Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Fort Corchaug

Fort Corchaug is a protected archaeological site associated with a small seventeenth-century Corchaug refuge and working place. Earthworks, palisade trenches, shell-working debris, beads, and Native and European objects connect the place to defense, wampum production, and exchange during a period of warfare, epidemics, and colonial land pressure. Shell debris, abrading stones, and finished beads show that this refuge was also a working place, while imported goods and defensive earthworks document a period of exchange and danger. Because colonial records preserve only fragments of Corchaug life, the site's intact archaeology provides evidence that surviving paperwork leaves out. Fort Corchaug is one place within a continuing community history, not proof of disappearance or control over regional trade. Fort Corchaug preserves a small fortified place used by Corchaug people during the first...