Quinnipiac - War and Peace

War and Peace

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 treaties 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.