The Algonquian Peoples Of Long Island From Earliest Times To 1700

A definitive and entertaining social history of the Hamptons, New York's ultimate high-end backyard, looks at the history of Long Island's east end, a locale marked by a class struggle between the wealthy and the have-nots since its earliest origins.

Few people may realize that Long Island is still home to American Indians, the region’s original inhabitants. One of the oldest reservations in the United States—the Poospatuck Reservation—is located in Suffolk County, the densely populated eastern extreme of the greater New York area. The Unkechaug Indians, known also by the name of their reservation, are recognized by the State of New York but not by the federal government. This narrative account—written by a noted authority on the Algonquin peoples of Long Island—is the first comprehensive history of the Unkechaug Indians. Drawing on archaeological and documentary sources, John A. Strong traces the story of the Unkechaugs from their ancestral past, predating the arrival of Europeans, to the present day. He describes their first encounters with British settlers, who introduced to New England’s indigenous peoples guns, blankets, cloth, metal tools, kettles, as well as disease and alcohol. Although granted a large reservation in perpetuity, the Unkechaugs were, like many Indian tribes, the victims of broken promises, and their landholdings diminished from several thousand acres to fifty-five. Despite their losses, the Unkechaugs have persisted in maintaining their cultural traditions and autonomy by taking measures to boost their economy, preserve their language, strengthen their communal bonds, and defend themselves against legal challenges. In early histories of Long Island, the Unkechaugs figured only as a colorful backdrop to celebratory stories of British settlement. Strong’s account, which includes extensive testimony from tribal members themselves, brings the Unkechaugs out of the shadows of history and establishes a permanent record of their struggle to survive as a distinct community.

Although the Montaukett were among the first tribes to establish relations with the English in the seventeenth century, until now very little has been written about the evolution of their interaction with the settlers. John A. Strong, a noted authority on the Indians of New York State's Long Island, has written a concise history that focuses on the issue of land tenure in the relations between the English and the Montaukett. This study covers the period from the earliest contacts to the New York Appellate Court decision in 1917—which declared the tribe to be extinct—to their current battle for the federal recognition necessary to reclaim portions of their land. Strong also looks at related issues such as cultural assimilation, political and social tensions, and patterns of economic dependency among the Montaukett.

Mac Griswold's The Manor is the biography of a uniquely American place that has endured through wars great and small, through fortunes won and lost, through histories bright and sinister—and of the family that has lived there since its founding as a Colonial New England slave plantation three and a half centuries ago. In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon a stately yellow house and a garden guarded by looming boxwoods. She instantly knew that boxwoods that large—twelve feet tall, fifteen feet wide—had to be hundreds of years old. So, as it happened, was the house: Sylvester Manor had been held in the same family for eleven generations. Formerly encompassing all of Shelter Island, New York, a pearl of 8,000 acres caught between the North and South Forks of Long Island, the manor had dwindled to 243 acres. Still, its hidden vault proved to be full of revelations and treasures, including the 1666 charter for the land, and correspondence from Thomas Jefferson. Most notable was the short and steep flight of steps the family had called the "slave staircase," which would provide clues to the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery. Alongside a team of archaeologists, Griswold began a dig that would uncover a landscape bursting with stories. Based on years of archival and field research, as well as voyages to Africa, the West Indies, and Europe, The Manor is at once an investigation into forgotten lives and a sweeping drama that captures our history in all its richness and suffering. It is a monumental achievement.

The year was 1609, and British explorer Henry Hudson had landed in North America at the bidding of the Dutch East India Company. But Hudson was not the first man to set foot on Manhattan Island. Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York chronicles this historic "discovery" with a hereto unknown perspective—that of the people who met Hudson's boat on their shore. Using all available sources, including oral history passed down to today's Algonquins, Evan Pritchard tells a colonization story through several lenses: from Hudson himself, as well as his bodyguard, scribe, and personal Judas, Robert Juet; to the Eastern Algonquin people, who saw his boat as a floating waterfowl, and his arrival as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.

Although the Montaukett were among the first tribes to establish relations with the English in the seventeenth century, until now very little has been written about the evolution of their interaction with the settlers. John A. Strong, a noted authority on the Indians of New York State's Long Island, has written a concise history that focuses on the issue of land tenure in the relations between the English and the Montaukett. This study covers the period from the earliest contacts to the New York Appellate Court decision in 1917—which declared the tribe to be extinct—to their current battle for the federal recognition necessary to reclaim portions of their land. Strong also looks at related issues such as cultural assimilation, political and social tensions, and patterns of economic dependency among the Montaukett.