History of Long Island - American Indian Settlements

American Indian Settlements

At the time of European contact, the Lenape people (named the Delaware by Europeans) inhabited the western end of the Island, and spoke the Munsee dialect of the Algonquian language family. Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with these people when he entered what is now New York Bay in 1524. The eastern portion of the island was inhabited by speakers of the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language group of the same language family, representing their ties to the aboriginal peoples inhabiting what is now Connecticut and Rhode Island. The area was central to the production of Wampum, providing the resources necessary for its creation.

Decades after the decline in population of Native American on Long Island, amateur anthropologist Silas Wood published a book claiming that there had been several homogenous "tribes" traditional to Long Island; they erroneously became collectively known as the Metoac, a word that has no known Native American origin and means nothing in any indigenous language on Long Island. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that there were two linguistic groups representing two cultural identities on the island, as noted above, not "13 tribes" as asserted by Wood. The Montaukett and Shinnecock nations, two Native American groups with ties to aboriginal inhabitants, still live on the island.

A Native American name for Long Island is Paumanok, meaning "The Island that Pays Tribute". More powerful tribes in the surrounding areas forced the relatively peaceful Long Islanders to give tributes and payment to avoid attacks.