The Montaukett, more commonly known as Montauk, are an Algonquian-speaking Native American people from the eastern and central sections of Long Island, New York, United States.
Name The exact meaning of the name Montauk is unknown, although it derives from a place name in the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language; it roughly translates to "the fort country." The Montaukett were Native Americans on Long Island. Their bands were often referred to in colonial writings by the place name of their geographic territories, such as the Montauk and the Shinnecock peoples, which may or may not have been the same as their name for themselves. European colonists tended to mistakenly assume that the different bands they encountered were different tribes, even in cases where the bands clearly shared the same culture and language.
Anthropology
Language The Montaukett are an Algonquian-speaking Native American people from the eastern and central sections of Long Island, New York. The Montauk spoke an Eastern Algonquian language. Prior to the 17th century, the Montauk people spoke the Mohegan-Pequot language, also known as the Algonquian "N" dialect, until about 1600 when they moved to the "Y" dialect.
On March 25, 1798, John Lyon Gardiner wrote: “March 25, 1798. A vocabulary of the Indian language spoken by the Montauk tribe. George Pharoah, aged 66, oldest man of that tribe and their chief gave me this specimen of their language. There are only about seven persons that can now speak this language and a few years more and it will be gone forever. It was spoken with little difference by all the Indians upon the East end of Long Island and perhaps the whole Island and the adjoining Islands. George says the Moheags of Connecticut speak the same language. George repeated these words several times and I write them as near as he pronounced as I can with the English alphabet.” The vocabulary list has been published in Gaynell Stone’s Languages and Lore of the Long Island Indians, Vol IV.
Class, race, and ethnicity The Native Americans of the east end of the Island shared a common culture with each other and with Lenape groups along most of the northern shore of what is now called Long Island Sound. The Montauk are specifically related in language and ethnicity to the Pequot and Narragansett peoples who live across Long Island Sound in what are now Connecticut and Rhode Island. American ethnologist John R. Swanton identified the following subdivisions of the Montauk: Corehaug, Manhasset, Massapequa, Matinecock, Merric, Montauk (proper), Nesaquake, Patchoque, Rockaway, Secatogue, Setauket, and Shinnecock., 42–43. Swanton also identified several Montauk villages including Aquebogue, Ashamomuck, Cutchogue, Massapequa, Merric, Montauk, Nesaquake, Patchogue, and Rechquaakie.
Subsistence
The pre-colonial Montaukett manufactured wampompeag (or wampum) from quahog clamshells available on Long Island. Before the Montaukett obtained metal awls from the Europeans, the Montaukett artisans would make "disk-shaped beads from quahog shells ... used for trade and for tribute payments" with the nearby tribes. The Montaukett farmed, fished, hunted, and gathered food. The colonial Montaukett participated in the new European economic and cultural systems by using their traditional skills: hunting to provide game and fowl for colonists' tables; woodworking to make bowls, scrubs, tools, toys, and later, houses and mills; craftwork to make baskets, eel pots, and rush and cane bottoms for chairs. The "women would harvest corn, squash, and beans." While the men fished and hunted whales, by using their dugout canoes, made by hollowing out large trees. They also participated in the economy by purchasing their guns and sometimes furniture from the local colonial craftsmen. The Montauketts skilled at whaling were eagerly sought after by those engaged in the trade. Between 1677 and 1684, a documented system of credit allowed indigenous men (and their families) to purchase goods from local merchants and traders, in exchange for their share (or “lay”) of the catch during the following whaling season. Eventually, the in-shore whaling operations over-fished the local seas, and Indigenous labor from the Montauketts and other Native American groups was vital to deep-sea whaling throughout the late eighteenth century. Even both Rev. Horton and Rev. Occum mentioned in their records (as late as ca. 1740–1760) that Montaukett men were working at sea during their visits.
History
16th century In 1524, Giovanni Verrazano explored and mapped the area. It is unclear whether these specific expeditions had any contact with the Montauk tribe.
17th century In 1609, an expedition by Henry Hudson, explored the area. It is unclear whether these specific expeditions had any contact with the Montauk tribe.
In 1619, Adriaen Block, sailed around the point, naming it Visscher's Hoek while mapping the area around the point and nearby Block Island. It is unclear whether these specific expeditions had any contact with the Montauk tribe.
In 1637, during the Pequot War, the Montauketts sided with the settlers for protection, but Cockenoe, a Montaukett native, was captured and wound up working with John Eliot in Boston in the 1640s to translate the first parts of the Eliot Indian Bible, before returning to Long Island.
In 1639, during the aftermath of the war, settler-colonist Lion Gardiner purchased an island from the Montaukett chief Wyandanch and named it Gardiner's Island. It is one of the largest privately owned islands in the United States.
In 1648, the settlers purchased from Connecticut the lands that would become the town of East Hampton, with the western boundary of today's Hither Hills State Park (also known as the 1648 purchase line), leaving only the lands to the east of the point for the Montaukett.
Throughout the 1650s, as the white settlement was expanding, the Montaukett population was in decline. In 1653, Narragansetts under Ninigret attacked and burned the Montaukett village, killing thirty Montaukett warriors and capturing fourteen prisoners, including one of Chief Wyandanch's daughters. The daughter was recovered with the aid of Lion Gardiner, who in turn was given a large portion of present-day Smithtown, New York, in appreciation. The Montaukett, ravaged by smallpox and fearing extermination by the Narragansett, were provided temporary refuge by white settlers in East Hampton. Many short but famous battles ensued. Fort Pond Bay derives its name from a Montaukett "fort" on its shores.
After 1653, three different groups of East Hampton colonial settlers purchased Native land, each expanding East Hampton rights further and further east. Further purchase agreements were entered into in 1660, 1661, 1672 and 1686 which, among other things, allowed Easthampton townsmen to graze cattle on the Montaukett lands.
The native skirmishes ended in 1657. By 1658, historians estimate that only five hundred Montauk remained.Swanton 43. In 1659, Montaukett Sachem Wyandanch died. The following year, Wyandanch's widow sold all of Montauk from Napeague to the tip of the island for one hundred pounds to be paid in ten equal installments of "Indian corn or good wampum at six to a penny".
In 1661, a deed was issued titled "Ye deed of Guift," which granted all lands east of Fort Pond for the common use of both the Indians and the townsmen.
In 1686, New York Governor Thomas Dongan issued a patent creating the governing system for East Hampton. The patent did not extend beyond Napeague to Montauk. This lack of authority has formed the basis for various control disputes ever since. The Dongan Patent allowed the Montauk Proprietors to purchase the remaining unpurchased lands between the ponds and east of Lake Wyandanee (Lake Montauk). This further separated the Montauketts from governing their tribal lands.
In a purchase that was finalized in 1687, in which the East Hampton town purchased the remaining Native lands east of Fort Pond for one hundred pounds, and granted the Montauketts residency rights in perpetuity (but no governance). The Montauketts agreed to accept two pounds per year instead of the lump sum of one hundred pounds, in addition to amounts that they already received yearly for grazing access. The Montaukett noted in 1702 that the fees had never been paid. Dissatisfied with their treatment by the town, the Montauketts negotiated a more lucrative sale of the same lands east of Fort Pond to two wealthy men from New York. This deal, however, violated a previous agreement between the Montauketts and the town that permitted the Town Trustees exclusive rights to the purchase of Montauk lands. The town challenged the Montaukett sale to the New York men and moved quickly to establish a new agreement with the Montauketts, detailing transactions and rights between the two parties.
18th century A 1703 agreement included a limit on Montaukett livestock to 250 swine and 50 head of cattle or horses. The subsequent 1703 “Agreement Between the Trustees of East Hampton and the Indians of Montauk” (reprinted in Stone 1993:69) specified that the Montauketts were to inhabit the land referred to as North Neck (between Great Pond and Fort Pond), establishing fencing where necessary. The land east of Great Pond (including Indian Fields) was reserved for colonial use, which primarily consisted of cattle grazing. The Montauketts were permitted to move east of Great Pond if they did not interfere with the colonists's right to graze. The agreement also specified how the Montauketts were able to use their land: fields were expected to remain open for livestock owned by colonists grazing and they were permitted to keep a 30-acre field enclosed to protect crops of winter wheat. If the Montauketts were to move from North Neck and relocate to Indian Fields, they must take possessions with them; they could return to North Neck, but not inhabit both locations concurrently.
In 1719, despite the enforced limitations on lifeways, the Montaukett population grew in small numbers and reinforced social and economic networks through exogamous marriage practices. The colonial government responded to this threat of an expanding Montaukett population with yet another “agreement” that prohibited Montaukett marriages with non-Montauketts. Altogether, these eighteenth-century encumbrances left the Montauketts, resentful of their white neighbors, in a position of tenancy on their ancestral homelands.
During and after the 1730 - 1740 First Great Awakening, the Montauketts received attention from New Light preachers, most notably James Davenport and Azariah Horton. The Settler colonists continued to pursue an idea of making the Montauketts become Christianized and therefore integrated into society by having the Rev. Azarlah Horton, originally of Southold, to minister to them from 1740 to about 1750. Staying and preaching in their wigwams, the reverend traveled a circuit from Jamaica to Montauk, but spending most of his time at Montauk. In a diary entry from December 1741, Rev. Horton mentioned visiting the wigwams of Montaukett people in Montauk who were suffering from illnesses.
By the 1740s, the population was around 160 people.
In 1749, Samson Occom a Mohegan Native American of Connecticut, came to Montauk to minister and to educate them (from 1749-1761 ), and began to take over Azariah Horton’s mission, while Rev. Horton eventually left for New Jersey. Rev. Occom was an exceptionally talented man, not formally educated until 16, but mastering English, Greek, and Latin, as well as theology beginning in 1743. Later he was ordained a Presbyterian minister by East Hampton's Rev. Samuel Buell.
Around 1759, the Narragansett attacked the Montauk, until the latter sought refuge with white colonists in Easthampton. Disease had greatly reduced their population.