Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Missi Kesukut

Shinnecock advocates worked for decades to protect an archaeologically sensitive area in Water Mill from development. Their efforts shaped excavation safeguards, care for ancestral remains, and a later public preservation effort while keeping the exact sensitive location off the public map. Shinnecock intervention changed how Southampton Town handled archaeology, ancestral remains, and development in Water Mill. The history demonstrates that preservation depends on Native authority and sustained community advocacy, not only on what construction or excavation happens to uncover. Archaeological reviews in 1989 and 1990 identified Native materials in a proposed Water Mill subdivision. In April 1991, the Shinnecock Nation Archaeological Advisory Committee asked Southampton Town to require Shinnecock participation throughout the next stage of work, restrict unauthorized photography and...