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John W. Quinney, 1849

Oil portrait of John W. Quinney (1797-1855). View the original source document: WHI 49

b. Madison County, New York, 1797
d. Stockbridge, Wisconsin, July, 1855

John Quinney was an Indian leader and sachem of the Stockbridge Indians. He first visited the Wisconsin area in 1822 as a delegate for the Stockbridge tribe to purchase land along the Fox River from the Menominee. Quinney was instrumental in securing full-value payment from New York for its Stockbridge lands, and helped organize the removal of the Stockbridge to Wisconsin from 1822 to 1829. He eventually settled the tribe on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago in Calumet County.

Congress

For several years he acted as representative for the tribe in negotiations with Congress. He eventually obtained compensation for the tribal lands in Wisconsin that had been appropriated by the U.S. government. He maintained his family's power and prevented the division of tribal lands on an individual basis by helping repeal the 1843 act that granted citizenship to the tribe. Quinney was grand sachem of the Stockbridge from 1852 until his death.

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Cons. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 4 (1859); J. N. Davidson, Muh-he-ka-ne-ok; Hist. of the Stockbridge Nation (Milwaukee, 1893); J. Schafer, Winnebago-Horicon Basin (Madison, 1937).