Winter

Contents

1 Introduction
2 History
3 Food
4 Housing

Introduction

The Algonquian Indians of Eastern Long Island lived as if they were part of the whole of Nature. Before and during the early contact period, winter changed where villages were situated, preferring more sheltered, inland areas of Long Island. Dwellings may have been enlarged and moved closer together near the common food storage areas.¹

History

Autumn and winter brought singing, dancing, and ceremonies celebrating the harvest and the winter solstice. ²

Food

The primary hunting and trapping season was in the fall and winter when the game was fat and their fur was thick. Smaller game animals such as raccoon, rabbit, and squirrel, were also a regular part of the diet. These smaller animals were caught in snares or trapped. Besides their flesh, raccoons provided grease for cooking and fur for winter clothing. The raccoon grease was also rubbed on the skin for warmth in the winter and to protect against mosquitoes and sunburn in the summer ³. ⁴

In 1670, Daniel Denton reported that “an innumerable multitude of seals, which make an excellent oyle,” were vulnerable during the winter when they “haul out” onto sand bars in the tidal bays to sun themselves. ⁴

Seafood was smoked and dried to prepare for winter. In fall and winter, bay scallops, bluefish, stripers, blackfish, and flounder are plentiful on Long Island. ⁵

Roots were especially important in Winter. Tuber roots can be harvested in the late fall and during winter thaws and were a highly valued source of carbohydrates. The plant could be left in natural storage for the winter months when other food supplies might run low. Some Shinnecock still gather Jerusalem artichokes today. ⁶

Housing

Traditionally, housing and planting plots were prepared by burning off the desired area in late March or early April, a custom which was followed by the Shinnecock and Montaukett into the twentieth century. If any trees blocked the sunlight, the trunks were girdled with an ax. The trees soon became standing supplies of firewood for the next winter.⁷

John Strong, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island from Earliest Times to 1700, pp 84[↩]
The Indians of Long Island, An Exhibition Presented by Suffolk County Historical Society, brochure[↩]
Kraft 1986, pp 129, 157[↩]
John Strong, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island from Earliest Times to 1700, pp 60-62[↩][↩]
John Strong, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island from Earliest Times to 1700, pp 62[↩]
John Strong, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island from Earliest Times to 1700, pp 64[↩]
John Strong’s The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island, 1997, pp 96[↩]