Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Sugar Loaf Hill

Sugar Loaf Hill is tied to Orient-period burial context in the Shinnecock Hills and decades of Shinnecock advocacy for burial protection. Historic maps and later preservation efforts show how burial landscapes have been marked, damaged, contested, and defended. As the only known Orient Period hilltop mortuary on the South Fork, this sacred burial ground was tragically bulldozed for a contemporary residence despite decades of desperate pleas from the Shinnecock Indian Nation. The irreversible destruction of this culturally irreplaceable landscape serves as a stark reminder of the devastating consequences when modern development is prioritized over profound Indigenous heritage. Sugar Loaf Hill marked on 1797 map with Shinnecock Reservation (in shade area) Crop of Map of Southampton in 1797 - New York State Archives -NYSA_A0273-78_348B 1916 The Belcher Hyde map of 1916 is the first to...