Quinnipiac Tribal Council
Public Opinion Forum

Sep 2010: We Are Not "Native Americans" …

The problems of race, racism, ancestry, national origin, place-of-birth, etc. exemplify the predicament of Indigenous People as evidenced by the ACQTC pending legal situation. These factors need to be understood, acknowledged and studied before any solutions and corrections can be made.

The Trail of Heartaches forced upon the Quinnipiac and Wappinger-Mattebesec Confederacy (known today as ACQTC) occurred due to a “not-so-subtle form of ethnic cleansing” based on racial and religious intolerance. The ethnocentric stereotypes, appellative misnomers etc. left behind by the Puritan Theocracy which spawned such policies are still being perpetuated in our wejammoke (homeland) of Quinnehtukqut (Connecticut).

This paper separates the legal and political substance from the official subterfuge and sets the record straight on the position of ACQTC regarding our indigenous identity, existence, sovereignty, autonomy and self-determination. In essence WE DEMAND RESPECT and WE DEMAND EQUALITY.

Read the full article: We Are Not "Native Americans" ...

Jul 2010: Legal Memorandum of Law to the Public

Iron Thunderhorse, as the ACQTC Legal Sovereign, has issued the following:

1. Legal Memorandum of Law to the Public, Number One — QUINNIPIAC REPARATIONS: Landmark Lawsuit Leads The Way For Aboriginal Nations On the Path To Respect & Recovery
2. Legal Memorandum of Law to the Public, Number Two — LEGAL STRATEGIES AND CLAIMS: Establishing A Litigation Model For Reparations in Quinnipiac Tribal Council (ACQTC) -vs- State of Connecticut, et. al.
3. Legal Memorandum of Law to the Public, Number Three — JUDICIAL POWERS OF ESTABLISHING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY: Investigating/Studying Issues Presented In Determining Actualized Harm and Ways And Means of Developing Equitable Relief in the Form of Reparations

Jun 2010: The Metis Nation

No other policy in the history of the United States of America has served to discriminate against minorities except for the policies attendant to slavery, and as will be seen in this feature, it was all formed from common roots. The Puritan Theocracy of New Haven, Connecticut enacted the first law which codified racism long before the United States of America was born. This law served as a model for the other thirteen original colonies that led to the formation of the United States. All this served as the impetus for the infamous "Indian Policy" established by President Andrew Jackson. His theories of diluted blood quantum admixtures formed the basis of the Bureau of Indian Affairs criteria that establishes the 'acknowledgment' process of what constitutes a model of "Indian Tribes" in the USA. These racist, ethnocentric laws and policies still remain and must be abolished whereas they violate the very spirit of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Resolution 61/295 – Adopted on 13 September 2007 by the U.N. General Assembly) and is considered binding to all UN Member States who are Signatories to the U.N. Commission To End All Forms of Racism.

Read the full article: The Metis Nation

Jun 2010: DEMAND THAT THE USA ENDORSE THE UN’S DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA remains the ONLY U.N. Member State to oppose completely the U.N. Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples.

We ask our friends, neighbors, and allies to write, call or email your Congressmen, Connecticut legislators and join us in demanding they make vital changes in Indian Policy, and to adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, not a sham substitute but the entire document, just as the State of Maine did.

Read the full article: Self-Determination vs. Self-Governance

Jan 2010: ACQTC, Inc. LEGAL CAVEAT & PUBLIC NOTICE

The Following Persons/ Entities Take Public Notice:

• Ed Sarabia, CT Indian Affairs Coordinator/DEP
• Nick Bellontini, CT State Archaeologist
• Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, East CT
• Pawcatuck Pequot Tribe, East CT
• Mohegan Tribe, East CT
• City of New Haven, CT Parks Department
• CT Department of Education
• The Estate of Henry (Harry) & Doris B. Townshend

This is an official ACQTC Inc./ACQTC.ORG CAVEAT, and Public Notice of our INTENT to Sue in Federal Court for acts of discrimination by false information and fraud, racial/religious/ethnic intolerance and animus in public venues including but not limited to educational institutions, parks, Indian trails, landmarks etc. that has operated to convey a false, misleading, inaccurate and at times discriminatory characterization of Quinnipiac/Quiripey (and all of our traditional sub-tribes) and has been accomplished in a collusion, conspiracy and concerted effort of Christianized/Assimilated Indians (who have never been indigenous to CT) with Puritan Descendants and contemporary state and city officials to deprive ACQTC Inc. and its membership from enjoying their Constitutional Rights and Rights secured by International Law of the United Nations of Indigenous Peoples.

For full text download LegalCaveat-20100101.pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF-reader required to view)

Nov 2008: REPORT on the Nova Scotia Hunting and Fishing Rights Court Case

Jack Hatfield, a Metis Member of the SW Nova Scotia Sable Point Band of Wampanoag, an ACQTC sub-Sachemship of the Wappinger-Mattabesec/Wampano-Quiripi Confederacy was issued a citation for hunting deer out of season.

In the 1950s our Confederacies tested and challenged the USA-CANADA Border Crossing provisions made in numerous TREATY negotiations and in an effort to demonstrate our sovereign and autonomous relationships. In the 1960s our confederacies held Fish-Ins to demonstrate our inherent rights to fish out of season on our own lands and on ceded lands through aboriginal title to land. Then, in the 1970s when the Massachusetts Commonwealth built a replica of the MAYFLOWER and docked it near Plymouth Rock, when they woke up on the established day of celebration the replica and Plymouth Rock were both painted bright red as a sign of protest and an exercise of our sovereign and autonomous status.

So the Hatfield arrest was done in order to challenge the policy in a Canadian Court of Law. The attorneys for our Sub-Sachemship sent Iron Thunderhorse copies of their Briefings to the Court. His OPINION as our legal Expert is that this Briefing is excellent and very expertly done. The provincial Court has set a Court Date for January 2009 and if all goes well there will be a RULING subsequent to that. We expect a major ruling in our favor on the hunting and fishing rights of our people. Hatfield is classified as metis but his line is mixed with the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia. Both Metis and Mi'kmaq have rights to hunt and fish out of season.

In the event of an Appeal Iron Thunderhorse plans to submit an AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF (as he did with our sub-sachemship the Scahgticoke in 1989 and won a major ruling in CT Supreme Court) on the history and traditions of our confederacy that has used Quinnehtukqut (Connecticut River) which runs from Canada to Long Island Sound as our main navigation route as a maritime aboriginal culture. Thus ACQTC has maritime law tradition rights which extends all along the shores of CANADA and the USA within a few miles of these estuarine coastal waters, ACQTC has also maintained its aboriginal rights as the Gechannawitank (Guardians and Land Stewards) of thousands of sacred landmarks from Canada to Long Island Sound where ancient petroglyphs of the Thunder Clan represent our aboriginal Title To Land. Iron's multi-disciplinary briefs containing proof of this aboriginal title via intimate use patterns since time immemorial dating back thousands of years is what has won case after case for ACQTC.

An update on this ruling and/or Appeal will be posted at a later date.

Jan 2008: ACQTC is Drafting a Complaint for Human Rights Violations

ACQTC has begun drafting a formal complaint for violations of their human and civil rights against several Connecticut state agencies, including the Commission on Indian Affairs.

For more information, please read ACQTC Drafting Human Rights Violation Complaint.

Jan 2008: 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.

For more details, please read Petition for Federal Acknowledgment Filed.

Nov 2007: ACQTC Resolution submitted to Congress

On October 27th, 2007, the ACQTC National Office for Legal, Political, Financial and Literary Affairs submitted a three page resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, in relation to a pending bill titled Indian Tribal Federal Recognition Administrative Procedures Act. The committee had heard evidence from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that the Federal Tribal Acknowledgment Act criterion was "fatally and fundamentally flawed."

ACQTC's resolution concurs with Mr. Blumenthal's assessment and proposes a three stage acknowledgment process. The full text of this resolution is reprinted on our ACQTC Resolution on Federal Recognition Procedures page.

If you support our proposed three stage process, please write your Congressman or the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources.

Arumshemocke, thank you kindly.

Nov 2007: ACQTC request for a seat on the Connecticut Indian Commission

ACQTC has sent official letters to the State of Connecticut, Office of the Governor, House Speaker, Senate Leader, Commissioner on Environmental Protection, and Indian Affairs Coordinator. A new CT law calls for a 20 member Commission on Indian Affairs to replace the long defunct CIAC (Connecticut Indian Affairs Council). Grand Sachem Iron Thunderhorse was appointed by the CIAC Chairperson Paulette Crone Morange as legal and cultural advisor in the 1970s and 80s. He also defended the Schaghticoke Indians of Kent, CT in a 1980s Amicus Brief to the CT Supreme Court and the rights of ACQTC in 2000 as the hereditary Land Steward of the confederacy against the City of Stamford and Greenwich and land developers who wanted to build a golf course there. His curriculum vitae also includes extensive expertise in the language, religion, history and lore of the Long Water Land which surpasses any one currently on the Commission.

Nov 2007: QUINNIPIAC TRIBAL COUNCIL challenges the constitutionality of the CT Commission On Indian Affairs

In a formal letter sent certified mail to a dozen State of Connecticut office holders, including the governor, legislators, and heads of several agencies, ACQTC has challenged the constitutionality of the newly legislated CT Commission on Indian Affairs. This commission is fatally and fundamentally flawed, and it deprives ACQTC of its fourteenth amendment rights to due process and equal protection of the law under the U.S. Constitution.

For details, please read Constitutionality of CT Commission on Indian Affairs Challenged.

Oct 2007: ACQTC Federal petition Completed.

A 42 page "PETITION FOR FEDERAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE ACQTC Its Tribal Existence, History, Sovereignty and Autonomy as a Tribal Nation and Confederacy of Algonquian Socio-Political Cultural Identity" has been completed by Thunder Clan Grand Sachem Iron Thunderhorse.

The Thunder Clan National Office of Legal, Political, Financial and Literary Affairs is currently assembling the APPENDICES which consists of Appendix A through F each containing different forms of proof required by 25 CFR 83.7.

The PETITION and APPENDICES are expected to be filed with the BIA OFA in December, 2007 in plenty of time before the 1-1-08 deadline set by ACQTC.

SEP 2007: ACQTC petitioning for federal recognition of Quinnipiac

After 30 year of research and gathering evidence, ACQTC will file a Formal Petition for Federal Recognition with the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. On 1 September 2007, we sent a Letter of Intent to the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research, also known as the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), within the Bureau of Indian Affairs notifying them (pursuant to 25CFR Part 83) of our intent to submit the formal petition on or before 1 January 2008.

A copy of that Letter of Intent is available for viewing online by clicking on the small image (at right) of that letter. Please note that it may take up to a minute to load the larger image if you have a slower internet connection.

According to the OFA website:

The Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary - Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior (DOI) implements Part 83 of Title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Procedures for Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian Tribe. The Acknowledgment process is the Departments’ administrative process by which petitioning groups that meet the criteria are given Federal “acknowledgment” as Indian tribes and by which they become eligible to receive services provided to members of Indian tribes.

See the OFA website for details concerning the procedure we must follow to obtain federal recognition for the Quinnipiac.