Our Quinnipiac Heritage Legacy
Covenant of Environmental Responsibility
by Iron Thunderhorse, The Quinnipiac Gecahaanwitank
ACQTC is the contemporary acronym for what has been known historically as the WAPPINGER MATTABESEC CONFEDERACY. This confederacy encompassed the joining of two major Sachemdoms. The Eastern Fire is the domain of the Long Water Land Quinni-pe-okke. Prior to the epidemics, the Maweomi (Central Council Fire) of the Long Water Land was at Mattabesec (Middletown) at the bend in the Connecticut River [Quinnehtukqut, meaning "at the Long Tidal River"]. After the epidemics when our populations were reduced by 85%, our maweomi moved to Quinnipiac River where it converged with New Haven Harbor. The Western Fire was Land of The Wampum-Makers (Sewanoag/Siwanoag) which included our Lenape relatives and the western borders ran from Esopus in the Shawangunk mountains to the Ramapough Mountains of northern New Jersey and included half of Long Island (Paumanauke).
ACQTC has seven clan lineages, each of which has a responsibility in the life of the nation. The political leadership derives from Pinessiwekit Long House of the Thunderer and this includes the hereditary responsibility of the Gechannawitank, who acts as the Land-Steward and Guardian of Sacred Sites. Our Wampums (Sacred Laws) include the Rights of the Environment. No other tribal entity gives equal rights to the ecosystems. ACQTC is the only tribal entity of the Long Island Sound region (CT and vicinity region) that has maintained its traditional Creator-given sovereignty and autonomy through exercise of our rights to aboriginal title to land as a result of intimate use patterns since time immemorial because no other tribal entity of Connecticut has called the Connecticut Valley its Wejammoke (Homeland) for 12,000 years as we have done. ACQTC has represented the interests of our sub-tribes in major lawsuits such as the Schaghticoke (who have only existed since 1699 as a refugium missionary camp). ACQTC has also defended the land and public parks who had no voice of their own and we prevailed in that as well causing financial developers to look elsewhere to build another golf course for the rich and famous, not on sacred ground.
ACQTC has initiated partnerships with land trust managers, trail managers, university faculty and students, town councils, inter-tribal and intra-tribal networks, historical societies, museums, etc. all in an effort to motivate and coordinate environmental action projects and in developing ways we can maintain stewardship over the Long Water Land.
The following list of responsibilities represents a commitment to the Long Water Land Bond of the Covenant (Wohpretewunk wutche Wetampaddawunk) between The Long Water Land people (Quinnipiac/Quiripey) and Friends of the Long Water Land. The Quiripey Pinessiwekit has the sole right of aboriginal title to land in our Wejammoke as Guardians of Sacred Sites for 12,000 years, and…
WHEREAS:
- the RIGHTS of the environment are the aboriginal responsibility of the Long Water Land people's GECHANNAWITANK within our Sachemdom (Greater new Haven region);
- as the Aboriginal Land Stewards of the Long Water Land through intimate use patterns since time immemorial at landmarks and sacred sites it is the right and traditional responsibility of ACQTC to defend, protect and care for the ecosystems and environment (including the waters, soil, sacred minerals e.g. quartz, coppers, mica, trapprock etc.) and species … as the rennawawk (humans) given this responsibility by the Creator in our Aboriginal Instructions;
- ACQTC Gechannawitank, friends of the Long Water Land, Care-Taker's Society, will always stand by ancient traditions in defense of the ecosystems based on aboriginal ethnoenvironmentalism;
- ACQTC Gechannawitank embodies and exemplifies the right to our Creator-given indigenous autonomy and self-determination. Quinni-pe-okke, The Long Water Land Sachemdom which covers all of what is known today as Greater New Haven, is the WEJAMMOKE (place of origins) of The Long Water Land people (Quinnipiac) and is the aboriginal domain of hundreds of landmarks and sacred sites whose collective existence and whereabouts is known only to the Gechannawitank. The Long Water Land people do not believe in ownership of land but in Aboriginal Title, hereditary inheritance and Creator-given rights of responsibility (See: HOLDEN VS. JOY).
- ACQTC will not capitulate or compromise the rights of the environment to polluters, vandals, desecrators, or developers whose interests pose a threat to the environment. ACQTC will develop plans to form partnerships with those who wish to engage in major development in the Long Water Land so as to respect the harmony of aboriginal environmentalism;
- ACQTC supports basic principles of environmental justice, environmental activism, including the right to a clean environment which fosters the free and undisturbed cycle of life that is indigenous to the Long Water Land with its interdependent species habitats;
- ACQTC maintains that deprivations of environmental justice are violations of our Aboriginal Stewardship responsibilities, international law and a serious threat to all species in the Long Water Land who cohabitate.
- As the Aboriginal Land Stewards and Guardians of Sacred Sites of the Long Water Land we speak for ourselves, and no other state, regional, federal entity may speak for us or any environmental issues within our Sachemdom without our expressed consent.
- State, Federal and local entities who possess Fee Simple Title that is only a few hundred or less years old does not, will not and cannot usurp, supersede or cancel the right of ACQTC based on Aboriginal Title to Land which is thousands of years old and precedes fee simple title,
- ACQTC supports the active interests of IEN (Indigenous Environmental Network).
Biwabiko Paddaquahas / Iron Thunderhorse
Quinnipiac Gecahaanwitank
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