Shinnecock indians living on Long Island about 1895. (courtesy New York Times).
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, 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.
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. 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.
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[citation needed] 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. By 1741, estimates are that only 400 Native Americans in total survived.
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. 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, 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.
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, 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. www.wikipedia.com
LAMAT
Kin 88: Yellow Planetary Star
I perfect in order to beautify
Producing art
I seal the store of elegance
With the planetary tone of manifestation
I am guided by the power of intelligence
I am a galactic activation portal
Enter me.
Art, or the planet art whole, is the medium of transmission of creative thought, or the holographic projection of an idea or image.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2015-2016.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Svadhistanha Chakra (Kali Plasma)
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