Sunday, September 5, 2010

Bethpage High School Students

The early Native Americans were broken into thirteen communities on Long Island. They all spoke a very similar language and were known as a peaceful people. Never very large in number, their total population was probably never more than 6,500. These various communities seemed to get along pretty well with one another.

  • Canarsies (meaning "at the fenced place") who lived from what is now Brooklyn and Jamaica.
  • Rockaways ("sandy land") - Rockaway Beach to Long Island Sound.
  • Matinecocks ("at the hilly land") - Flushing, Glen Cove, Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington.
  • Massapequas ("great waterland") - Seaford to Islip. They also occupied Bethpage.
  • Merricks ("plains country") - Merrick.
  • Nissaquoges ("clay country") - Nissaquoge to Stony Brook.
  • Secatogs ("black or colored land") - Eastport to Bridgehampton.
  • Setaukets ("land at the mouth of the river") - Stony Bronk to Wading River.
  • Unkechaugs ("land beyond the hill") - Patchogue to Westhampton.
  • Corchaugs ("principal place") from Wading River to Orient Point.
  • Manhassets ("island sheltered by islands") - Shelter Island, Ram Island and Hog Island.
  • Shinnecocks ("at level land") - Westhampton to Easthampton.
  • Montauks ("fortified place") - Easthampton to Montauk Point. Their chief was the grand chief of all the Algonquin's.

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