The Quinnipiac were the descendants of Indigenous people who first arrived in our region following the end of the Ice Age. By the start of the 17th century, they lived along what is today the Long Island Sound Shoreline from West Haven to Clinton and north to Cheshire and Meriden. How did the arrival of Europeans, first the Dutch then the English, impact the Quinnipiac, and what factors led to their eventual dispersal? Where are the Quinnipiac today? This talk tells their story in a 98-minute Bradford Historical Society video recorded on December 11, 2024.

Local historian and author, Jim Powers, shares the story of the Quinnipiac People who first arrived in today’s Connecticut 14,000 years ago. By 1600, there were dozens of Indigenous Algonquian tribes throughout the area. (Click left and right for larger images.)

The tribes were known by the early colonial settlers by their interest in trade along the coast and throughout the Connecticut River Valley.

In 1637, the Pequot War disrupted tribes throughout Connecticut, ending in the 1638 Treaty of Hartford and the designation of the New Haven Colony.