Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Hempstead Village Hall: Native Land Agreement Mural

A twentieth-century mural of the 1643 land agreement raises questions about how Hempstead remembers Native people and colonial settlement. Public art shapes which histories people encounter in everyday civic life. This mural invites a closer look at how Native people are represented, what a land agreement meant, and whose voices belong in the story. Robert Gaston Herbert’s twentieth-century mural in Hempstead Village Hall depicts the 1643 land agreement between Native representatives and English settlers. For generations, this commemorative scene formed the backdrop to village government. 1 In April 2023, local reporting described the mural being concealed by a backdrop for televised village meetings. Archivist Regina G. Feeney urged that the artwork remain visible as an opportunity to learn about Long Island’s Indigenous roots. 1 The dispute concerns how public buildings display and...