Metoac
The Metoac or Montauk were Algonquin- speaking Indians who lived on Long Island east of today's New York City at the beginning of the 17th century and formed a confederation of a number of individual tribes.
Settlement area and name
The Metoac lived on an island almost 200 kilometers in length with no significant elevations, which in the 17th century was covered by dense, wild forests and surrounded by sandy beaches. Apparently they didn't have a name. It is believed that Metoac is called the island people . Other tribes called them Sevanakie , which means saltwater people . The Metoac are often called Montauk, after the largest tribe in the Confederation, the Montaukett . There was also evidence of the forms Mirrachtauhacky , a Dutch name derived from the Hudson-Munsee, and Munnawtawkit, probably the Narragansett name for Montauk.
language
The Metaoc spoke two different dialects of Eastern Algonquin. The language of the Montauk and Shinnecock in eastern Long Island was closely related to idioms of the Pequot , Mohegan , Narraganset and Niantic on the neighboring mainland, while the Metoac tribes in the central and western parts of the island spoke a dialect similar to that of the Wappinger and Mattabesic on the east side of the lower Hudson River was comparable.
Groups of Metoac
| tribe | Settlement area |
|---|---|
| Canar lake | western Long Island, present-day Brooklyn |
| Corchaug | northeastern tip of Long Island |
| Manhanset | northeast Long Island, on Shelter Island |
| Manhattan | Manhattan Island , today's New York City |
| Massapequa | southwest Long Island on South Oyster Bay |
| Matinecock | northwest Long Island |
| Merrick | Southwest coast, today's district of Merrick |
| Montaukett , Montauk | southeast end of Long Island |
| Nesquake | North coast in central Long Island, today's district of Smithtown |
| Patchogue | South coast in central Long Island, today's Patchogue district |
| Rockaway | Peninsula on the southwest coast, today's district of Queens |
| Secatoag | South coast in central Long Island |
| Setauket | North coast in central Long Island, today's district of Setauket |
| Shinnecock | Southeast coast, western neighbors of the Montaukett |
| Unquachog , poosepatuck | South coast in central Long Island |
However, it must be noted that the tribes of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) , Wappinger , Mahican , Mattabesic and the Metoac, as already mentioned, all belonged to the Eastern Algonquin and could therefore hardly be distinguished from outsiders culturally and linguistically.
Some historians include the Manhattan , Nochpeem , Kichtawank , Rechgawawanc , Sintsink , Wechquaesgeek and Wappinger among the Munsee (the so-called Northern Delaware , a dialect group of the Lenni Lenape), the Hammonasset , Massaco , Menunkatuck , Paugussett , Podunk , Poquonock , Quinnipiiac (also Quiripi) ) , Sicaog and Tunxis are often counted among the Mattabesic .
The Manhattan are also sometimes counted among the Wappingern, while the Paugussett and Mattabesic are often viewed as separate tribes or tribal groups. The Canar Sea , Massapequa , Matinecock and Rockaway, on the other hand, are sometimes included in the Munsee or Western Metoac.
population
At the beginning of the 17th century, the total number of indigenous people on Long Island was believed to be more than 10,000. But the effects of frequent wars, devastating European epidemics, and emigration in the years that followed were so dramatic that by 1659 there were only 5% of that number, or about 500 Metoacs on Long Island. 1788 its population had even been reduced to 162 and the census of 1910 showed 167 Shinnecock, 29 Montaukett and a Unquachog.
Culture
The tribes on Long Island were not only very similar in their way of life, but also culturally comparable to the tribes on the south coast of New England. However, there is no consensus among anthropologists regarding their classification. The Metoac were an arable people who supplemented their vegetable diet with hunting and fishing. Although they lived in villages, there were regular seasonal moves to the main food sources in the forest, in the fields and in the water. The villages were mostly small and barely fortified until after 1630 the situation changed and they were exposed to constant threats from other tribes. Although they were at times linked in loose confederations, the lack of strong central leadership indicates that there were hardly any intertribal conflicts prior to contact with Europeans. The most important cultural feature that distinguished the Metoac from other tribes was their leading role in the wampum trade between the indigenous peoples.
The north coast of Long Islands was the location for the best wampum raw material in the entire American Northeast. Every summer the Metoac collected innumerable shells on the beach, which were carefully worked into small pearls in winter. These were strung into long chains and called wampompeag , a term that the English later shortened to the well-known word wampum , while the Dutch called it Sewan . From the Metoac, the wampum first came to the neighboring Mahican and was passed on from tribe to tribe until it even reached the tribes in the Black Hills in South Dakota far to the west. The strands of shell pearls eventually became an important means of payment in the trade of the indigenous people of North America, but they were also valued as personal jewelry. With patterns from the different colored pearls information could be represented, so that Wampum reminded of important events in diplomacy and sealed agreements or treaties to a certain extent.
Wampple beads could be white or dark, the dark ones varying from deep red to black. The value of dark wampum was generally about twice that of light. The white ones were mostly made from the 12 to 15 cm long snail mussel of the genus Venus buccinum . The darker ones were made from the case of the Venus mercenaria . They were lined up on animal tendons or cords, which were then processed into a hand-wide mesh, the so-called wampum belt. The shells from which wampum was made were found on both sides of Long Island Sound , so the Metoac never had the sole monopoly of wampum production. Other tribes, such as the Lenni Lenape , Mattabesic, Niantic, Pequot and Narraganset, were also involved in the production, but the one made on the north coast of the Long Islands was considered the best and most valuable wampum. Tied together and measured in thread , wampum was also temporarily recognized as a means of payment in the trade between Indians and whites and thus resulted in a considerable increase in value.
history
Due to their relatively isolated residential area on Long Island, the Metoac remained undisturbed for a long time by the armed conflicts between the tribes on the mainland in the north. Most of their villages were unfortified, indicating that they were not exposed to any serious threats, although neighbors were certain to be the envied of their vigorous wampum trade. After the contact with Europeans, however, there were dramatic changes, above all because of the devastating epidemics between 1614 and 1619, which the islanders did not spare either.
The fur trade
In September 1609, Hudson, in the service of the Dutch United East India Company , advanced into the Bay of New York in search of a shortened sea route to East Asia and used the following month to explore the Hudson (as far as the area of the present-day city of Albany , about 150 miles north of today's city of New York ). As is well known, he did not find the shortened sea route to Asia, but returned to Europe with a load of furs. The Dutch merchants recognized the value of the new commodity and in the following year the next Dutch ship went up the Hudson River to exchange European goods for furs with the Mahican. The Metoac were initially excluded from the fur trade, as there were no beavers and correspondingly valuable fur bearers in their residential area. But they had something else of value to offer, namely wampum.
Wampum as a means of payment
The Europeans soon recognized the value of wampum as a substitute for money. When wampum began to be accepted as a means of payment for commodities, its value rose dramatically and became official currency in New England in 1637. The tribes in eastern Connecticut, the Pequot and West Niantic, had no beaver skins , but they could make wampum, but not nearly enough to meet their needs for European goods. The Pequot had a solution to the problem. They got into their canoes, drove across Long Island Sound, and raided some Metoac villages. A little later they had subjugated the tribes on the north coast of Long Islands and forced them to pay them tribute in the form of wampum. The growing demand for wampum and its increase in value forced the Metoac to give up their seasonal migrations and to concentrate almost entirely on the collection and manufacture of the shell pearls. Every year they had to deliver canoe loads from Wampum across the Sound as a tribute to the Pequot. The English came up with the idea of making wampum themselves by using steel drills to perforate the shell pearls, thereby significantly speeding up production. However, the Indians in the region preferred the hand-made, more uneven variant from their own production.
The Pequot War and its Consequences
In 1636 the English colonists in Connecticut and the Pequot started the Pequot War , in the course of which the Pequot were almost destroyed. The Metoac were nominally the Pequot's allies, but they largely managed to stay out of this conflict. After the English and their allies destroyed the Pequot Fort on the Mystic River , which killed 500 residents, the remaining Pequot left their villages and fled. Hunted by English colonists, Narraganset and Mohegan warriors, many of the fleeing groups sought refuge with the Metoac on Long Island. They feared the revenge of the English and had little desire to protect their former oppressors. For example, the Montauk drove to Fort Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River and sought refuge with the English themselves. Other Long Island tribes proved their loyalty to the English colonists by killing escaped Pequot and sending their heads to Fort Saybrook. In 1638 a peace treaty was signed in Hartford and some Pequot, who had surrendered early, were allowed to settle on Long Island under the supervision of the Metoac. In return, the Montauk had to pay an annual tribute in the form of wampum to the English governor of New Haven .
Manhattan and Brooklyn
Because so few Dutch colonists settled on the western end of the island, around 1640 an English group was allowed to settle on Dutch soil near Hamstead . Although trade with the Dutch began shortly after 1610, the first planned Dutch settlement did not take place until 1625, after Peter Minuit had bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians of the same name for 60 Dutch guilders . They built a fort and a small town to supply it on the southern tip of Manhattan, which was called Nieuw Amsterdam (German: New Amsterdam).
In 1635 the first Dutch settlement was founded on Long Island, called Nieuw Amersfoort . In the course of time the name changed to Breuckelen, today's Brooklyn . Until 1639 there were so few Dutch on Manhattan that the Indians could still live on the northern part of the island. In the same year the Dutch West India Company gave up its fur trade monopoly and every Dutch colonist was allowed to take part in the trade. This new incentive caused Dutch immigration to Nieuw Nederland to skyrocket. A short time later, their settlements were scattered over the entire area, more and more Indian land was needed and tensions arose with the neighboring tribes.
The Wappinger War
Tensions heightened when the Narraganset sachem Miontonimo , accompanied by 100 warriors, visited the Metoac villages in the summer to win allies for a war against the Mohegan. But Governor Kieft misinterpreted Miontonimo's intentions and believed that a general Indian revolt against the Dutch and English colonists was being organized. He therefore ordered a surprise attack on several Wecquaesgeek villages that belonged to the Wappinger Alliance. This action later became known as the Pavonia massacre . On February 25, 1643, Dutch soldiers under Maryn Adriaensen attacked a peaceful Wecquaesgeek village on Corlear's Hook near the settlement of Pavonia near present-day Jersey City . The Dutch killed 110 Indians, including women and children, beheaded them, and reportedly played soccer with their heads. This massacre led to the outbreak of the Wappinger War (1643–1645), also known as Kieft's War . Supported by Hackensack and Tappan warriors, the surviving Wecquaesgeek took revenge by raiding remote Dutch farms and settlements. Most of the Dutch colonists now fled to Fort Amsterdam, where Willem Kieft was preparing for a lengthy siege. He therefore sent out troops to fetch maize from the Metoac by force. Three Canars were killed and the war now also reached the tribes on western Long Island. Eventually twenty tribes united in the Wappinger Confederation to fight the Dutch:
- Tribes from New Jersey: Hackensack, Haverstraw, Munsee, Navasink, Raritan and Tappan (Munsee der Lenni Lenape)
- Tribes east of the Hudson River: Wecquaesgeek, Sintsink, Kitchawank, Nochpeem, Siwanoy, Tankiteke and Wappinger
- Long Island tribes: Lake Canar, Manhattan, Rockaway, Matinecock, Massapequa, Secatoag, and Merrick.
Historically and linguistically, however, all of the above-mentioned tribes are often from New Jersey, east of the Hudson River (exception perhaps: Siwanoy and Tankiteke) and on Long Island (exception: Matinecock, Massapequa, Secatoag and Merrick - probably not Munsee - but Quiripi-Unquachog -Speaker) and Wappinger counted among the Munsee , a tribal and dialect group of the Lenni Lenape .
The situation could still have been saved, because in the spring of 1643 the council chairman David de Vries was able to persuade 18 Metoac sachems to come to a meeting with Willem Kieft. The Metoac agreed to a truce and sent messengers to Hackensack and Tappan to do the same. The Wappingers, however, disagreed and the war resumed in the fall. Kieft saw the danger that the war could spread to other tribes, so he traveled to Fort Orange near what is now Albany to sign a trade and friendship treaty with the Mohawk and Mahican. Although neither of these tribes entered the war on the side of the Dutch, the announcement of the treaty was enough to prevent other tribes from entering. Nevertheless, the situation for the Dutch was critical. Willem Kieft therefore offered the English colonists in Connecticut 25,000 guilders to put down the uprising. Captain John Underhill then intervened with two companies, consisting of 120 volunteers and Mohegan scouts , at the beginning of 1644 in the fighting.
The combined Dutch and British forces moved to Long Island to devastate villages of the Raritan, Canar Sea, Merrick and Massapequa on the western island. Further attacks were made against Wappinger villages on the north coast of Long Island Sound. Although little is known about it today, the Wappinger War was one of the bloodiest and cruelest wars of extermination against the Indians. Together with their allies, the Wappingers had more than 1,600 tribesmen killed. They finally signed a peace treaty in Fort Orange in August 1644. The Wappinger and western Metoac became tributaries to the Mahican and made an enormous annual payment to the Mahican in the form of wampum. The Mahican had no losses of their own and the Treaty of Fort Orange enabled them to control the wampum trade in western Long Islands. The Metoac, for their part, had been nearly decimated in this conflict. To heighten the humiliation, the Mahican did not collect the due tribute themselves, but instead sent the Wappinger to the Metoac as their collectors. The lack of payments resulted in raids by the Wappingers on Metoac villages without the Dutch intervening.
Dutch and English
More and more Dutch and also English settled on Long Island, and soon they had to agree on the distribution of the land. In a treaty signed at Hartford in 1650, the Metoac land was divided between Dutch and English colonists. The Dutch received the western half with the tribes living there, while the English were given the eastern half.
The good understanding between Holland and England ended abruptly with the beginning of the First Anglo-Dutch Sea War (1652-1654). Meanwhile, the Metoac began to migrate from western Long Island to avoid the Wappinger and Mahican demands for wampum. Some groups left the island for good, moving across the Hudson River first to Staten Island and then into inland New Jersey, where they were absorbed by the Unami and Munsee-Lenape. Most of these were Rockaway, later found in the Ramapo Mountains in northeastern New Jersey. Other western Metoac migrated east to the Long Islands in England, where they were little welcomed. In 1653 the Narraganset and eastern Niantic crossed the Sound and subjugated the Montauk.
After 1645, Dutch immigration to Nieuw Nederland grew by leaps and bounds, reaching almost 10,000 colonists by 1660. Taking into account the illegal brandy trade in New Amsterdam, the whole situation was not conducive to lasting peace.
The end of Nieuw Nederland
Without a declaration of war, a British expeditionary force with four ships under the command of Richard Nichols sailed into the port of New Amsterdam on August 29, 1664. On August 30, the English called on Peter Stuyvesant to surrender . All Dutch who would recognize the rule of the English crown were promised life, land and freedom. Stuyvesant was actually willing to defend the colony, but found no support from the population and was forced to sign the surrender agreement. The commander of the English fleet was appointed by the city council to the governor and the city received in honor of the future king, the Duke of York , the new name New York . The former colony of Nieuw Nederland was divided and the English colonies of New York and New Jersey emerged. The Treaty of Breda in 1667 confirmed the takeover; the Netherlands received Suriname in return . Except for a brief episode in 1673, in which the Dutch retook New York, the Dutch colonial rule in North America was over.
18th to 20th century
By 1664, most of the tribes in western Long Island had left their villages and moved to the west bank of the Hudson River. But they soon drove the sprawling English settlements further west. The Metoac that remained on Long Island moved east and concentrated on the east end of the island near the English villages. By 1666 there were only 500 Metoac left there and they were asked to move to a reservation that the English had set up on the island that same year. The Poosepatuck Reservation was recognized by New York State after more than 300 years. The remaining Metoac land quickly passed into the hands of white colonists until it was less than 4,000 acres (16.188 km²) in 1703 . Their population continued to decline, mainly caused by disease and alcohol abuse, and by 1788 there were only 162 Metoacs left on the entire island.
In the 18th century, many of Metoac left Long Island to join Samson Occom , a preacher in the New Christian Indian Town of Brothertown , New York State. The Brothertown Indians left New York in 1833 and moved to northern Wisconsin , where a large number of their descendants now live on the east side of Lake Winnebago .
In 1791 only three old women were found speaking Unquachog, and in 1798 there were only seven people left who could speak Montauk. In 1829 there were 30 Montauk left, and the last hereditary chief David Pharaoh died in 1875. By the end of the 19th century there were around 150 Shinnecock and 10 families of Poosepatuck, whose last sachem, Elizabeth Joe, had died in 1832.
The whaling , the main source of income on Long Iceland, has been commercialized to the 1650th The whalers were mostly local Native American men, but by 1672 Native American auxiliaries were even brought in from southern New England. Whaling was an integral part of the Long Island Indian economy, and most of the men of working age were involved in these and other seafaring endeavors. The Shinnecock lifeboat crews were well known in the 19th century, particularly through an event on December 31, 1876, when most of the Shinnecock males had set out to retrieve the cargo from the Circassian, a ship stranded off Long Island in a winter storm . 28 Shinnecock members died in this operation.
Todays situation
Today there are two reservations on Long Island: the Shinnecock reservation with around 400 residents and the Poospatuck reservation with 200 Unquachog members. In addition, around 1,500 Metoac live in the immediate vicinity of the reservations. In the 1930s, New York State tried to close the reservations. The project failed, because both the Shinnecock and the Unquachog had state recognition (ger .: State recognition ), which they had already been granted in the colonial period. Still, they denied the government in Washington to this day the federal recognition (ger .: Federal recognition ), as both tribes have never signed a contract with the government.
The Shinnecock Reservation is located in the southeast of the island near the city of Southampton , has a size of 3.4 km² and is inhabited by the Shinnecock Indian Nation . The 2000 US census showed 504 dependents living in 179 households and 119 families. Some of the tribal members have mixed with black people, so their Indian ancestry is questioned. 50.6% of the total population lives below the poverty line. The Shinnecock applied for state recognition back in 1978. They plan to build a casino , but the city of Southampton wants to prevent this. In recent years, the Shinnecock have attracted attention in the United States for sponsoring a major golf tournament that is held annually at the Shinnecock Country Club. A Powwow is held each year on the first weekend in September ( Labor Day ).
The Poospatuck Reservation, established in 1666, is located on the south coast of Long Island between the towns of Mastic and Mastic Beach and is 0.2 km² in size. The 2000 US census showed 271 dependents living in 93 households and 67 families. Here, too, some of the residents have mixed with blacks and 36.6% of the total population lives below the poverty line. On the second weekend in June is annually Feast of Strawberry month (ger .: Feast of the Strawberry Moon ) celebrated.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Vol. 15. Chapter: Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Early Period, page: 160ff.
- ↑ Metoac Subnations
- ^ Carl Waldmann: Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes , ISBN 978-0-8160-6274-4
- ^ Metoac Culture
- ^ Metoac History
- ^ Metoac History
- ^ Metoac History
- ^ Metoac History
- ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Vol. 15. Chapter: Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Late Period, page: 177ff.
- ↑ Shinnecock homepage
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15. Northeast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978 ISBN 0-16-004575-4