Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Matinecock Tribal Nation

The Matinecock Nation, an Algonquian people, has been the steward of northwestern Long Island since time immemorial. Their name, meaning “at the hilly land,” reflects an ancestral relationship with a territory extending along the North Shore from Flushing Bay to the Nissequogue River in present-day Smithtown. Long before European contact, Matinecock ancestors lived in extensive villages at Flushing, Port Washington, Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, and Northport, where numerous village sites. The Algonquian name Matinecock, meaning "at the hilly land," identifies the original stewards of a vast, resource-rich territory stretching from modern-day Flushing Bay all the way to the Nissequogue River. Remembering the true scale of this ancestral homeland challenges the historical erasure of Native peoples, ensuring that the deep Indigenous foundation of northwestern Long...