditary Grand Sachem and Powwamanitomp of the Quinnipiac Thunder Clan.-Ancestry and childhood:...
in Branford Review, 9-7-02.
- Itineraries and Memoirs of Ezra Stiles, 1760-1762. Beineke Rare Books Library, New Haven, CT.
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.