Shinnecock

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more

Shinnecock Tribe

Shinnecock Indians. An Algonquian tribe or band on Long Island, New York, formerly occupying the south coast from Shinnecock Bay to Montauk Point. Many of them joined the Brotherton Indians in New York. About 150 still remain on a reservation of 750 acres, 3 miles west of Southampton, having intermarried with Negroes until their aboriginal character is almost obliterated. Nowedonah, brother of the noted Wyandanch, was once their chief, and on his death his sister, wife of Cockenoe, became his successor. In Dec. 1876, 28 Shinnecock men lost their lives in an attempt to save a ship stranded off Easthampton, … Read more