Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Huntington First Purchase (1653)

A 1653 agreement brought a broad part of Matinecock homeland under an English land claim, from Cold Spring Harbor toward Northport Harbor. Its boundary language and conditions matter as much as the word “purchase.” A colonial land record describes a claim made at a particular time. Read its conditions and the people affected alongside the map; an outlined claim is not proof that Native relationships or rights ended. Raseokan and other Native signatories entered an agreement with Richard Holbrook, Robert Williams and Daniel Whitehead. The surviving transcription names Nachaquatacke and Opeatkontycke, the northern sea and the southern extent of Raseokan’s bounds. It required the bounds to be shown within twenty days and provided that the writing would be void if they did not meet the stated expectation. Those conditions show why a deed must be read rather than treated as a simple...