Kinship Ties That Were Never Broken

The “erasure” of connection between peoples and lands began in the 1600s with the arrival of Dutch settlers. Dutch administrator Cornelis van Tienhoven wrote in 1650 about the Matinecock living in and around what is now Oyster Bay: “This tribe is not strong, and consists of about thirty families. In and about this bay there were formerly great numbers of Indian plantations, which now lie waste and vacant" (from Tooker 1962:115-6). Indigenous peoples of Sewanhaky never left their homelands. Today the annual Shinnecock Pow Wow (since 1967) continues to be one of the largest gatherings on the east coast, bringing together Indigenous people from all over Sewanhaky and Turtle Island. 

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Jeremy Dennis. Pequot Powwow, 2015. Courtesy, Jeremy Dennis. 

Kinship
Ties Never Broken