Ancestral Legacy

The Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation stands in continuity through ancestry that is both sachemic and colonial, uniting sovereign Indigenous lineages with early New York and New England founding families through lawful intermarriage, alliance, and compact.

This dual continuity — sachemic inheritance and colonial-era compacts — reflects an unbroken chain of authority preserved across Indigenous record, colonial documentation, genetic continuity, and binding treaty law. Together, these elements confirm a sovereignty that is unique, continuous, and legally enforceable.

Pillar I – Sachemic Ancestors

Our sovereignty flows first through our direct sachemic ancestors:

Sachem Mongotucksee “Long Knife” (Montaukett, late 1500s–early 1600s) – my 13th great-grandfather. Paramount Sachem of the Montaukett and father of Grand Sachem Wyandanch, remembered for his leadership on eastern Long Island before and during first sustained colonial contact.
Grand Sachem Wyandanch (Montaukett, c. 1620–1659) – my 11th great-grandfather. Paramount Sachem of the Montaukett, son of Mongotucksee, whose deeds, petitions, and diplomatic alliances are preserved in colonial archives, anchoring Montaukett sovereignty in early treaty and petition history.
Catoneras (c. 1603–1659) – my 10th great-grandmother. A Matinecock sunksqua (female sachem) of the North Shore of Long Island, operating within Montaukett-aligned confederated kinship networks. Through her marriage to Cornelius Jansen Van Texel, she formed the Catoneras–Van Texel Compact (1640s), among the earliest Native–European sovereign alliances in New York.
Quashawan (Pequot–Narragansett noblewoman, 1500s–1600s) – my 14th great-grandmother; a sachemic matriarch whose lineage bridged Pequot, Narragansett, and allied Algonquian kinship networks across New England, affirming intertribal sovereignty through marriage and succession.
Sequin (Mattabesett) (early 1600s) – my 13th great-grandfather; sachem leader of the Mattabesett/Wangunk peoples, whose kinship ties connected Connecticut River tribes with coastal Algonquian nations, extending sachemic authority inland.
Sowheag (Sequasson) (Mattabesett/Wangunk, 1600s) – my 13th great-grandfather; sachem recorded in colonial diplomacy, whose bloodline reinforces continuity among Connecticut River sachemic houses.
Sachem Sassacus (Pequot, early 1600s) – sachem leader of the Pequot Confederacy, whose kinship and alliance networks intersected with Narragansett and Montaukett leadership during the Pequot War era.
Chief Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Hertel (c. 1570–1630) – my 11th great-grandfather through a collateral ancestral branch. His lineage establishes lawful Haudenosaunee kinship continuity later protected under federal treaty frameworks, including the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794), which remains in force.
Grand Sachem Canonicus (Narragansett, 1539–1647) – my 12th great-grandfather through a separate Narragansett line; a principal diplomat and war leader, recorded in colonial treaties and land transactions throughout Rhode Island and the Long Island Sound.
Cherokee–Powhatan lineage (18th–19th centuries) – proven through Dawes-era kinship records within the Price–Powhatan families (Flint District) and collateral ancestry. This descent anchors treaty continuity under the Powhatan treaties (1607–1677) and the Cherokee treaties of Hopewell (1785) and Holston (1791), binding under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Through these ancestors, our sovereignty is protected by treaties, colonial deeds, and petitions, which remain binding under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI).

Pillar II – Colonial Founding Families

The marriage of Catoneras and Cornelius Jansen Van Texel in the 1640s formed the Catoneras–Van Texel Compact, a sovereign Native–European union through which land rights, inheritance, and successor authority were lawfully carried into their descendants under Indigenous and colonial treaty custom.

Those descendants became the root of several colonial founding families in New York and Connecticut – all of whom are my direct great-grandparents:

These families defended their inherited rights through the Montaukett Petitions of 1685 and 1705, legal documents presented to colonial governors. Those petitions remain on record in the New York State archives and continue to serve as evidence of our unbroken sovereignty.

All individuals listed in this section are ancestors, direct kin, or lineal relations of the Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation, whose authority and continuity are carried through inherited descent, kinship law, and treaty succession.

Cornelius Jansen Van Texel (great-grandfather) – Dutch colonial ancestor whose lawful union with Catoneras constituted one of the earliest documented Native–European sovereign compacts on Long Island, carrying land rights, inheritance, and successor authority into their descendants.
Colonel Robert Knapp (great-grandfather) – Colonial leadership and landholding lineage integrated through lawful intermarriage with Van Texel descendants, incorporating the Knapp family into multiple lines of my ancestry and successor continuity.
Travis family (great-grandparents-parent) – an established Colonial Hudson Valley founding lineage incorporated into the Nation through lawful intermarriage with the Catoneras–Van Texel successor line, forming part of the Nation’s inherited continuity.
Lent family (great-grandparents) – Early Dutch colonial lineage incorporated through the Van Texel successor line, connecting the Lent family into the Catoneras bloodline and the Nation’s inherited continuity.
Outhouse family (great-grandparents) – a Hudson Valley founding lineage of historical standing, incorporated through consequential marriages into the Van Texel and Indigenous successor lines, contributing to landholding, alliance, and inherited continuity.
Dyckman (Dykman) family (great-grandparents) – an early Dutch founding family of New Amsterdam and the Hudson Valley whose historically significant marriages incorporated Indigenous successor lines through the Van Texel lineage, forming part of the Nation’s inherited authority and continuity.

Collateral Sachemic Kinship

Our lineage is also strengthened by sachemic kinship ties to:

Grand Sachem Tatobem (Pequot) — collateral sachemic line establishing Pequot sovereignty within the Nation’s inherited kinship network.
Sassacus (Pequot) — collateral sachemic descendant of Tatobem; Pequot leadership carried forward through confederated and allied councils.
Wyandanch (Montaukett) — direct ancestor through Catoneras (your 10th great-grandmother), included to document continuity across Montaukett and intertribal council networks.
Quashawan (Pequot–Narragansett) — direct ancestress within the Catoneras lineage, linking Pequot and Narragansett succession into Montaukett continuity.
Through this line, documented descent continues into Dawes-era Cherokee and Powhatan-associated records, evidencing federally recorded bloodline continuity.
Cherokee kinship lines — collateral Dawes-era descent (Powhatan–Cherokee), extending the Nation’s lineage into the Southeastern treaty sphere and its associated federal protections.

These names reflect our embedded role in Algonquian and Haudenosaunee governance networks.

DNA Confirmation

Our FamilySearch genealogy is further corroborated by DNA evidence. Markers including D1a1 (D-M15), Sunghir 1, Goyet Q2, Cheddar Man (I6767), SC1_Meso, ZBC, I4243, I1633, I8193, ANN1, and I12776 reflect uninterrupted biological continuity from the Pleistocene through the Bronze Age, linking our people to ancient sovereign genomes and longstanding tribal and royal lineages.

Our Story of Continuity

From the diplomatic authority of Canonicus among the Narragansett, to Catoneras’ sovereign compact with Van Texel, and through the Knapp, Travis, Lent, Outhouse, and Dyckman families’ preservation of Indigenous land rights by petition, compact, and colonial law, sovereignty was never ceded — only defended within evolving legal regimes.

That continuity endures. The Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation stands as a living successor to treaties, compacts, and ancestral law, extending from the sachemic councils of the Northeast to the treaty-recognized Cherokee domain of the Southeast.

Declaration

By bloodline, compact, genealogy, DNA, and law, the sovereignty of the Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation is undeniable and unextinguished.

Treaty Descent Record of the Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation

Verified via FamilySearch, supported by colonial and federal records, and consistent with treaties, deeds, and rulings upheld in U.S. courts.

Confirmed Sachemic Ancestors & Treaty Connections

1. Grand Chief Sachem Mechoswodt Marossepinck (1571–1658)

Treaty/Deed: Linked to early Dutch and English compacts; progenitor of the line that signed the Hempstead Deed (1644).
BIA Tie: Kin intermarried into the Shinnecock Indian Nation (federally recognized).

2. Sachem Tackapausha (17th Century)

Treaty/Deed: Principal signer of the 1644 Hempstead Deed with English colonists.
BIA Tie: Allied to the Shinnecock and Montaukett kin later merging into Mohegan/Pequot lines (both BIA-recognized).

3. Chief Grand Sachem Wyandanch (1566–1659)

Treaty/Deed: Recognized leader in Long Island land transactions (East Hampton Deeds, Gardiner Compact).
BIA Tie: Montaukett kinship intermarried with Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribe (federally recognized).

4. Grand Sachem Poggaticutt (1569–1653)

Treaty/Deed: Co-signatory in Montaukett deeds alongside Wyandanch.
BIA Tie: Linked to Pequot/Mohegan descendants.

5. Chief Sachem Canonicus (Canonchet, 1539–1647)

Treaty/Deed: Narragansett treaties with Rhode Island (1644, 1647, 1709).
BIA Tie: The Narragansett Indian Tribe is federally recognized.

6. Mohawk Sachemic Kin – Ots Toch, Hokolesqua, Caniachkoo (1600s)

Treaty/Deed: Ancestors within the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794), which the U.S. still honors.
BIA Tie: St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and wider Haudenosaunee Confederacy (federally recognized).

7. Chippyconnaw Massapequa & Allied Sachems

Treaty/Deed: Long Island land agreements with colonial New York.
BIA Tie: Interlinked with Pequot/Mohegan lines.

Tribal Nations Represented in Descent

Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2), all treaties made with Native Nations remain binding federal law. The Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation represents direct descent from multiple sovereign Nations whose treaties, deeds, and petitions remain enforceable.

Mohawk (Haudenosaunee Confederacy) – Treaty of Canandaigua (1794), federally binding and reaffirmed annually.
Montaukett / Matinecock / Massapequa (Long Island Algonquian Confederation) – Hempstead Deed (1644), Montaukett Deeds, and Montaukett Petitions (1685, 1705), preserved in New York archives as continuing legal instruments.
Narragansett (Rhode Island) – Colonial treaties and compacts of the 17th century under Grand Sachem Canonicus and successors, recorded in Rhode Island archives.
Pequot & Mohegan – Lineage through Sachem Tatobem (Pequot), Sassacus (Pequot), and Uncas (Mohegan). Sovereignty confirmed through early colonial compacts and ongoing federal recognition of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut.
Shinnecock (Long Island Algonquian Confederation) – Descendants of land deed signers; today a federally recognized tribe, reinforcing ancestral jurisdictional continuity.

Through jus sanguinis — right of blood — and direct descent from sachemic leaders of the Mohawk, Montaukett, Narragansett, Pequot, Mohegan, and Shinnecock Nations, the Hunnic Matinecock Tribal Nation affirms its sovereign standing under treaty law and federal recognition standards.

Our sovereignty is anchored in binding agreements including the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794, Haudenosaunee/Mohawk), the Treaty of Hartford (1650, Matinecock/Wappinger/Montaukett), the Montaukett Petitions (1685 & 1705, New York Archives), and the Cherokee Treaties of Hopewell (1785) and Holston (1791) through Dawes-era kinship.

Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2), these treaties remain the supreme law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) and McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020) has reaffirmed that tribal treaties endure unless explicitly repealed by Congress.

Our standing is further supported by international law, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007) and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969).

This is not a revival. It is the continuation of a sovereign Nation whose treaties and bloodlines remain unbroken.