Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Native American Greenway at Lister Park

A public marker beside the Mill River introduces Native histories of fishing, seasonal movement, and colonial displacement in the Rockville Centre landscape. A familiar riverside park can also be a place to learn whose histories shaped the landscape. The sign provides a concrete starting point for reading the Mill River alongside Native communities and colonial displacement. The Native American Greenway marker stands near the Riverside Road entrance to Lister Park, on the Mill River Green Way Trail. Its account names Merikoke, Rockaway, Canarsie, and Massapequa people in the river basin. 1 Reading the Greenway Panel The panel describes seasonal homes, tidal fish traps, gathered foods, hunting, and the making of tools and pottery. Its closing passage turns to colonial land transfers and displacement: 1 “The tribes were driven to remote islands and marshes in Rockaway Bay and their lives...