Quinnipiac River History

 

This is a wigwam used by the Quinnipiac Native Americans.

 

This is a reinactment of a traditional Quinnipiac dance.

 

This is a Quinnipiac River stream.

What actually happened in the history of the river?

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Not much is known about the Quinnipiacs before Adrian Block, a Dutch sea captain who was the first European person to discover Connecticut. When he reached Connecticut in 1614, trade began between the Dutch and the native Algonquins of New England. In 1638, English Puritans settled in what is now New Haven and named it "Quinnipiak". In 1640 it was named New Haven.

What were the Quinnipiacs?

The Quinnipiac Indians lived near the Quinnipiac River which is named after them. A limited amount of information is known about the Quinnipiac religion, but archaelogical and historical research has connected them to other Algonquin tribes. Algonquins recognized and showed respect to various superpowers they believed were everywhere. Hunters prayed to the spirits of slain animals to make sure there were good future hunts.

Quinnipiac Algonquin Religion

The Quinnipiac Algonquins believed in gods of fire, the sun, the moon, and the sea. Most of the tribes shared religious beliefs of a supreme creator, a spirt of the elements, and a hero who taught the people skills for survival. The Quinnipiac Algonquins feared witchcraft.

Food

The Quinnipiac Algonquins hunted for food with spears. They also planted crops. Women, called squaws, tended the crops. As the corn became ripe, the squaws set it out in the sun to dry. After it dried, it was placed in a basket and the basket was put underground. Corn called yokeag was put into hot ashes and hit with rocks until it turned into powder.

Housing

Quinnipiac Algonquins lived in different houses during the summer and the winter. In the summer when it was hot they lived in longhouse. The houses were thirty to one hundred feet long, about twenty feet wide and it was twelve to fifteen feet high. In the cold winter the Quinnipiac Algonquins moved into hunting camps so that they could follow the herds of animals that they hunted.

   
 
 This is a Algonquin canoe. TheAlgonquin took a large log and with a long process of burning out the center, they shaped it into a canoe.  This is a picture of a Quinnipiac.You can see in this picture that he is wearing fancy jewlery. Algonquians like wearing fancy clothes and jewlery. This is a Algonquin woman is preparing a meal.

Population

The first time the French met the Algonquian tribe there were about six thousand Algonquians in 1603. The British estimated in 1768 there were only 1,500. almost 8,000 Algonquians lived in Canada.

 

 
 This is a picture of a Quinnipiac Algonquian getting ready to shoot a deer with a bow and arrow. Algonquians mostly hunted deers.

 
These are white settlers invading Algonquian territory.

   
 This is a Algonquian pot. they made alot of diffrent art like pots,bags, paintings and portraits. This is two Algonquian bags. As I said in the other picture, Algonquians were artists.

Click here if you would like to see a movie of the building of a long house.