Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Sachem's Hole

Sachem's Hole, also known as Whooping Boy's Hollow and Buc-usk-kil, marks a resting place remembered in accounts of Poggatacut's funeral procession from Shelter Island toward Montauk. For centuries, Native travelers meticulously cleared leaves and debris from Sachem's Hole to honor the exact spot where Manhasset Sachem Poggatticut's body rested during his 1651 funeral procession. Although the sacred depression was eventually destroyed by highway construction, remembering its location highlights how Indigenous communities mapped their history and reverence directly onto the Long Island landscape. Sachem's Hole is recorded as a locality near the fourth milestone from Sag Harbor on the road toward East Hampton. Later sources also call it Whooping Boy's Hollow and Buc-usk-kil, meaning resting place. The place is associated with Poggatacut, a Manhansett sachem of Shelter Island and brother of...