Long before English settlers arrived in 1655, Unkechaug Indians prospered for several millennia along the shores of the Mastic Peninsula. The lush environment provided a rich bounty of food and the materials needed to build their homes and create the necessities for a comfortable life.
The native inhabitants lived in dome-shaped wigwams and longhouses built of sapling trees. The living spaces were made comfortable with the furs of local species, including deer, bear, otter, raccoon, and beaver. English visitors reported that the homes were warm and comfortable, noting that the families allowed their dogs to sleep with them.
The rich marine environment provided plenty to eat, and clams, oysters, scallops, and other shellfish meals were within easy reach. The Unkechaugs availed themselves of the fish still in abundance today: bluefish, striped bass, and menhaden, which they used to fertilize corn and other crops. They chipped deadly arrowheads and spear tips from stone and meticulously fashioned shell beads made from quahogs and whelk into wampum, highly valued for religious ceremonies, trade, and gifts for diplomatic purposes. They utilized plants and animals to create rope, bags, baskets, and clothing and built storage pits the Europeans called “Indian Barns.” Depictions of their lives were found memorialized in ancient tablets carved from mica.
The Unkechaugs were expert whalers hunting the behemoths for food, oil, and numerous other uses. Before petroleum was discovered as a better way to keep lamps lit, the skilled fishermen were recruited as valuable hands on global whaling expeditions out of Greenport and Sag Harbor.
To pursue the pods that visited the local waters, English entrepreneurs created whaling companies. They hired six-man crews and provided them with cedar whaleboats and iron harpoons. The whalemen were to receive a share of the profits but were paid in goods at high prices set by the owners, leaving many of the indigenous hunters in debt.
To ply local waterways with Indian names such as Poospatuck, Pattersquash, and Moriches, the early inhabitants built dugout canoes by hollowing out logs with stone tools and fire. Along these banks, starting in the late 18th Century, they began to build more permanent wooden homes.
The native people did not subscribe to the concept of land ownership, believing the Earth belonged to all of its inhabitants. This changed when the early settlers started amassing land holdings and setting boundaries. As a tribute to Lord Lion Gardener for helping rescue his daughter from the Narragansetts, the Sachem Wyandanch sold a wide swath of land to the Englishman in Mastic and began approving lots of “accommodation” to the settlers.
One was at Noccomock, a region on the eastern bank of the Connecticut (Carman's) River, and one was in the southern part of Mastic along the bayfront. This was the second oldest recorded deed in the Town of Brookhaven.
Unkechaug Sachem Tobaccus was unhappy with the deal and renegotiated for a payment of axes, guns, powder, lead, and knives collected from the settlers. A committee had been appointed at a town meeting to approve the 1674 exchange calling it the "The New Purchase." This was the early beginning of Brookhaven Town.
Descendants of the Unkechaugs still live today along the banks of Poospatuck Creek on land obtained through Col. William Tangier Smith, Lord of the Manor of St. George. While they gradually became involved with the English economy, serving as whalemen, skilled farm workers, and domestics, they still relied on the local streams and tidal bays for their sustenance.
From “A History of the Mastic Peninsula,” a publication of the Mastic Peninsula History Society.