344 



QUINNEY QUINNIPIAC 



[b. a. e. 



to 1749, whom he aided in translating 

 into Mohegan various prayers and other 

 works, including the Assembly's Cate- 

 chism, printed at Stockbridge in 1795. 

 Nothing is known of his personal history; 

 but his descendants were prominent in 

 the later history of the tribe. 



His son, Joseph Quinney, whose name 

 is also spelled Quanaukaunt and Quine- 

 quaun, was town constable of Stockbridge 

 in 1765; and in 1777, after the death of 

 the sachem Solomon Unhaunnauwaun- 

 nutt, was made chief of the Mohegan 

 tribe. Another Joseph Quinney, per- 

 haps a son, was chosen deacon of the new 

 Stockbridge (N. Y.) church in 1817, and 

 in the following year was one of the lead- 

 ers in the emigration of his people from 

 the State of New York to their new home 

 in the W. 



ftuinney, John W. A Stockbridge In- 

 dian of the early half of the 19th century, 

 born in 1797, and chief of the tribe in 

 Wisconsin for three years ])revious to his 

 death, July 21, 1855. When a boy he 

 was one of three who received a common 

 English education under the patronage 

 of the United States, being placed under 

 the tuition of Caleli T^'uderhill, of West- 

 chester, N. Y., where he pursued his 

 studies with alacrity and proliciency. By 

 degrees he gained the confidence of his 

 people, until almost the entire tribal 

 business was intrusted to him. In 1822, 

 he, with two others, formed a deputation 

 to Green Bay, Wis., where a treaty was 

 made and concluded with the Menominee, 

 by which was purchased all the Green 

 Bay lands designed for the future home 

 of the New York Indians. In 1825 he 

 procured the passage of a law by the 

 New York legislature granting the Stock- 

 bridge tribe full value for the New Y^'ork 

 lands, thus enabling them subsequently 

 to remove to Green Bay. The lands of 

 the New York Indians purchased from 

 the Menominee being endangered by a 

 repurchase made by United States offi- 

 cers, Quinnej^ was sent in 1828 to petition 

 Congress, in behalf of the united New 

 York tribes, for the recognition of their 

 landed rights. In this, however, he 

 failed, and the Stockbridge tribe lost their 

 home at Kaukana, Fox r., but the Gov- 

 ernment allowed them $25,000 for their 

 improvements. Quinney next entered at 

 once into a new plan, and finally, after 

 protracted efforts, he obtained, in 1832, 

 the grant of two townships on the e. side 

 of L. Winnebago, Wis., where the tribe 

 still resides. About the year 1833 Quin- 

 ney framed a constitution, as the basis of 

 a tribal government, which was adopted 

 by his people and led to the abandon- 

 ment of hereditary chieftainship. In 

 1846 he effected the repeal of an act of 

 Congress of 1843 which made citizens of 

 his tribesmen, thus permitting his people 



to enjoy their own customs and govern- 

 ment; he also detained for them $5,000 

 on account of their old claims. The tribe 

 made a treaty in 1843, in concluding 

 which Quinney took a prominent part, 

 the Government agreeing to find the tribe 

 a new home w. of the Mississippi, and to 

 remove them thither; but after many un- 

 successful attempts on their part to select 

 the lands and remove, in which Quinney 

 engaged with untiring zeal, he finally 

 conceived the plan of reacquiring the 

 township of Stockbridge. Efforts imme- 

 diately commenced finally terminated in 

 the ratification of a new treaty by which 

 the Government receded to the tribe its 

 old home. In 1854, Quinney succeeded in 

 obtaining the passage of a law by Con- 

 gress which granted to him the title to 460 



JOHN W. QUINNEY. (from A Painting in the Wisconsin His- 

 torical SOCIETY.) 



acres in Stockbridge. At the election 

 held in 1852, he was chosen grand sachem 

 of the tribe, which office he filled honor- 

 ably until his death, encouraging every- 

 thing calculated to improve his people 

 (Wis. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV, 309-311, 1859). 



The prominence of the Quinney family 

 in the history of the Stockbridge tribe is 

 shown by thepresence of from oneto three 

 of the family names signed to every treaty 

 made by these Indians with the United 

 States from Oct. 27, 1832, to Feb. 5, 1856. 



ftuinnipiac ('long-water people.' — Ge- 

 rard). A tribe formerly occupying the 

 country on both sides of Quinnipiac r. 

 about its mouth, in New Haven co. , Conn. 

 Their principal village bore the same 

 name. Ruttenber makes them a part of 

 the Wappinger group and subject to the 



