Secatoag
The Secatoag were one of 14 Algonquin- speaking Indian tribes on Long Island in the US state of New York and lived at the beginning of the 17th century on the Great South Bay on the south coast of the island, about where the city of Sayville in Suffolk County is today . They believed to speak Quiripi-Unquachog, an Algonquian dialect spoken by the tribes of central Long Island and western Connecticut.
Way of life
The residential area extended approximately to the center of the island and was called Winnecomac in the native language, which means friendly land . The flat land had extremely fertile soil, with thick oak forests and rich fish and game stocks.
The Secatoag lived mainly on fish, mussels, game and maize, which was grown by women in forest clearings. In the spring they started planting corn in small mounds by placing 4 grains in each mound and adding fish heads as fertilizer. Squash , beans and the first green corn could be harvested in the middle of summer, but the main harvest did not take place until September. Obviously, these different plants formed an ideal symbiosis : the beans between the maize enriched the soil with nitrogen, which the maize needed, while the strong maize stalks provided the climbing bean vines with the necessary support. The squash that grew on the ground received the necessary shade from the maize in order to ripen. Beans, corn and squash were often eaten together, increasing protein intake . The Indians invented the vegetable dish , which is still known today under the Algonquin name Succotash .
While some guards stayed behind to pull weeds and protect the young plants from birds and wildlife, the majority of the villagers moved to the coast to collect clams and oysters and to catch fish.
In autumn they went back to the villages that lay in the interior of the island under the protection of the dense forests. This is where the harvest surpluses for the winter were stored before they went hunting in small groups before the onset of winter. Deer were the most important game and were either killed by individual hunters or driven into pens specially built for this purpose in collective actions.
The Long Island tribes cultivated peaceful relations with one another, while relations with the powerful tribes on the nearby mainland, the Pequot , Mohican , Narraganset and Wampanoag , were far from friendly. They came in canoes across the Long Island Sound to attack the islanders and to oblige them to pay tribute in the form of wampum . This was for a time the official currency in the colonies and especially the wampum produced on the island enjoyed high esteem among the mainland residents and aroused their desire.
In 1692 the Secatoag sold their land to two white farmers. The identity of the tribe is considered extinct, as the last survivors moved to neighboring tribes in the 18th century and mingled with them.
Modern legend
In Sayville they tell a modern legend (English: Urban legend) in which an Indian princess from the Secatoag tribe plays the main role:
The Princess of Lake Rokonkoma: There is a very, very deep lake on Long Island, Lake Rokonkoma . The children there believe that he is bottomless. Before the whites settled this area, Indians from the Secatoag tribe lived here. There was a princess with the tribe who loved an Indian prince across the river. But she was forbidden to go there. One day the two met and went to Lake Rokonkoma in a canoe to make love in the dark. But the spirits were not well disposed towards them because people from opposite sides of the river should not mate. Her boat sank and with it the bodies of the two lovers - and sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless sea. And so the angry Indian princess kills a loving couple every year and sends their souls into the depths of the lake. In fact, one young couple dies in Sayville every year.
Individual evidence
- ↑ West Islip ... then and now ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Alvin M. Josephy (Ed.) Amerika 1492 - Chapter: Die Waldlandbauern S. 147ff - S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 1992 ISBN 3-10-036712-X
- ^ Mattabesic History - History
- ↑ http://www.oocities.com/timmlimm/princess.htm
