Quinnipiac University ( /ˈkwɪnɨpiːæk/) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees through its College of Arts and Sciences; School of Business; School of Communications; School of Health Sciences; School of Law; School of Nursing and School of Education. U.S. News & World Report's 2009 America's Best Colleges issue has ranked Quinnipiac University first among northern universities with master's degree programs as having made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, campus or facilities. Quinnipiac is home to a well-known Polling Institute.

History[link]

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Quinnipiac University was founded in 1929 by Samuel W. Tator, a business professor and politician. Judge Phillip Troup, a Yale College graduate, and Tator's wife, Irmagarde Tator, a Mount Holyoke College graduate, also played major roles in the fledgling institution's founding and nurturing; the former became its first president until his death in 1939; the latter, its first bursar.

Quinnipiac was conceived in reaction to Northeastern University's abandonment of its New Haven, Connecticut program at the onset of the Great Depression. Originally, Quinnipiac was located in New Haven and called Connecticut College of Commerce. On opening its doors in 1929, it enrolled under 200, and its first graduating class featured only eight students. At the time, it awarded only associate's degrees. In 1935, the college changed its name to Junior College of Commerce.

From 1943 to 1945, the college closed; nearly its entire student body was drafted into World War II. Upon re-opening, the college's enrollment nearly quadrupled to approximately 800 students.

In 1951, the institution was renamed Quinnipiac College, in honor of the Quinnipiac Indian tribe that once inhabited Greater New Haven. That same year, Quinnipiac began to confer bachelor's degrees. In 1952, Quinnipiac expanded rapidly, both physically and in terms of curriculum, relocating to a larger campus in New Haven, and also assuming administrative control of Larson College, a private women's college.

In 1966, after having outgrown its campus in New Haven, Quinnipiac moved to its current campus in Hamden, Connecticut's Mount Carmel section, at the foot of Sleeping Giant Park. Quinnipiac's relatively uniform red-brick architecture results from much of it being built at (or around) that time. During the 1970s, Quinnipiac began to offer master's degrees in a variety of disciplines.

Until the 1990s, Quinnipiac remained primarily a commuter college with only a regional reputation; however, that changed during the next decade. In 1995, the University of Bridgeport's law school migrated to Quinnipiac. That same year, the American Bar Association accredited Quinnipiac to award the Juris Doctor degree. The Quinnipiac School of Law Center was dedicated later that year as well. Also, during the mid-1990s, Quinnipiac's communication and business programs, respectively, built state-of-the-art facilities and attracted nationally known professors. Quinnipiac's Polling Institute was noted for excellence by several prominent journalistic outlets, and often cited during the 1998 and 2000 election campaigns.

On July 1, 2000, the school officially changed its name to Quinnipiac University—to reflect its relatively new breadth in academic offerings. That same year, Quinnipiac University received accreditation by AACSB.

Currently, Quinnipiac offers 52 undergraduate majors, 20 graduate programs, and a JD program. Its new medical school plans to admit students starting in 2013.^[4] Quinnipiac's Polling Institute often garners the university national media attention.

The university operates several media outlets, including a professionally run, commercial radio station WQUN, founded by journalist and Quinnipiac professor Lou Adler. The university also operates a student-run FM radio station WQAQ, which concurrently streams on the Internet. A student-run television station, Q30, can be viewed only on campus. Also, a student-produced newspaper, The Chronicle, established in 1929, publishes 2,500 copies every Wednesday.

Quinnipiac is home to one of the world's largest collections of art commemorating the Great Irish Famine. The collection is contained in the Lender Family Special Collection room located in the Arnold Bernhard library.

Campuses[link]

Quinnipiac University consists of three campuses, all within the Hamden and North Haven areas, just north of New Haven, Connecticut.

The oldest of these campuses is the Mount Carmel campus, at the foot of the Sleeping Giant State Park. The Arnold Bernhard Library, Carl Hansen Student Center, university administration, and many of the student residences may be found on this campus.

York Hill, located on a hill about a half-mile from the Mount Carmel campus, began with the development of the TD Bank Sports Center. In 2010 this was joined by a new student center as well as expanded parking and residence facilities as part of a $300 million expansion of the 250-acre (1.0 km²) campus.^[5] York Hill is a "green" campus, making use of renewable energy and environmentally friendly resources, including one of the first major wind farms integrated into a university campus.^[6]

In 2007, Quinnipiac acquired a 100-acre (0.40 km²) campus in North Haven, Connecticut from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and has been gradually converting it for use by graduate programs at the university.^[7]

Quinnipiac University will be opening a medical school in 2014 that will house the teaching of many of the most popular health science majors of the university.^[8]

Admissions[link]

Class of 2013 For the undergraduate class of 2013, Quinnipiac admitted 6,223 (45%) of the 13,828 total applicants who applied. 1,640 (26%) of the admitted enrolled for the Fall 2009 semester. 22% ranked in the top tenth of their high school class; 55% in the top quarter and 90% in the top half. The majority of this class hail from the American Northeast with 26% from New York State, 21% from Connecticut, 20% from New Jersey and 19% from Massachusetts. One percent (1%) of the 2013 class is international. About 78% consider themselves to be Caucasian and 12% are minorities. The remaining 10% did not declare a race or are multi-racial. The female count is 62% and 38% for male. 70% received some form of financial aid.

The average undergraduate incoming freshman had a combined SAT score of 1680/2400.^[9]

Class of 2012 For the undergraduate class of 2012, 14,990 applications were reviewed, and 6,715 offers were sent out, which is a 45% admittance rate. 1,480 (22%) students enrolled into the freshman class. 22% were in the top tenth of their high school class, 55% were in the top quarter, and 90% were in the top half. 61% of the class is female, and 39% is male. 78% of the students consider themselves Caucasian.

Class of 2011 For the undergraduate class of 2011, Quinnipiac admitted 5,669 of the 12,049 applicants who applied (47%). 1,350 (24%) of those admitted enrolled. 62% of the class is female; 38% is male. 90% of the Quinnipiac's class of 2011 ranked in the top half of their high school class; 55% ranked in the top quarter; 22% ranked in the top tenth. Most students hail from the American Northeast: New York (29%), Connecticut (21%), New Jersey (19%), and Massachusetts (18%). One percent (1%) of the class of 2011 is international. 70% receive financial aid. 93% were white with 7% being minorities.

Generally, Quinnipiac's Office of Admissions seeks the following characteristics in undergraduate applicants: a 3.4/4.0 GPA and a combined SAT score of approximately 1150/1600.^{[citation needed]}

Quinnipiac Polling Institute[link]

Quinnipiac's Polling Institute receives national recognition for its independent surveys of residents throughout the United States. It conducts public opinion polls on politics and public policy as a public service as well as for academic research.^[10] The poll has been cited by major news outlets throughout North America and Europe, including The Washington Post,^[11] Fox News,^[12] USA Today,^[13] The New York Times,^[14] CNN,^[15] and Reuters.^[16]

The polling operation began informally in 1988 in conjunction with a marketing class.^[10] It became serious in 1994 when the university hired a CBS News analyst to assess the data being gained.^[10] It subsequently focused on the Northeastern states, gradually expanding during presidential elections to cover swing states as well.^[10] The institute receives funding from the university,^[10] with its phone callers generally being work study students or local residents. The polls have been rated highly by Fivethirtyeight.com for accuracy in predicting primary and general elections.^[17] To many, Quinnipiac University is best known for its polls.^[18]

Greek life[link]

Quinnipiac is home to five fraternities and six sororities.^[19]

Fraternities[link]

• Tau Kappa Epsilon

• Sigma Phi Epsilon

• Delta Tau Delta

• Pi Kappa Phi

• Zeta Beta Tau

Sororities[link]

• Alpha Chi Omega
• Alpha Delta Pi
• Kappa Alpha Theta
• Phi Sigma Sigma
• Sigma Gamma Rho
• Pi Beta Phi
• Kappa DeltaColonizing Fall 2012

The National Panhellenic Conference is an umbrella organization which was created in 1902 for 26 women's sororities. The National Panhellenic Conference at Quinnipiac University serves as an advocate for the sororities involved in the conference with the campus an community. The Panhellenic Conference at Quinnipiac University includes Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Pi Beta Phi, and Kappa Delta.

Campus buildings and landmarks[link]

Campus and Lender School of Business Center, with Sleeping Giant in background, April 2005.

Alumni Hall – Located in the Carl Hansen Student Center, this multipurpose room has hosted bands, comedians, debates and an Alumni Social during Winter Homecoming.

Carl Hansen Student Center – Commonly called "The Student Center," it serves as the home to Student Government, WQAQ-FM, The Chronicle and many student organizations. The student bookstore, main dining hall, U.S. Post Office, and a branch of TD Bank are located here as well.

Arnold Bernhard Library – The library is named for Arnold Bernhard, the founder and former chief executive officer of Value Line, Inc. Bernhard's son made the library renovation project possible by donating $1 million for the library project and an additional $3 million for the University's endowment in 1997. The donation was the largest in University history. The signature clock tower was replaced during the renovation which changed the icon of the school, which was a futuristic looking rocket ship spire, to a more conservative, modern tower. The Computer Help Desk has recently been relocated to the library.

Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center – The Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center is a media production facility equipped with up-to-date technology for hands-on training in all aspects of radio, television, journalism and multimedia production. The HDTV studio provides students with a professional environment for creating quality television programming.

Clarice L. Buckman Center and Theater

Echlin Center – Echlin Center is home to the offices of undergraduate admissions, and financial aid. The Second floor houses faculty offices, and two programs in the School of Health Sciences; Athletic Training and Biomedical Science

Lender School of Business Center – Fully accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the longest standing, accrediting agency for business programs in the world. The School of Business was also included in the 2011 edition of Princeton Review's "Best 300 Business Schools" and in Bloomberg Businessweek's "Top 100 Undergraduate Business Schools" for 2011. Quinnipiac has the added distinction of being ranked first among northern universities with master's degree programs as having made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, campus or facilities. The ranking appeared in U.S. News & World Report's annual America's Best Colleges issue.

Tator Hall – Part of the Student Center and has multiple classrooms and labs. The Learning Center, a student tutoring program to help fellow peers in a variety of subjects is located here.

Athletics[link]

The Quinnipiac Bobcats, previously the Quinnipiac Braves, comprise the school's athletic teams. They play in NCAA Division I in the Northeast Conference, except for the men's and women's ice hockey teams, which are part of ECAC Hockey.

There are seven men's varsity sports and 14 women's varsity sports.^[20] There is no football team.^[20] The team with the largest following on campus and in the area is the men's ice hockey team under established coach Rand Pecknold,^[18] which has been nationally ranked at times; during the 2009–2010 season they entered the top ten of the national polls for the first time.^[21] The Quinnipiac women's ice hockey program had their most successful season in the 2009–10 NCAA Division I women's ice hockey season. Quinnipiac University added a women's golf and women's rugby team in the 2010–11 academic year.^[20]

Tricia Fabbri, head coach women's basketball

In the late 2000s the men's basketball team gained a greater following than before under new head coach Tom Moore, a disciple of UConn Huskies men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun.^[18] Both men's and women's ice hockey and basketball teams play at the $52 million, 2007-opened TD Bank Sports Center.^[18] The women's lacrosse team has also been quite strong. The athletics program has been under pressures common to other universities, and at the close of the 2008–2009 academic year, men's golf, men's outdoor track and women's volleyball were dropped as a cost-cutting measure, although the last of these was restored (as a result of a Title IX suit^[22]).

Title IX discrimination case[link]

On July 21, 2010, a federal judge ruled that Quinnipiac violated Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to provide equal treatment to women's athletic teams. The judge, Stefan Underhill, determined that Quinnipiac's decision to eliminate the women's volleyball team as well as its attempt to treat cheerleading as a competitive sport and its manipulation of reporting with regard to the numbers of male and female athletes amounted to unlawful discrimination against female students. Underhill ruled competitive cheerleading is currently too underdeveloped and unorganized and then ordered that the school maintain its volleyball program for the 2010-11 season.^[23][24]

Student journalism controversy[link]

Quinnipiac has been at the center of controversy over the university's control over student publications and students' speech. The conflict has drawn national attention.

The problems began in the Fall 2007 semester, when junior Jason Braff, then editor of the Quinnipiac Chronicle, the official newspaper of the school, openly criticized a university policy that forbade the Chronicle from publishing news online before the content was published in the weekly print edition. Braff wrote an editorial about the policy and also gave an interview to the Republican-American criticizing it. Manuel Carreiro, Quinnipiac's vice president and dean of students, then sent a letter to Braff in November, telling him that his public disagreement with school policies "will seriously place your position and organization at risk with the university." Braff received an $8,000 annual stipend for his position, and the university said that its employees have more of a responsibility than other students to uphold policies. But Lynn Bushnell, QU's vice president for public affairs, denied threatening to fire Braff for disagreeing with school policies. Braff and the Chronicle staff were also openly critical of a public relations policy requiring all news media inquiries and questions (including those from the Chronicle) for administrators to be sent, via e-mail, to the university's public relations department.^[25]

Quinnipiac officials agreed to discuss the policies with students, and eventually decided that making the Chronicle independent from the university would be the best idea. The school set forth a plan of action, which included the university appointing editors for the 2008–2009 academic year. Angry with this plan, Braff and other staff agreed to leave the Chronicle at the end of the spring 2008 semester, and all applicants for the editor positions withdrew their applications.

Former Chronicle staffers came back in Fall 2008 with Quad News, an independent newspaper with only a website and no print edition. Plans are to incorporate Quad News as its own business venture run on advertising revenue. Quad News immediately faced opposition from the university. Staffers learned in September that university officials had instructed all varsity coaches, staff and athletes not to speak to Quad News reporters. Shortly after, officials threatened to shut down the university's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), claiming that they violated school policy by using their meetings as a cover for Quad News meetings. The Quad News staff had used two SPJ meetings to meet,^[26] after the university took away Quad News meeting reservation, citing the fact that the organization was not a university-recognized club. Quad News promptly stopped their meetings with SPJ.^[27] The move prompted a public letter from national SPJ leaders, expressing concern over the university's actions. Both staffs recognize the other publication as legitimate and have wished each other luck in their friendly competition.^[28]

Notable alumni[link]

• Ryan Cleckner – former Army sniper and veteran activist
• Murray Lender – Businessman and former CEO of Lender's Bagels^[29]
• William C. Weldon – CEO of Johnson & Johnson
• Turk Wendell – former Major League Baseball player

Accolades[link]

• Quinnipiac featured in The Princeton Review’s "Best 294 Business Schools: 2012 Edition"
• Princeton Review ranks Quinnipiac among "The Best 376 Colleges" in the 2012 edition of its annual college guide
• Bloomberg Businessweek ranks Quinnipiac in the top 100 list of the "Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2011"
• Featured in 2009 edition of "Best 296 Business Schools" by Princeton Review.
• U.S. News & World Report's 2009 America's Best Colleges issue has ranked Quinnipiac University first among northern universities with master's degree programs as having made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, campus or facilities.^[30]
• U.S. News & World Report's 2009 America's Best Colleges issue has, for the thirteenth consecutive year, named Quinnipiac as one of the best master's universities in the region.^[30]
• Quinnipiac is featured in the 2009 edition of the Princeton Review guide "Best 368 Colleges."^[31]
• 2008 – U.S. News & World Report has ranked Quinnipiac 12th in the northern universities master’s region.^[32]
• Featured in 2008 edition of "Best 290 Business Schools" by Princeton Review.^[33]
• Quinnipiac's School of Business^[34] is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.^[35]
• PC Magazine^[36] and the Princeton Review^[31] to rate Quinnipiac as number nine in 2007's Top 20 Wired Colleges.
• The School of Law^[37] was ranked 108 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings.^[38]
• President John Lahey receives a salary ($1.8 million in 2008) among the top 10 highest in the US for university professors, and the highest in Connecticut.^[39]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official Athletics website

v t e Sports teams based in Connecticut Baseball EL New Britain Rock Cats NYPL Connecticut Tigers ALPB Bridgeport Bluefish NECBL Danbury Westerners Mystic Schooners FCBL Torrington Titans Basketball WNBA Connecticut Sun ACPBL Hartford Lightning ABA Connecticut Topballerz Football WFA New England Nightmare Northeastern Nitro Ice hockey AHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers Connecticut Whale FHL Danbury Whalers Soccer W-League Connecticut Passion WPSL SoccerPlus Connecticut Roller derby WFTDA CT RollerGirls MRDA Connecticut Death Quads Rugby league AMNRL Connecticut Wildcats USARL New Haven Warriors Rugby union NERFU Connecticut Yankees RFC Hartford Wanderers RFC New Haven Old Black RFC Softball ASA Connecticut Brakettes College athletics (NCAA Div. I) Central Connecticut State Blue Devils Connecticut Huskies Fairfield Stags Hartford Hawks Quinnipiac Bobcats Sacred Heart Pioneers Yale Bulldogs

Coordinates: 41°25′13″N 72°53′40″W / 41.42014°N 72.89454°W / 41.42014; -72.89454

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: Anishinaabeg 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.

Introduction[link]

The Quinnipiac (occasionally misspelled Quinnipiack) people—also known as Quiripi and Renapi—are speakers of the r-dialect 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),^[1] under the first of several treaties which resulted in additional reservations at Branford, Madison, Derby, and Farmington.^[2] 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.^[3] 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 ….” ^[4] 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).^[5]

Quinnipiac River History[link]

Quinnipiac and their neighbors

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.

Quinnipiac Settlements and Self-Identity[link]

The Dutch 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 “[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 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. 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 melted, there was a freshwater lake waterfall 100 miles (200 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.

Socio-political structure[link]

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

Primary sachemdom[link]

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.” ^[6]

Secondary sub-sachemships[link]

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[link]

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 drillbits, as well as large quantities of finished beads. There were two types.

1. 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.
2. 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[link]

The Long Water Land Renapi (Quinnipiac Algonquians of the Renapi Nation) Sachemdom included the following sachemships (circa 1500-1650 AD).

• Quinnipiac/Quirripeokke: Quinnipiac River confluence, New Haven
• Meriden (meaning “Pleasant Valley”) Cheshire, North Haven and Meriden
• Mioonkhtuck: East Haven, Fair Haven
• Totoket: Branford, North Branford
• Menunkatuck: Guilford, Madison
• Hammonasset: Clinton, Saybrook
• Nehantic: Durham, Haddam
• Mattabesec: Middletown
• Tunxis: Farmington
• Mattatuck: Waterbury
• Naugatuck: Derby, Ansonia, Orange
• Wepawaug: Milford
• Paugusset: New London
• Potatuck: Housatonic River
• Wangunk: Connecticut River, both banks
• 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[link]

Population prior to contact with Europeans[link]

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[link]

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:

• 1,200-acre (5 km²) 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 (200,000 m²) at Waterbury (negotiated but never solidified).

Quinnipiac refugees[link]

The “Quinnipiac Trail of Heartaches”^[7] refers to the numerous relocations of the Quinnipiac people who became refugees as a result of the encroachment, religious conversion, 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. From the 1850s to 1900, the Quinnipiac began to return to the Long Water Land.

War and peace[link]

The Quinnipiac/Quiripi were known as “grandfathers” in the Dawnland Confederacy, with their Lenape 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 Pequotoog 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 having been 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 t6reaties 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.

Quinnipiac culture[link]

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, 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 hawks 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 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 Long Water Land people were well known for their elm bark canoes (light and fast for easy portage), and 20-foot (6 m) to 40-foot (12 m) 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.^[8]

Individuals of importance in Quinnipiac history[link]

Momauguin, Quinnipiac Grand Sachem in 1638, signed the First Treaty with the English planters at Quinnipiac (New Haven), “along with others of his council,” ^[9] granting the English the use of Quinnipiac land at New Haven, the Central Council Fire of the Sachemdom, while retaining full rights to the 1,200-acre (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 (81,000 m²) 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.^[10]

Language, religion, and folklore[link]

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. 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 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.” 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 misconception 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[link]

Population and whereabouts today[link]

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[link]

1. ^ Richard Carlson, “The Quinnipiac Reservation,” Rooted Like the Ash Trees, Eagle Wing Press, 1987.
2. ^ Iron Thunderhorse, “The ‘Other’ Quinnipiac Reservations”, Branford Review, April 26, 2003.
3. ^ J.H. Trumbull, Indian Names of Places, In and On the Borders of Connecticut, Hartford, CT 1881 (reprinted 1974 by Archon Books, the Shoestring Press, Inc., Hamden. Also see Trumbull’s Introduction to 1658 Pierson Catechism, in 1895 CHS Collections.
4. ^ Blair Rudes, “Resurrecting Wampano (Quiripi) from the Dead, Phonological Preliminaries,” Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 39. No. 1, Spring 1997
5. ^ John Menta, “Shaumpishuh, ‘Squaw Sachem’ of the Quinnipiac Indians” in ARTIFACTS, Vol. 16, No. 3-4:32-27, 1988 and Iron Thunderhorse, “Setting the Record Straight: A Linguistic-Ethnographic Study of the True Identity of the Quinnipiac/Quiripi/Renapi Nation Structure.” 2007 [1]
6. ^ Kathleen J. Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1996 and "The Sachemship and its Defenders", paper submitted at the American Historical Association, Washington, DC, 1987. Also see Iron Thunderhorse, We the People Called Quinnipiac, 2006 http://acqtc.com/Culture/History
7. ^ see map at http://acqtc.com/Culture/WtpcqTrailHeartaches
8. ^ Iron Thunderhorse, “An Ancient American Indian Stone Calendar in Connecticut,” Ancient American, Volume 5, Issue Number 36, December 2000, pp. 2-4.
9. ^ Quinnipiac University, History and Mission Statement, http://quinnipiac.edu/xioii.xml
10. ^ Ruth Mahweeyeuh Thunderhorse, Following the Footprints of a Stone Giant, InfinityPublishing.com, 2007, p. 17.

Bibliography[link]

Digital and online[link]

• 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[link]

• 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, 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.

Further reading[link]

• 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.