Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Fire Island: Native Objections and English Estate Claims

Sachem Tobagus challenged Brookhaven’s claim to South Beach. English governors and William “Tangier” Smith used patents and estate law to claim the beach and bay, while Native relationships to this coastal homeland continued. A deed or patent is not automatically evidence of consent. Tobagus’s reported challenge makes Native objection part of Fire Island’s ownership history; living Native relationships keep the story from ending with an English estate. A homeland across beach and bay Fire Island is the long barrier beach between the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island's south-shore bays. These waters connected communities rather than separating them. Unkechaug, Secatogue and Shinnecock people used the beach and surrounding waters for food, seasonal activity and cultural life long before English estates or summer resorts. Those relationships continue. Poospatuck, the Unkechaug community on the...