Then...
“Shinnecock Canal constructed between 1884 and 1892 first N.Y.S. salt water canal site of Native American (Shinnecock Nation) Portage...”The need for digging a canal had been talked of as early as 1826.
Canoe Place derives from the Native American word “Niamuck”which describes a canoe portage at Shinnecock Creek.
Please read about Shinnecock Indian Nation in their own words.
And in those by Dr. John A. Strong, (Retired) Professor and Independent Historian, who lives in Shinnecock Hills with his wife Jane. Strong has a Ph.D. in social studies; an expert on Native Americans in Colonial America, particularly the Indians of the East Coast, and Long Island. Prof. Strong is the author of The Unkechaug Indians of Eastern Long Island (book), “Wyandanch, Sachem of the Montauketts” in Awakening the Past: The East Hampton 350th Anniversary Lecture; The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island From Earliest Times to 1700; ”The Pigskin Book: Record of Native American Whalemen”, Long Island Historical Journal and more here by John A. Strong:
The Thirteen Tribes of Long Island: The History of a Myth
The Shinnecock Casino Campaign: Tribal Identity, Local Politics and Tangled Legalities
Also, recommended to read:
Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum
The Early History of Southampton, L.I. by George Rogers Howell, published 1887
History of the Canal System Chapter XII The Shinnecock and Peconic Canal by Noble E. Whitford
Colonizing Southampton, The Transformation of a Long Island Community 1870 - 1900” by David Goddard
