Southold Indian Museum is celebrating Native American Heritage Month this month with free artifact identifications, field trips and educational programs that connect visitors to 12,000 years of Long Island’s Indigenous history.
The museum featured a free artifact identification day on Sunday, Nov. 16, where a panel of experts examined arrowheads, pottery, colonial relics and other items brought in by the public.
“We talk about where the stones come from — which is all travel and trade — and where the quarries are,” says museum president Lucinda Hemmick. “And what does that tell us about what people were doing 5,000 years ago?”
Partnerships with the Unkechaug Nation and Shinnecock Nation, state and federally recognized sovereign Native American nations, help the museum’s mission to preserve the artifacts on display.
Unkechaug Nation is based in Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic. Poospatuck means “where the waters meet” in the Algonquian language. The Shinnecock people have owned and occupied their homelands in and around the Town of Southampton “from time immemorial,” according to the nation’s website.
Unkechaug Nation Chief Harry Wallace most recently collaborated with the museum on the publication of “Ancient Native Artifacts of Eastern Long Island,” a book featuring museum artifacts, their history and significance. Shinnecock Nation member Shane Weeks is one of the museum’s board members and serves as an advisor for the museum.
“Chief Wallace and Shane Weeks have reviewed our museum displays and advised us on culturally sensitive items,” Hemmick says. “For example, several culturally sensitive artifacts were removed from display and replaced with sketches at their request. Chief Wallace and Shane have also provided us with traditional knowledge from the Nations so that we can incorporate that into our existing site records and provide it to [the State Historic Preservation Office].”
Regular admission to the museum is $10 for adults and free for minors.
Erected in 1962 on Bayview Road, the museum draws about 600 visitors annually to view artifacts, including projectile points, pottery, harpoons and illustrations of pre-colonial life on Long Island.
Some of the most significant pieces came from East End farms, where private collectors such as Roy Latham, Nathaniel Booth and Charles Goddard unearthed evidence of the region’s earliest inhabitants.
The collectors went on to found the Long Island Chapter of the New York State Archeological Association in 1925 — the foundation of today’s museum.
“Some of the biggest and most valuable collections are from farms,” says Hemmick, a retired Longwood High School science research teacher in Yaphank who began volunteering a decade ago.
The basement displays offer some perspective on Indigenous people from beyond the area. The museum also offers a Native American arts and crafts activity for class trips and a collection of children’s books on hand for teachers to borrow upon request.
Hemmick was drawn to the museum because of her lifelong fascination with archaeology. The most rewarding part of her involvement with the museum is preservation, she said.
“You can wring your hands all you want about it, but when you get to actually do something to make a difference,” Hemmick says. “Instead of just crying about something that got destroyed, you could stand in the way of it. That’s the position we’re in — to provide information that might change things.”
For those unable to visit the museum, its website provides a story map to help educators bring 10,000 years of human history on Long Island to the classroom. The map was made possible through a $10,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
The museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run entirely by volunteers and supported solely by memberships, admission fees and donations.
It is open Sundays from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., or by appointment. Annual memberships cost $50 and include free admission, enrollment in the state archaeological association, and 25% off gift shop purchases. Monthly membership tiers of $10, $25 or $50 are available through Patreon.
For more information, visit southoldindianmuseum.com or call 631-765-5577.
