ACQTC Files Petition for Federal Acknowledgment and Prima Facie Showing of Evidence

ACQTC mailed a 39 page Petition for Federal Acknowledgment a few days prior to the 1 January 2008 deadline set for itself in September 2007. Supporting this Petition, ACQTC also submitted nearly 400 pages of documentary evidence and three CDs full of additional historic, linguistic and cultural evidence. Every subsection of 25 CFR § 83.7 was supported and cross-references side by side to these Appendices with alphabetic/numerical markers.

Our petition is unique in many ways and is certain to set new standards. It begins with the fact that in the Long Water Land there is no such thing as a “tribe” as applied to other entities and this is quoted and referenced verbatim throughout the petition and substantiated by a dozen contemporary scholars as well as leading historians of Connecticut history and Algonquian Language dialects such as James Hammond Trumbull.

The petition challenges the criterion of which the current BIA standards are fatally and fundamentally flawed (see also the ACQTC Resolution on Federal Recognition Procedures). On the one hand the regulations say that a petitioner need only show one or more kinds of evidence to make a showing and that the evidence of community shown by any group shall be taken in context of the “history, geography, culture and social organization of the group.” Yet often times the BIA has required tribal groups to provide data that is not traditional, or culturally valid.

Iron Thunderhorse, Quinnipiac Grand Sachem says that: “You can’t use a Wonnux (White man's tribe) yardstick by which to measure the indigenous people of the Long Water Land. You can with the five tribal groups acknowledged by Connecticut and the BIA already because those five tribal groups lost their language, religion and culture long ago. We are the Renapi nation and so we are the proverbial square peg that won’t fit into the round hole dug for us by the Wonnux who have puritanized our nephews and nieces in the Schaghticoke and Paugusset groups. The Pequot and Mohegan are not our relatives, only intruders upon our lands.”

Historically, the Puritans mistakenly labeled the regional sub-tribes as separate tribes. James Hammond Trumbull, who edited the Official Connecticut Treaty/Deed Records (3 Volumes) was the first to point this out. Prior to the epidemics that wiped out 85% of the populations, the Quiripi occupied all of Connecticut. After the epidemics, the Wappinger-Mattabesec confederacy occupied all of western CT, eastern NY, northern NJ and half of Long Island. Virtually every Indian camp along Long Island Sound spoke Quiripey, the ancient r-dialect known as Wampano-Quiripi today. The Quinnipiac were the leaders of the eastern half of this confederacy.

ACQTC still maintains its dual council fire structure. Chiefs of the sub-tribes, such as the Schaghticoke, Hehantic, Totoket and Menunkatuck, hold a seat on the maweomi and Chiefs of the Eastern Cherokee Iroquois, and other Algonquians living in the region, have a seat on the kitche maweomi or grand council of the confederacy.

The ACQTC has compiled a 295 page Complete Language Guide and is recording the language for posterity. It also has photographs showing the practice of their ancient long house religion according to traditions that are hundreds of years old on their own complex, and photos of burials where they recently re-interred ancestral remains given back to ACQTC by members of the public who have been holding them in private collections this past century. ACQTC demonstrated many ways they have exercised their sovereignty and autonomy, all without assistance from state or federal agencies.

A special 15 page Quinnipiac Cultural Heritage also shows a list of dozens of names acknowledging the legacy and influence the Quinnipiac has had upon the greater New Haven region. It also shows how the two historical markers from the now defunct State Historical Commission contained erroneous statements, and details the true story those markers should have told using quotes from the treaty-deeds themselves.

ACQTC, Inc. is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, religious, and cultural purposes within the meanings of Section 501 (C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with Group or Subgroup status identification to include all programs, memberships and institutions under the purview of ACQTC. The contents of this webpage (except where noted otherwise) are © 2010 ACQTC, Inc. All rights reserved.
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