Shinnecock Indian Nation

Shinnecock Indian Nation

A group of Shinnecock people, 1884
Total population
(1,292 enrolled members[1])
Regions with significant populations
United States (Long Island)
Languages
English, formerly Mohegan-Pequot language,
Religion
Christianity, Native
Related ethnic groups
Montaukett, Pequot, Narragansett, African-Americans

The Shinnecock Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe of historically Algonquian-speaking Native Americans based at the eastern end of Long Island, New York. This tribe is headquartered in Suffolk County,^[1] on the southeastern shore. Since the mid-19th century, the tribe's landbase is the Shinnecock Reservation within the geographic boundaries of the Town of Southampton. They are descended from the historic Pequot and Narragansett peoples of southern New England, whose bands also occupied eastern Long Island.

Federal recognition

The Shinnecock were recognized by the United States government in October 2010 after a more than 30 year effort, which included suing the Department of Interior.^[2] The Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, George T. Skibine issued the final determination of the tribe's recognized status on June 13, 2010.^[1]

Reservation

Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton

The Shinnecock Indian Reservation is a self-governing reservation. By 1859, the current borders of 800 acres (3.2 km²) were established.^[3]

In 1972 the Shinnecock Native American Cultural Coalition (SNACC) was formed to establish a Native American arts and crafts program. Traditional dancing, beadwork, Native American crafts and music are studied. A group called The Youngblood Singers was formed. Dedicated to learning traditional Algonquian songs, chants, and drum rituals, they travel throughout the Northeast performing at powwows and drum contests.^[4] The Cultural Enrichment Program is a sharing and learning process that the community has engaged in to ensure that the ideals and traditions of their ancestors are passed down through the generations. It involves sharing knowledge of food, clothing, arts, crafts, dance, ceremonies, and language.^[5]

The reservation has a museum, shellfish hatchery, education center, cultural and community center, playground,^[6] and Presbyterian church. The reservation is three miles (5 km) west of the village of Southampton, New York. In 1903, it had a population of 150. In 2012 the Shinnecock Nation numbered more than 1,400 people, with more than half residing on the reservation.^[5][7]

Thunder Island Coffee Roasters is a Shinnecock-owned and operated business located on the reservation. The coffee is roasted by Ben Haile, the owner. His business ships whole bean and ground organically grown coffee throughout the United States.^[8]

History

Shinnecock and their neighbors

The Shinnecock were among the thirteen Indian bands loosely based on kinship on Long Island, who were named by their geographic locations, but the people were highly decentralized. "The most common pattern of indigenous life on Long Island prior to the intervention of the Europeans was the autonomous village linked by kinship to its neighbors."^[9] They were related to and politically subject to, the Pequot and Narragansett, the more powerful Algonquian tribes of southern New England across Long Island Sound. The Shinnecock are believed to have spoken a dialect of Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk, similar to their neighbors the Montaukett on Long Island. As is the case with many North Eastern tribes after the establishment of reservations, the Shinnecock language was not allowed to be spoken in schools, or off of the reservation. This caused a decline in the number of people who spoke the language, however the tribe is actively engaged in language renewal programs to secure the legacy of the language for future generations.

The bands in the western part of Long Island were Lenape (Delaware), such as the Matinecock and Patchogue.^[10] Also part of the large Algonquian languages family, these Lenape spoke a Delaware-Munsee dialect, one of three of their people. They shared a longhouse social system with their people also located in a territory that extended through the mid-Atlantic area, from western Connecticut, the lower Hudson River Valley, through present-day New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.^[9]

Like the other Native peoples of Long Island, the Shinnecock made wampompeag (wampum), shell beads strung onto threads that were used as currency, for record-keeping, and for aesthetic purposes. These shell beads have been found at Native American-inhabited sites as far west as the Rocky Mountains, showing their value in trade. Although other New England tribes produced wampompeag, the Indians of Long Island are reputed to have made the best. Paumanac, one of the many names given to Long Island, means land of the purple shell The tribe was subject to raids by the Pequot and other New England tribes to control this valuable trade commodity. The Europeans quickly learned the value of the Shinnecock wampompeag in trade with other tribes.

Native American populations on Long Island declined dramatically after European colonization due mostly to vulnerability to the new infectious diseases carried by colonists, to which they had no immunity. In 1658 a smallpox epidemic caused the deaths of nearly two-thirds of the Indians on the island. In addition, their communities were disrupted by land encroachment by Dutch and later English colonists; they had to shift from hunting and fishing to horticulture.^[9] By 1741, estimates are that only 400 Native Americans in total survived.^[10]

In 1641, English colonist signed a lease with the Shinnecock Indians. In 1703, this was ratified to include more land for English colonists. In 1792, the state of New York passed a law reorganizing the Shinnecock Indian Tribe as a trusteeship. The law also established annual elections for three tribal trustees, which have continued from 1792 to the present.^[2] The Shinnecock, Montauk and Poosepatuck developed tribal systems to deal with external forces;^[9] the Shinnecock depended on their trustees to manage some relations with local farmers in the 18th century,^[2] and with other jurisdictions in contemporary times. For more than two centuries, the trustees have managed the tribe's land and resources. In the fall of 2010, the Shinnecock gained federal recognition and had their reservation put in trust by the federal government.^[1][2]

After the American Revolutionary War, a number of Shinnecock left Long Island to join the Brothertown Indians in western New York, where the Oneida people gave them some land on their reservation. (By the mid-19th century the Shinnecock and Brothertown migrated to Wisconsin, pushed out of New York..) On Long Island, some Shinnecock intermarried with local colonists and African-American slaves, who worked on farms and as craftsmen.^[11] They often reared their children as Shinnecock, maintaining their identity and culture.^[11]

The Shinnecock were at home on the water, long being fishermen and sailors around the island. Through the 19th century, Shinnecock men worked as fishermen and sailors on the whaling ships based at Sag Harbor and other local ports. It was said that not a ship left Eastern Long Island without at least 1 Shinnecock male onboard..^[12] In December 1876, ten Shinnecock men died while trying to save a ship stranded off East Hampton.^[13] The tribe is famous in local lore for such heroic efforts. At the start of the 20th century, the Shinnecock were described as "daring seamen," and "furnishin[g] efficient recruits to the United States Life Saving Service" (Coast Guard),^[14]

Every Labor Day Weekend since 1946, the reservation hosts a powwow, based on ceremonies beginning in 1912.^[3] The Shinnecock Powwow is ranked by USA Today as one of the ten great powwows held in the United States.^[15] In 2008 the powwow attracted 50,000 visitors.^[16]

Land claims dispute

In 2005 the nation filed a land claim against New York seeking the return of 3,500 acres (14 km²) in Southampton located near the tribe’s reservation, and billions of dollars in reparations for damages suffered by colonial land grabs. The disputed property is worth $1 billion and includes the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club,^[2] which Shinnecock say is the location of traditional tribal burial grounds.

The tribe's lawsuit challenged the state legislature's approval of an 1859 sale of the 3500 acres of tribal land to non-native persons. This broke the terms of a 1,000-year-lease signed in 1703 by Southampton colonial officials and the tribe. The suit charges that in 1859, a group of powerful New York investors conspired to break the lease by sending the state Legislature a fraudulent petition supporting the sale, which was purported to be from a number of Shinnecock tribal members. Although other tribal members immediately protested that the petition was a forgery, the Legislature approved the sale of 3,500 acres (14 km²) of tribal land.

Casino proposals

In 2007 the tribe proposed building a gaming casino to generate revenues for welfare and education, but it has not proceeded to development. In negotiations with the state and local government, the Nation agrees a location out of the Hamptons area would be better for the environment.^[2][17] If they develop a site in partnership with the state, they could build a Class III gaming casino, which are more lucrative than the Class II they would qualify for on their reservation.^[2]

Notes

References

• Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
• Hodge, Frederick W. Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1910.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shinnecock Indian Nation.

• official website
• "Shinnecock", Handbook of North American Indians, on Access Genealogy
• "U.S. Recognizes Long Island Tribe", The New York Times, 15 June 2010