Global InformationMetoac information
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Metoac is an erroneous term used by some to group together the Munsee-speaking Lenape (west), Quiripi-speaking Unquachog (center) and Pequot-speaking Montaukett (east) American Indians on what is now Long Island in New York state. The term was invented by amateur anthropologist and U.S. Congressman Silas Wood in the mistaken belief that the various native settlements on the island each comprised distinct tribes.[1]
Instead, Indian peoples on Long Island at the time of European contact came from only two major language and cultural groups of the many Algonquian peoples who occupied Atlantic coastal areas from present-day Canada through the American South. The bands on Long Island in the west were part of the Lenape. Those to the east were culturally and linguistically connected to tribes of New England across Long Island Sound, such as the Pequot.[1][2] Wood (and earlier colonial settlers) often confused Indian place names, by which the bands were known, as the names for different tribes living there.
Many of the place names that the Lenape and Pequot populations used to refer to their villages and communities were adopted by English settlers and are still in use today. The Shinnecock Indian Nation, based in part of what is now Southampton, New York in Suffolk County, has gained federal recognition as a tribe and has a reservation there.
- ^ a b c d Strong, John A. Algonquian Peoples of Long Island, Heart of the Lakes Publishing (March 1997). ISBN 978-1-55787-148-0
- ^ a b c Bragdon, Kathleen. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast,Columbia University Press (2002). ISBN 978-0-231-11452-3.