It is important to first recognize that this beautiful land which is now known as Connecticut, was not empty, unnamed, or unsettled before English Colonization. As educators, we must first acknowledge the present-day tribal nations of this land. Then, we may delve into an understanding of this land as it was inhabited by non indigenous peoples and shaped under the force of colonizers. Today, Connecticut law recognizes five tribes: Golden Hill Paugussett, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Paucatuck Eastern Pequot, and Schaghticoke. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is located in NWCT, with 300 members and a roughly 400-acre state reservation in Kent. (NWCT Arts Counsil, 2022)
To support the understanding of indigenous land in its original state, I suggest viewing “Native Land Digital'' at the beginning of this unit with a side-by-side comparison of the United States or the specific state used for this unit. The “Native Land Digital'' tool utilizes a Western map to view where indigenous tribes lived, united within their communities. When viewing a side-by-side comparison of the “Native Land Digital'' tool and a current map of our country or state, students should notice the number of land divisions made and form connections to the idea of ownership and separation over time.
For Native Land Digital, what we are mapping is more than just a flat picture. The land itself is sacred, and it is not easy to draw lines that divide it up into chunks that delineate who “owns” different parts of land. In reality, we know that the land is not something to be exploited and “owned”, but something to be honored and treasured. However, because of the complexities of history, the kind of mapping we undertake is an important exercise, insofar as it brings an awareness of the real lived history of Indigenous peoples and nations in a long era of colonialism. (Why It Matters. NWCT Arts Counsil, 2022)
Link to Native Land Digital: https://native-land.ca/
Between 1636 and 1776, English colonizers began to settle in and around present-day New Haven. In fact, the first planned city in- what would soon become America, was established in New Haven in 1666. In this period, people from all parts of the world traveled to the developing city to lay their claim on its land and resources. This movement forcibly dismissed the human beings that were native to the land and its resources. The original people who lived there were called the Quinnipiac Tribe, who were members of the larger Algonquian tribes.
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The Quinnipiac Tribe was referred to or rather named “long water land or long water country,” in recognition of its physical location. When viewed from a present-day map of Connecticut, the Quinnipiac’s territory included present-day New Haven, West Haven, East Haven, North Haven, Hamden, Branford, and Guilford. (Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, 2022).
The Quinnipiac peoples were peaceful and resourceful. They understood the importance of their land's resources and used them wisely. They often traveled by foot or made canoes from wood. They hunted, fished, and farmed their own land which created a sustainable living environment for their people. Even as the colonists arrived and began to settle on their land, the Quinnipiac peoples showed kindness by teaching the settlers how to fish. They traded their own hand made resources, such as canoes, to the colonists, and taught them about their land’s physical features. Their kindness was not returned, however as the Quinnipiac Tribe and territory was slowly overtaken by rules and English treaties imposed by the colonists. It is important to note however, that Quinnipiac people were the original “New Haveners.” It is their ancestors who lived in unity with the land until colonists claimed it as their own.
As the city of New Haven developed, waves of immigrating people came to New Haven between the late 1880s and 1890s. Teachers may reference “An Ethnic History of New Haven” to view The Census of 1890 which documented that residents came from places including : Africa, Asia, Atlantic Islands, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Cuba and West Indies, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Pacific Islands, Poland, Russia, Sandwich Islands, Scotland, South America, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Wales, among other places. The representation of people from each country further displaced the Quinnipiac peoples from their land, way of living, families, and eventually their identity. By this time, many of the Quinnipiac tribe members were displaced, assigned to specific areas to live, known as reservations, or died from disease.
The Quinnipiac and neighboring tribes weren’t the only group of people actively facing violence, oppression, social fragmentation, and mistreatment. The late 1800’s was fueled with the idea of “nativism” and anti-immigrant sentiment. “Anti-Irish” feelings about Catholicism were persistent and the fear of Irish immigrants taking all the colonists' jobs caused tension. However, the Irish were eager to work hard and contribute to the development of New Haven by working in factories or building railroads. They weren’t the only people who were eager to work hard, though. Even as the view of African Americans was shifting under the guise that they were inferior and immoral criminals, they sought for equality by publishing books and articles about discrimination. In an effort to protect themselves, African Americans assembled groups to gather for prayer and education. While African American efforts were strong, they were often limited to jobs that required labor which would benefit white people. They were also cast aside to live on the outskirts of the developing community, where crime levels were high, which furthered the notion that African Americans were inferior. Sadly, many hard-working African Americans were unable to reside in safer sections of the community to escape discrimination and build better lives for themselves. Areas that were safer and more developed were reserved, without question, for white people. (Courtesy of the Ethnic Heritage Center, 2022).
As the immigration boom continued well into the 20th century, so too did the development of the new nation. While all people played a vital role in the furtherance of the nation’s development by bringing with them- tools, music, food, religion, and the desire to have a new beginning, many were met with racist ideologies that marginalized people both socially and economically. As a result, the positivity and commonalities between people was heavily masked and created divides in our nation that still persist today. These divides were imposed on one another as a direct result of the ethnicity of immigrant groups. In other words, the idea of redlining communities paved the way for continued racism and separation. A redlining map of New Haven, called Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America, located on Data Haven, illustrates how inequality in the community persisted and continues to exist today. A redlining map of students’ communities can be a great visual to observe while reflecting on the original New Haveners and how their land was dividing into segregated areas. Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America, from Data Haven explains how to read the areas of the map as they were segregated:
Only a few small areas have a grade A (“best”), but they have many characteristics in common. For instance, all grade A and most grade B neighborhoods were noted as home to executives, professors, and professionals. No grade A neighborhoods, and only one grade B, list any “infiltration”; this one exception is Beaver Hills’ Jewish population, a community that was growing at the time and remains significant today. No grade A neighborhoods, and only two grade B ones, had either foreign-born, “Negro,” or relief-recipient residents. Grade D neighborhoods were given descriptions such as being “given over largely to Negros employed as domestics” or having “no value.” The availability of funding for home building and purchasing follows the same pattern—ample funds are listed as available in all grade A and many grade B neighborhoods, while none are available in grade D ones. (Data Haven: The 25th Year, 2022. https://www.ctdatahaven.org/reports/ct-data-story-housing-segregation-greater-new-haven).
Not only did the sectionalization of people in New Haven begin to normalize and separate people from one another, it was highlighted by the unfounded study of eugenics. The American Eugenics Society itself was located within the downtown New Haven Green and was supported by many members of the Yale community. Highly distorted views that nonwhite born immigrants were placing on one another combined with eugenicists' agenda worked to limit incoming immigrants by way of intelligence tests that influenced the ideals of what a community and greater society should look like. In 1936, Connecticut’s governor, Wilbur Cross, commissioned a Survey of Human Resources of Connecticut, which classified residents based on 21 factors (Ofgang, 2019). Cross hired a well-known eugenicist named Harry H. Laughlin, who managed the data collected from all Connecticut residents in an effort to protect and further the selective breeding process. His office, located in Hartford, CT was used as a post to sort people based on physical likeness and mental abilities. It is during this time that words such as “moron, unfit, degenerate,” and so on, were introduced to the American lexicon. Had Cross and Laughlin’s efforts been more successful, nearly 175,000 Connecticut residents, or ten percent of the state’s population would have been sterilized (Ofgang, 2019).
While more of the depth of this information is meant for you, the teacher, it is important to keep it in the forefront of your mind when teaching each lesson. It is largely the judgment that people place on one another with a simple glance or sporadic thought that others lives are different and complex instead of embracing one another with the means to understand and grow in unity. The foundation of New Haven was built upon for these very reasons. The Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century sounded the alarm for the need to recognize the humanity of Black people and other people of color while demanding an end to racial segregation. Now, we are tasked with the challenge to look beyond the roots of eugenics and acknowledge history as it was truly experienced and to understand how our country developed the social and racial barriers that exist today.