Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Sexton Island: Native Coastal Homeland, Colonial Claims and Municipal Leases

Sexton Island is part of a living Native coastal homeland. Colonial patents, a national seashore boundary and municipal leases record different claims to control; none by itself establishes when Native rights to this island were surrendered. A government grant, park boundary and lease are not interchangeable. Their differences help explain how control of a Native coastal homeland became organized through colonial and municipal property systems without implying that Native people disappeared. A small island in a connected Native coast Sexton Island lies in Great South Bay, west of West Fire Island and north of the ocean barrier. The island and its surrounding waters belong to a connected coastal landscape; the outline here marks the modern island, not an ancient property boundary. Fire Island Draft General Management Plan / Environmental Impact Statement: Map 3-C, Transportation Native...