Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Sachem's Neck

A Shelter Island placename connected to Native leadership, family movement, and Mashomuck history. The name is connected not to a local Shelter Island sachem, but to Ambusco, described in a 1675 record as a late sachem of Southold who received permission to move with his family to Shelter Island. The place is associated with the broader Mashomuck/Shelter Island Native landscape. Sachem is an adopted English form of an Algonquian title for a chief. Related words in Narragansett, Delaware, Abnaki, and Chippewa carry meanings connected with being a chief. Why Place Names Matter “Place-names – as carriers of history, tradition and emotions, and with their significant symbolic value – have an extremely important part to play.” — Leif Nilsson, Staffan Nyström and Annette C. Torensjö, Good Place-Name Practice (2019), PDF page 49