More than 10,000 years before the first Europeans set foot on the coastlines of New York, there were thriving societies working the land and building political confederacies. These native peoples had a massive role in making Long Island what it is today and building it into what it will become tomorrow.
It’s difficult to say with certainty exactly how many native peoples called Long Island home. Many came and went during the thousands of years before Europeans crossed the Atlantic.
The Thirteen Tribes
Ultimately unable to understand the dynamics of the people they met, the first Europeans attempted to document the Long Island peoples and associated them with thirteen tribes: the Canarsies, Rockaways, Merricks, Massapequas, Matinecocks, Nissaquogues, Setaukets, Corchaugs, Secatogues, Unkechaugs, Shinnecock, Montaukett, and Manhansets
The language barrier and cultural differences resulted in many miscommunications, including mistaking land or area names for the names of peoples themselves.
Furthermore, The Europeans recording these initial encounters would guess at words and spell them phonetically, often recording the same name differently depending on the day.
Long Island Origins and the Merricks
The people of Long Island generally spoke Algonquian dialects. Algonquian is more than a group of languages, it’s a sophisticated culture with links that stretch up and down the East Coast into Canada.
The Matinecocks and Massapequa tribes referred to Long Island as Paumanok, the ‘land of tribute’. The Algonquians called it Sewanhacky, Seawanhaka, or Munnawhatteaug. The Shinnecocks used the term Paggank. The Nissequoque called it Nampanset.
The Merrick peoples lived on the south shore, east of the Rockaways. Their stewardship extended inland as far as the bounds of Oyster Bay, across the Hempstead Plains, into Mineola and Westbury. Merrick means plains country.
A Legend and a Dream
Once upon a time, a Merrick woman took her baby on her back and a bundle of rushes under her arm and started off to walk across the Hempstead Plains to Westbury to see if she could find someone who wanted to have a new seat made for a chair. In exchange for this work, she hoped she might get some meat for her husband who was sick.
The day was warm and the Merrick woman grew so tired that at last she sat down among the tall grasses to rest.
Then she had a dream.
A gate opened and she was in a garden, the most lovely garden she had ever seen. There were many people in the garden planting and working with their hands deep in the earth.
The trees above her head were loaded with fruit and when she held up her hands, fruit dropped into them that tasted for goodness and sweetness sweeter than honey. The fruit made the Merrick woman young and strong again.
When she awoke, the baby was still asleep on her back and she picked up her bundle of rushes and walked on across the Plains with light free feet.
Every home welcomed the Merrick woman that day and wanted her work and she received meat in plenty for her husband and returned home rejoicing.
Sources:
“The History of Early Indian Tribes: Long Island, New York,” Parker | Waichman, LLP, content approved by Jerry Parker.
“Indian Life on Long Island: Family, Work, Play, Legends, Heroes,” by Jacqueline Overton, illustrated by Thomas F. Spry.