| Group: | Quinnipiac |
| Total: | extinct as a tribe; merged into the Stockbridge Munsee Community and Brotherton Indian Community, now in Wisconsin |
| Regions: | United States (Connecticut) |
| Languages: | Quiripi language |
| Religions: | Indigenous religion |
| Related Groups: | other Wappinger peoples |
The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River.[1] Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where New Haven, Connecticut is today.
The Quinnipiac name translates as "Long-water people."[2] It was also spelled Quienepiage, Quenepiake, Qunnipiéuk, Qunnipiuck, Qunnipiug, Quinnpiipuck, Quunnipieuck, and Qvinipiak.[3]
The Quinnipiac and several neighboring tribes in central Connecticut and central Long Island all spoke the Quiripi language. This Eastern Algonquian language went extinct in the late 19th century.[4] Reverend Abraham Pierson translated the catechism into Quiripi in 1658. Reverend Ezra Stiles and Thomas Jefferson both collected word lists in the language.[4]
Historian Edward Manning Ruttenber suggested that the Quinnipiac were part of the Wappinger confederacy,[2] but the colonist Daniel Gookin wrote that they were part of the Pequot.[5] Their leader was called a sachem, and historians invented the term sachemdom to describe political units led by a sachem. The Totoket people were part of the Quinnipiac sachemdom.[6] The Hammonasset were likely also part of the Quinnipiac sachemdom.[7]
The Puritans established the first Indian Reservation in 1638. Located near New Haven, Connecticut, the reserve was for the Quinnipiac, but only included 1,200 acres, a small portion of their original territory.[8] The reservation's residents, described as "free" Indians, were placed under the authority of an English agent.[8] They were not allowed to sell or abandon that land, and Native peoples from other tribes were not allowed to visit.[8]
From around 1651 to 1669, Reverend Abraham Pierson, a Congregational minister, proselytized the Quinnipiac near Branford, Connecticut.[9] He translated Christian texts into the Quiripi language.[5] Missionization was not very successful, and the tribe showed "a perverse contempt" for the church.[9]
In 1730, there were an estimated 250 to 300 Quinnipiac.[5] In 1768, some Quinnipiac left their reservation and joined the Tunxi near Farmington, Connecticut.[5] In 1774, only an estimated 38 Quinnipiac survived.[5] They were part of the large Mahican tribe, whose descendants ultimately migrated to Wisconsin with the Stockbridge Munsee Community and Brotherton Indian Community.[10]