Our Quinnipiac Heritage Legacy
Factual Errors in State Historical Markers
by Iron Thunderhorse
The Connecticut Historical Commission's historical Quinnipiac markers are flawed. They contain factual errors from 19th century Puritan accounts.
The Guilford marker (shown at right) suggests that the Menunkatuck is a "tribe", just as the Hammonassett, Wangunk, Podunk etc. were dubbed as tribes. John Menta, Richard Carlson, Ezra Stiles, James Hammond Trumbull and Dr. Blaire Rudes all dispelled the myth that the Quiripey/Quinnipiac were isolated to a single band at New Haven.
John Menta describes those same events this way:
On September 29, 1639, thirty-three Indians, consisting of thirteen men, eight women, and twelve children, arrived at the newly founded English settlement called Quinnipiac, modern New Haven, Connecticut. The Indian visitors to the town were the Menunkatucks, a band of the Quinnipiacs who had survived the ravages of new disease. The leader of the group, a sachem who had participated in the first treaty negotiated between the English and the Quinnipiacs nearly a year earlier, was familiar to the townspeople. It is interesting to speculate whether this leader elicited any unusual reactions from the colonist; she was Shaumpishuh, the "sunk squaw" or "squaw sachem" of the Quinnipiacs.
Accompanied by her uncle, Quosoquonsh, the sachem of nearby Totoket (Branford), she had come with her people to negotiate a treaty with six English planters, led by the Reverend Henry Whitfield. In the presence of Robert Newman, a local farmer who was serving as a witness to the proceedings, and John Higginson, a young interpreter from Fort Saybrook, the sachem bargained with Henry Whitfield. In the end, Shaumpishuh signed a treaty that ceded a large and -Valuable tract of land, part of modern Branford and most of Guilford, to the six planters. Ultimately, this opened the coastal region between Quinnipiac and Fort Saybrook to further English settlement.
James Hammond Trumbull also remarked that: "Block, the Dutch Captain who sailed through the Sound in 1614, found a band of the Quiripey near the mouth of the Housatonic River. Roger Williams wrote the name of these Indians collectively 'Quinnipieuck'".
He also wrote: "The first settlers of New Haven bought land of one of the Quiripi bands or petty [sub] tribes, and the name of their purchase appears as QUILLIPIACK, QUINNIPIAC…". Again, in reference to Rev. Abraham Pierson's bilingual catechism he explained: "…the Quiripi Indians who lived near Long Island Sound [centered at New Haven] and westward — to and beyond the west[ern] bounds of Connecticut."
Dr. Blaire Rudes also confirms that the Quiripi lived "along Long Island Sound — this group's territory extended from the Connecticut River in the east to at least as far as present day Norwalk [and] up to the Hudson River in the west. Furthermore, the same people occupied a portion of south-central and western Long Island." The historical markers referring to the Quinnipiac as one band living at New Haven with about 200 members are erroneous.
The Quinnipiac Tribe Historical Marker at Fort Wooster (see Quinnipiac Memorial and Historical Marker at Fort Wooster Park) indicates that: "On November 24, 1638, the Quinnipiac leaders: Montowese, Sawseunck, Momauguin, Sugcogisin, Carroughood, Wessaucuck and Shaumpishuh [7 leaders] signed a treaty with the Rev. John Davenport and Tehophilus Eaton…" This is erroneous also. On November 24, 1638, the first Quinnipiac treaty was signed by Momauguin, Sugcogisin, Quesoquonch, Carroughood, Wessaucuck and Shaumpishuh — Mantowese and Sawseunk did NOT sign the November 24th, 1638 treaty. On December 11, 1638, Mantowese and Sawseunk signed a Treaty with Eaton and Davenport and John Clarke as witnessed, whereas the first initial treaty was witnessed by Thomas Stanton. The first treaty concerned ceded land of New Haven and Fair Haven and the second Treaty concerned ceded lands of North Haven, Wallingford, Cheshire and Meriden. On September 29, 1639, Shaumpishuh signed a Third Treaty ceding lands in Branford and Guilford. She was accompanied by her uncle Quesoquonch. The Englishmen were Rev. Henry Whitfield and Robert Newman witnessing.
The Quinnipiac Granite Memorial also contains factual errors and represents the paternalistic agendas of Puritan based interests of wealthy landholders who viewed our language, culture and religion as heathenous. They changed our ancestral culture-bearers into "bogeymen" and refused to accept our ancestors for who they were unless they abandoned all things Indian. The phrase on the granite memorial that reads: "A Quinnipiac Indian Family walks to the harbor to meet the English Newcomers, April 24, 1638 and their way of life changes forever." This is an ethnocentric allusion to the ethnocide caused by the Puritans and this monument glorifies then the ethnic cleansing forced on the very people who welcomed the newcomers to our Long Water Land and forced them on the infamous Trail of Heartaches. This monument is an insult also because it only includes those who the Townshend family supports — i.e. in written accounts that emulated Puritan factual subterfuge that pretends the Quinnipiac legacy was extremely limited as to justify their ethnocide against us.
Endnotes
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