Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Ashawagh

Ashawagh is a Montaukett placename and settlement locality at Hand's Creek, near Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. It as a locality where shell heaps, arrow points, and pottery fragments marked an Indigenous village site. The name is interpreted as a place between, referring to land between the creek branches. Ashawagh preserves a Montaukett placename for a settlement locality at Hand's Creek near Three Mile Harbor, interpreted as a place between or in the middle. That meaning fits a creek-and-harbor landscape where position, water access, fishing, shellfish, and travel all mattered. East Hampton's waterways remain part of continuing Montaukett geography and memory, not only scenic views or modern place names. Recorded forms include Ashshowale, Ashawagk, Ashwagh, Ashawog, Assawog, and Nashaway. The name is interpreted as a place between, referring to land between the forks or branches...