Massapequa
The Massapequa were one of 14 Algonquin- speaking Indian tribes on Long Island in the US state of New York and lived in the southwestern part of Long Island in what is now New York City at the beginning of the 17th century . Their identity is considered extinct, as the last survivors moved to neighboring tribes in the 18th century and mixed with them.
Residential area and name
Their residential area extended on the southwest coast of Long Island, roughly where the districts of Massapequa and Massapequa Park are located on South Oyster Bay today . The flat land, formerly made of grass, cut by two rivers and covered with a multitude of ponds, was called The Meadows by the early settlers and was founded by Massapequa- Sachem Tackapousha and his younger brother Chopeyconnaws in 1658 sold to English settlers. The deed can be viewed today at Oyster Bay City Hall . According to the document, the purchase price consisted of four kettles, two rifles, three coats, two gallons of brandy, two swords, four pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, eight pounds of gunpowder and eight pounds of bullets.
Massapequa was also the name of the main village of the tribe of the same name and is the English version of the Algonquin name Marsapeague , which means large waterland , a reference to the abundant fresh water. Other English spellings of the name are Masepeage and Marsapege, while the tribe was called Marossepinck, Maropinc, Marsepain or Marsepingh by the Dutch.
language
It is still unproven whether the Massapequa were also among the Munsee speakers . On Long Island, it is particularly difficult to distinguish between village names and larger local groups. However, there is a clear linguistic and political division between western and eastern Long Island Indians and there are many archaeological sites on both sides of the island. However, the eastward flow of the population in the 17th century made it difficult to pinpoint the ethnic boundaries of the indigenous people. For example, it is entirely possible that the Massapequa and Matinecock weren't Munsee speakers at all, but spoke Quiripi-Unquachog .
Culture
Although there are no records of the Indians themselves of their customs and habits in the 17th and 18th centuries, accounts have been received from contemporary observers. For example, when Samson Occom , a Mohegan from Connecticut , came to East Hampton to preach Christianity to the Montaukett in the 1760s , he described that children were not given a name until they had survived early childhood. There was a naming ceremony where people danced, celebrated and exchanged gifts. There were two ways of proclaiming the name: either family members would shout the name three times when they received the gifts or ask some elderly people to repeat the name. The child's name could change several times in the course of his life. It was common practice for someone to be given a new name because of a special dream or unusual personal experience and ability.
The children learned gender-related tasks and behavior through imitation and guidance. They treated old people and their parents with respect; on the other hand, children were very welcome and received a lot of care and love. There were rites and ceremonies when teenagers hit puberty . Boys were sent alone into the forest to hunt and face challenges. When girls menstruated for the first time , they would retire to a special hut until after the second event. During this time they put a blanket over their heads and avoided touching their hair, which had previously been cut short. They were not allowed to touch food or vessels, ate with a stick, and drank out of hand. Similar practices followed the later menstruation.
The wedding was a special event for the Massapequa. The father of a young man sent gifts in the form of wampum and venison to the parents of the prospective bride . If they accepted the future son-in-law, they accepted the gifts. After about a year of engagement, a large wedding celebration was organized by both families for relatives and friends. When adults got married, the wedding was only celebrated in small groups. Sometimes you forego a ceremony entirely when the two partners decided to live together. In this case, the woman came into the man's wigwam and they had a meal together. The marriage was by no means forever, and Samuel Occom reported frequent divorces.
Excavations in Native American cemeteries on Long Island reveal burial rites. In some cases grave goods were found , such as personal items of the deceased, killed dogs, copper bowls, glass beads and pipes. The dog should lead the dead into the next life.
There were also many rites to cure diseases. A herbalist in the village had the job of making herbs from various plants. There were medicines for almost all ailments and sweat lodges had a particularly important role in curing illnesses. The sweat lodges consisted of a frame of poles tied together at the top, which was covered with grass and clay. The function of the clay was to store the heat in the interior, which was generated by heated stones in the middle. Water was poured onto the hot stones and the effect was enhanced by eating certain plants.
There were many rituals that revolved around astronomy and astrology . The natives of the western Long Islands were excellent observers of the starry sky because they believed that stars were living things. The constellation of the stars in the different seasons provided important clues for the harvest. The phases of the moon were also closely observed and signals came from special sky observers of the tribe as to when to start hunting, fishing, sowing and harvesting.
An unsolved mystery to historians are the engraved stone tablets discovered by archaeologists and found at various archaeological sites in Long Islands. A plaque tracked down at Glen Cove is covered with lines and other markings on either side. Another panel from the East Hampton Library of Long Island collection is made of slate and has notches all around the edges and cross hatching on both sides, as well as a rectangle on one side and a circle on the other.
history
In the summer, the Massapequa used to live near South Oyster Bay and till their fields there. At the beginning of winter they moved further inland and inhabited fortified villages. The Dutch called these settlements forts after their first contact with the Massapequa. There were two main forts designated Fort Neck in the area now known as Harbor Green . One fort was flooded by the waters of the Bay, the other was leveled by construction workers when Harbor Green was built. Only one Fort of the Massapequa remained as a memory and monument of the Massapequa culture. The remains were rediscovered nearby in the mid-1930s, and archaeologists and historians flocked there to see one of the last of the Native American forts in the original.
This is the area where the only known Native-European skirmish on Long Island took place. Some historians in the previous century doubted the date and location of this event, while others categorically stated that the skirmish did not take place at all. The oldest reports of the battle date from the early 19th century, 150 years after the actual event, which became known as The Battle of Fort Neck and which supposedly took place in 1644.
The Dutch West India Company sent General Director Willem Kieft to Nieuw Nederland in 1639 to maintain order in the colony. In 1643 the Wappinger War broke out between Indians and Dutch colonists. At the end of 1643 the situation for the Dutch became critical. Willem Kieft therefore offered the English colonists in Connecticut 25,000 guilders if they would help him put down the Indian rebellion. Captain John Underhill , jointly responsible for the Mystic massacre in the Pequot War , then set up a mercenary force of 120 volunteers, consisting of Mohegan scouts and Connecticut colonists, and intervened in the fighting at the beginning of 1644.
Willem Kieft, responsible for a number of acts of violence against the indigenous people of Long Islands, restricted the Indians' hunting and fishing rights. In addition, the Massapequa, who had a different understanding of land ownership than the Europeans, were upset about the loss of tribal land and began to destroy the crops of the neighboring colonists and to drive away their cattle and horses. Eventually two or three settlers were killed.
In the summer of 1644, Captain Underhill's troops moved to South Oyster Bay. Alerted, the Massapequa at Fort Neck sent their wives and children to safety on a small island called Squaw Island, awaiting the attack. The fortifications of the fort cannot be compared with those of the European fortresses, but the Indians used more natural features. The fort was on a hill in the flat country and you could see the Massapequa Meadows from there. The Indians had dug trenches about 3 feet (91.5 cm) deep and 6 feet (183 cm) wide around the elevation. Wooden stakes had been driven into the ground and wild hawthorn had been planted in a zigzag formation. It was almost impossible for Indians to overcome these obstacles in a raid, but they were not a problem for John Underhill's troops.
At dawn, Underhill's 120 men stormed the fort and slaughtered about the same number of Massapequa. Underhill wanted to set an example to prevent possible further uprisings by the Indians. His people therefore piled the bodies of the Massapequa warriors on a neighboring hilltop.
This event is believed to be the first and only skirmish that occurred between Native Americans and Long Island Indians. Some Massapequa survived for a few more decades, but their further fate is unknown. In 1935, John Fox and William Claude of Seaford found the skeletons of 24 Indians in a shallow grave near Fort Neck. The find attracted a great deal of attention, and historian Birdsall Jackson stated that these were the remains of the Massapequa killed by Captain Underhill's mercenaries. The Fort Neck site now has a park at the point where Fairford Road and Cedar Shore Drive intersect.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15. Northeast - Chapter: Delaware, pp. 214f. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978 ISBN 0-16-004575-4
- ↑ a b A Time to Live, a Time to Die ( Memento from November 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A Tale of the Massapequa Indians