page_title: Long Island
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Long Island / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Tribal territories of Southern New England tribes about 1600
context_page_description: Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, in the northeastern United States. At New York Harbor it is approximately 0.35 miles from Manhattan Island and extends eastward over 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. The island comprises four counties; Kings and Queens counties and Nassau County share the western third of the island, while Suffolk County occupies the eastern two-thirds. More than half of New York City's residents live on Long Island, in Brooklyn and in Queens. However, many people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term Long Island to refer exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and conversely, employ the term the City to mean Manhattan alone.
  Broadly speaking, "Long Island" may refer both to the main island and the surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is Long Island Sound, across which lie Westchester County, New York, and the state of Connecticut. Across the Block Island Sound to the northeast is the state of Rhode Island. To the west, Long Island is separated from the Bronx and the island of Manhattan by the East River.
context_section_description: By the year 1643, there were 13 Indigenous Tribes living on Long Island: Canarsie, Rockaway, Matinecock, Merrick, Massapequa, Nissequoge, Secatoag, Seatauket, Patchoag, Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhasset and Montauk.
  They used canoes as a source of transportation, and since they lived by the shores, they went fishing. The fisherman used bows, arrows, and hooks to catch seafood such as crabs, scallops, and lobster.  The farmers used fish for fertilizer and planted vegetables such as corn, beans, and squash, which were popular among the indigenous people. They were exceptional farmers; they had a great understanding of how the weather and soil affected the crops. Many of them hunted animals, such as deer, raccoon, and turkey in the forest. If they killed an animal, they used all the parts of it, so nothing went to waste.
  The government that they set up was a participatory democracy and there was an alliance between the tribes. Each tribe had their own territory and chief that was respected by other tribes. Prior to European contact, the Lenape people (named the Delaware by Europeans) inhabited the western end of Long Island, and spoke the Munsee dialect of Lenape, one of the Algonquian language family. The Lenape (who were part of the Shinnecock Tribe) practiced record keeping and used wooden tablets, trees, and stones to keep record. They also used wampum belts to write down important messages. They also used their wampum to trade with the Europeans. The Lenape people, in specific, were seen as peacemakers by other indigenous tribes, although they would defend themselves if necessary. The Europeans admired their friendliness and their skills in mediation.
  Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with the Lenapes, after entering what is now New York Bay in 1524. The island's eastern portion was inhabited by speakers of the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language group of Algonquian languages; they were part of the Pequot and Narragansett peoples inhabiting the area that now includes Connecticut and Rhode Island.
  In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor and purportedly landed at Coney Island. Adriaen Block followed in 1615, and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands.
  In 1655, the European settlers purchased land from the Indigenous people. They split the land amongst themselves and continued to search the island for more land for settlement. Other parts of indigenous land were bought, areas that are now known as Brookhaven, Bellport, and South haven. These purchases occurred on June 10, 1664, the exchange was four coats and what is now $16.25. The indigenous people did not fully understand that the European claimed ownership of the land. They thought that the exchange was made for them to share the land.
  The white settlers and the indigenous people lived amicably together for a while. However, some of the white settlers did not trust some of indigenous people. During King Philip's War in 1675, the English governor of New York ordered all canoes that were east of Hell Gate to be confiscated. This was done to prevent the Indigenous people from helping their allies in the mainland.
  After the Dutch began to move into Manhattan many of the indigenous people moved to Pennsylvania and Delaware. They felt pressure to move as they did not fit in with the European culture or religion at the time. Many of them who stayed behind died from smallpox.
  Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as Sewanhaka (Sewanhacky and Sewanhacking were other spellings in the transliteration of Lenape). Sewan was one of the terms for wampum (commemorative stringed shell beads, for a while also used as currency by colonists in trades with the Lenape), and is also translated as "loose" or "scattered", which may refer either to the wampum or to Long Island. The name "'t Lange Eylandt alias Matouwacs" appears in Dutch maps from the 1650s. Later, the English referred to the land as "Nassau Islan
caption: Long Island Native American settlements
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