The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River. Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

is today.

Name

The Quinnipiac name translates as "Long-water people."Hodge, p. 344. It was also spelled Quienepiage, Quenepiake, Qunnipiéuk, Qunnipiuck, Qunnipiug, Quinnpiipuck, Quunnipieuck, and Qvinipiak.

Language

The Quinnipiac and several neighboring tribes in central Connecticut and central

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

all spoke the Quiripi language. This Eastern Algonquian language went extinct in the late 19th century. Reverend Abraham Pierson translated the

catechism A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...

into Quiripi in 1658. Reverend Ezra Stiles and

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

both collected word lists in the language.

Political structure

Historian Edward Manning Ruttenber suggested that the Quinnipiac were part of the Wappinger confederacy, but the colonist

Daniel Gookin Danyell "Daniel" Gookin (1612 – 19 March 1687) was a Munster colonist, settler of Virginia and Massachusetts, and a writer on the subject of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American Indians. Early life He was born, perhaps in County Cork, ...

wrote that they were part of the Pequot.Hodge, p. 345. Their leader was called a '' sachem'', and historians invented the term ''sachemdom'' to describe political units led by a sachem. The Totoket people were part of the Quinnipiac sachemdom. The Hammonasset were likely also part of the Quinnipiac sachemdom.Frederick Webb Hodge, ''Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico'', p. 529.

History

17th century

The

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

s established the first

Indian Reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

in 1638. Located near

, the reserve was for the Quinnipiac, but only included 1,200 acres, a small portion of their original territory.Schultz et al., ''Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics'', 677 The reservation's residents, described as "free" Indians, were placed under the authority of an English agent. They were not allowed to sell or abandon that land, and Native peoples from other tribes were not allowed to visit. From around 1651 to 1669, Reverend Abraham Pierson, a Congregational minister, proselytized the Quinnipiac near

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Regi ...

.Frederick Webb Hodge, ''Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico'', p. 883. He translated Christian texts into the Quiripi language. Missionization was not very successful, and the tribe showed "a perverse contempt" for the church.

18th century

In 1730, there were an estimated 250 to 300 Quinnipiac. In 1768, some Quinnipiac left their reservation and joined the Tunxi near

Farmington, Connecticut Farmington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The populati ...

. In 1774, only an estimated 38 Quinnipiac survived. They were part of the large Mahican tribe, whose descendants ultimately migrated to Wisconsin with the

Stockbridge Munsee Community Stockbridge may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Stockbridge, Edinburgh, a district of Edinburgh, Scotland * Stockbridge, Hampshire * Stockbridge, West Sussex * Stockbridge Anticline, one of a series of parallel east–west trending folds in t ...

and Brotherton Indian Community.

References

Sources

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External links

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Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians
official website {{authority control Algonquian ethnonyms Algonquian peoples Extinct Native American tribes Native American history of Connecticut Native American tribes in Connecticut Wappinger