The Montauk (or Montaukett) was a confederacy of Native American tribes that lived on Long Island in what is now New York. The Montauk Confederacy included the Shinnecock, the Manhasset, the Massapequa, the Poospatuck, and the distinct tribe called the Montauk.

Society and culture

The Montauk built their villages along streams and on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Each village included a cluster of wigwams, which were dome-shaped dwellings made of poles and brush. Villages were ruled by chiefs who were called sachems, with the help of a council of wise men.

During the summer women farmed small fields of corn (maize) close to their homes. In the winter the Montauk moved to the forest to hunt deer and other game animals. They also fished, collected shellfish, and gathered wild plants.

The Montauk used logs from the forest to make dugout canoes. They traveled in these boats across Long Island Sound to the shores of present-day Connecticut. The Montauk also used canoes to hunt whales.

The Montauk collected shells, which they used to make beads called wampum. Wampum on strings was a valuable trade good among the Montauk and their Indian neighbors. European colonists sometimes used wampum as money.

History

The Montauk first encountered non-Indians in the early 1600s, when Dutch and English traders began visiting their territory. At the time the Montauk and other tribes in the area were dominated by the Pequot, a powerful tribe from what is now Connecticut. The Montauk were freed from their control in 1637, when the English and their Indian allies waged a successful war against the Pequot. Nearly all of the Pequot people were killed in this conflict.

Impressed by the power of the English, the Montauk sachem Wyandanch made an alliance with them. He allowed the English to build settlements in eastern Long Island. The English, however, soon turned on their allies and took over most of their territory. By 1700 the tribe was left with only a small tract near what is now the town of Montauk, New York. In addition to their loss of territory, the Montauk also suffered from diseases brought to their territory by Europeans, including smallpox.

In the 1770s about 150 of the surviving Montauk left Long Island and resettled in Brothertown, a town established by Christian Indians in present-day central New York. The Brothertown Indians later moved to a reservation in present-day Wisconsin. The rest of the Montauk struggled to retain their identity and regain their land.

At the end of the 20th century most of the remaining Montauk descendants lived in Wisconsin. Two Long Island groups—the Shinnecock and the Unkechaug Indian Nation of Poospatuck Indians—have small reservations. The Shinnecock host an annual powwow on Labor Day Weekend and opened the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in 2001.