Metoac is an erroneous term used by some to group together the

Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...

-speaking

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

(west),

Quiripi Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of Gold Coast (Connecticut), southwestern Connecticut and ...

-speaking

Unquachog Quiripi (pronounced , also known as Mattabesic, Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island,Rudes (1997:1)Goddard (197 ...

(center) and Pequot-speaking

Montaukett = Montauketts = An indigenous Native American People. Name and Identifications The Montaukett (" Metoac" or Matouwac), currently more commonly known as Montauk. The meaning of the name ''Montauk'' is unknown. Native Americans living on Long ...

(east) American Indians on what is now

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

state. The termMetoac History by Lee Sultzman
/ref> was invented by amateur

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...

and U.S. Congressman

Silas Wood Silas Wood (September 14, 1769 – March 2, 1847) was a U.S. Representative from New York. Born in West Hills on Long Island in the Province of New York, Wood pursued classical studies. He graduated from Princeton College in 1789 and during ...

in the mistaken belief that the various native settlements on the island each comprised distinct tribes. Instead, Indian peoples on Long Island are descended from two major language and cultural groups of the many

Algonquian peoples The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...

who occupied Atlantic coastal areas from present-day Canada through the American South. The bands on Long Island in the west were related to the

. Those to the east were more related culturally and linguistically to tribes of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

across Long Island Sound, such as the

Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or t ...

. Wood (and earlier colonial settlers) often confused Indian ''place'' names, by which the bands were known, as the names for different ''tribes'' living there. Many of the place names that the Lenape and Pequot populations assigned to their villages and communities were adopted by English settlers and are still in use today. The

Shinnecock Indian Nation The Shinnecock Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe of historically Algonquian peoples, Algonquian-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans based at the eastern end of Long Island, New York. This tribe is headqua ...

, based in part of what is now

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...

in Suffolk County, has gained federal recognition as a tribe and has a reservation there.

Etymology

"Metoac" as a collective term may have been derived by Wood from ''metau-hok'', the Algonquian word for the

rough periwinkle ''Littorina saxatilis'', common name the rough periwinkle, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles. First identified in the 1700s, it has been misidentified as a new s ...

, the shell of which small sea snail was used to make

wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...

, a means of exchange which played an important role in the economy of the region before and after the arrival of Europeans.

Languages

The Native American population on Long Island has been estimated at 10,000 at the time of first contact. They belonged to two major nations and spoke two languages within the Algonquian language group, reflecting their different connections to mainland peoples. Native Americans in the west and in the central part of Long Island were more closely associated with bands of the same people in southwestern Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, Lower Hudson Valley in New York, New Jersey and Delaware. These people spoke one of the R-dialects of the Lenape language group. Those Native Americans who lived on the east end of the island were more closely related to the Pequot of eastern Connecticut and the other Algonquian language group located around Long Island Sound. They spoke a Y-dialect of the

Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language Mohegan-Pequot (also known as Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk, Secatogue, and Shinnecock-Poosepatuck; dialects in New England included Mohegan, Pequot, and Niantic; and on Long Island, Montaukett and Shinnecock) is an Algonquian language formerly spok ...

. The tribes were highly decentralized and bands operated independently, establishing territory in different geographic areas.

European colonization

European colonization of the region began in the 1620s, with Dutch colonists congregating around the lower Hudson and western Long Island. The Dutch attempted to establish jurisdiction from

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

over the western portion of Long Island (including what are now the New York City boroughs of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

). The eastern part of Long Island was colonized by English settlers of the

New England Confederation The United Colonies of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation, was a confederal alliance of the New England colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook (Connecticut), and New Haven formed in May 1643. Its primary pur ...

. Settlers from southern New England began to migrate to Long Island's north shore in the early eighteenth century. Indigenous populations declined significantly within a few decades of European contact, due to new

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

s to which they had no acquired immunity. This separation between zones of Dutch and English influence was formalized in their Treaty of Hartford in 1650, which set a border running south from Oyster Bay. The Native Americans on Long Island played an important role in the trade economy; they fashioned shells harvested there into small beads to create

sewant Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western No ...

, or

(''wampompeag'' in Lenape- a term later shortened by the English). These were used to decorate ceremonial wear and were the most highly prized.

Displacement

The

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narraga ...

(1634–1638) in southern New England and

Kieft's War Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New Ne ...

(1643–1645) in the New York metropolitan area were two major conflicts between the indigenous peoples and the colonists. Exposure to new

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

, such as

measles Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...

and

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

, dramatically reduced the numbers of Native Americans on Long Island. In addition, some Native American settlements on Long Island migrated away under pressure from European encroachment. By 1659, their population was reduced to less than 500. After the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, their numbers were reduced to 162 people by 1788. By this time,

Samson Occom Samson Occom (1723 – July 14, 1792; also misspelled as Occum and Alcom) was a member of the Mohegan nation, from near New London, Connecticut, who became a Presbyterian cleric. Occom was the second Native American to publish his writings in E ...

had persuaded many survivors to join the

Brothertown Indians The Brothertown Indians (also ''Brotherton''), located in Wisconsin, are a Native American tribe formed in the late 18th century from communities of so-called " praying Indians" (or Moravian Indians), descended from Christianized Pequot, Nar ...

in western upstate New York, where the

Oneida people The Oneida people ( autonym: Onʌyoteˀa·ká·, Onyota'a:ka, ''the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone'', ''Thwahrù·nęʼ'' in Tuscarora) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band. They are one of the five founding ...

of the

Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

shared their reservation for several years.

Exonyms

For generations, colonists mistakenly used the place names as

exonyms An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

for peoples, thinking they referred to distinct tribes. Among the many locations on Long Island used by the native peoples, 19th-century American publications erroneously identified the following thirteen as "tribes" on Long Island: Metoac was a term erroneously used by amateur

and U.S. Congressman

to describe

and Pequot Native Americans on

state, in the belief that the various bands on the island comprised distinct tribes. He published a book in the 19th century which mistakenly claimed that several American Indian tribes were distinct to Long Island. He collectively called them the Metoac. Scholars now understand that these historic peoples were part of two major cultural groups: the

and the

Wappinger The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...

Wangunk The Wangunk or Wongunk were an Indigenous people from central Connecticut. They had three major settlements in the areas of the present-day towns of Portland, Middletown, and Wethersfield. They also used lands in other parts of what were later or ...

Quinnipiac Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.'' Ojibwe: '' Anishinaabeg'' and Blackfoot: ''Niitsítapi''), a Quiripi-speaking Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the ''Wamp ...

peoples, both part of the

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...

family.

State and federal recognition

New York State has officially recognized the self-identified Shinnecock and the Unkechaug on Long Island as Native American tribes. The Shinnecock are based at

Shinnecock Reservation Shinnecock Reservation is a Native American reservation for members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is the furthermost east of the two Native American reservations in Suff ...

near

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on the South Shore. The Unkechaug's Poospatuck Reservation at

Mastic Mastic may refer to: Adhesives and pastes *Mastic (plant resin) *Mastic asphalt, or asphalt, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid * Mastic cold porcelain, or salt ceramic, is a traditional salt-based modeling clay. *Mastic, high-grade con ...

is the smallest Indian reservation in the state. Since the mid-20th century, the Montaukett, Setalcott, and Matinnecock peoples have organized and established governments. All are seeking both state and federal recognition. At the end of 2009, the administration of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

announced the

had met federal criteria as a tribe. The Shinnecock were officially 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.Darling, Nedra
"Skibine Issues a Final Determination to Acknowledge the Shinnecock Indian Nation of Long Island, NY.
''Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs.'' 15 June 2010 (retrieved 12 July 2010)

References

External links

{{authority control Suffolk County, New York Nassau County, New York Native American tribes in New York (state) Algonquian peoples Algonquian ethnonyms People of New Netherland