Rains uncover ancient Yennacock burial site

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Rains uncover ancient Yennacock burial site on Long Island...

Ancient Indian burial site found in Riverhead park
Bones and artifacts, believed to be from an early American Indian
burial site, are discovered in Riverhead county park, near eroded
river bank

BY BILL BLEYER
STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Mitchell Freedman contributed to this
story.

October 27, 2005

Last week's stormy weather uncovered what experts said may be an
important early American Indian burial site at Indian Island County
Park in Riverhead.

The site was spotted by a park supervisor after the Peconic River
bank was eroded early last week by heavy rains and high wave action,
said Suffolk County Parks Commissioner Ronald Foley.

Archaelogists said yesterday that the site contained bones from at
least two people believed to be Indians buried during the Early
Woodland period, from 800 BC to AD 800. It also contained artifacts
including a pipe and fragments of a bowl.

The bones were turned over to the Suffolk County medical examiner,
Dr. Charles Wetli, who said the remains were then given to consulting
forensic anthropologist Vincent Stefan.

"The bones were in small pieces," said David Thompson, vice president
of the Suffolk County Archaeological Association, who visited the
site Friday. "They were obviously burnt. There were charred pieces of
skull and small pieces of a jawbone. The fact that they were cremated
is a holdover from a culture that immediately preceded the Early
Woodland which was called the Transitional Culture.

In addition, Thompson said, "there was an exquisite ceramic pipe that
was nearly perfect and had very interesting geometric detail on it.
It was obviously used; it had burn marks on it. It was about four
inches long."

Thompson added "there was also some broken pottery ... a very early
type of pottery that would make it an Early Woodland burial."

Stefan, a professor at Lehman College in the Bronx and a forensic
archaeologist for the county, said "there wasn't enough of the
remains to make a determination if they were Native American. There
was too much missing. All I was able to conclude was that I had
fragments of remains for two or three individuals who had been
intentionally burned or cremated." Stefan said he would need more
complete skeletal remains or additional artifacts and possibly
further systematic excavation to determine the race or ancestry.

John Strong of Southampton, professor emeritus at Long Island
University and an expert on Long Island Indian history, said American
Indians often settled near freshwater streams that ran into tidal
wetlands. He said the Indians then living in the Riverhead-Southold
area were called the Yennacock by early white settlers.

Foley said the county would be consulting with leaders of the
Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, the nearest active American
Indian group, on the proper thing to do with the bones and site.

"In many cases the best thing you can do to preserve an
archaeological site is to bury it and seal it up. We haven't made a
final decision and are researching our options to make sure we do it
right."

Parks officials also talked to David Bernstein at the Long Island
Institute of Archaeology of Stony Brook University. "He advised us
that we don't have a legal obligation to talk to the local tribe
leaders but it's the right thing to do once we determine what we
have," Foley said. "When the medical examiner tells us the age and
ethnicity of the bones, we would contact the local tribe leaders and
work with them on what's the right thing to do with these artifacts
and the site."

Elizabeth Haile, a Shinnecock leader who serves on the Graves
Protection Committee of the Intertribal Historic Preservation Task
Force, said, "I'm looking forward to being further informed, and we
would cooperate with them. It should be honored, and then it should
be protected because it's somebody's cemetery."

Usually, American Indians like to see these sites reburied and not
excavated for study or removal of artifacts. "That would be our
preference," she said.

In the meantime, Foley said, "it is illegal for anyone to take
artifacts like this from a county park," and warned that park police
are watching the area.

This is the first significant American Indian burial ground uncovered
since a Shelter Island resident - digging a barn foundation -
uncovered remains two years go. Shinnecock leaders have been trying
to work out a policy for Shelter Island and other towns on what to do
with such discoveries.

Staff writer Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story.

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Ancient Burial Ground Discovered in N.Y. By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 1,10:41 PM ET



RIVERHEAD, N.Y. - James Richeson was checking out erosion damage on eastern Long Island after days of torrential rain last month when he made a fascinating discovery.

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"I ... saw little bits of bone down the hillside and some of it had washed away in the surf already," said Richeson, the parks supervisor at Indian Island County Park — named in honor of the local Shinnecock and other tribes that have inhabited Long Island for as much as 12,000 years.

A closer inspection uncovered skull and bone fragments, as well as several artifacts, including a ceramic bowl and pipe covered with ornate geometric markings. The artifacts date at least 500 years — and possibly as far back as 700 B.C. — according to one expert who says such finds are becoming more common.

David Bernstein, director of the Long Island Institute of Archaeology at Stony Brook University, said such discoveries are a clear sign of the impact of global warming.

Park officials said there has been considerable erosion in the area in the past several decades. Concrete barriers that were once part of the parkland are now under water, two dozen or more yards from shore.

"It's no secret the level of the oceans is rising, something that's been accelerated by climatic warming," says Bernstein.

"So areas that were high and dry even a few centuries ago ... a lot of these settlements are now under 10 feet of water," added Bernstein, who said he receives a call about once a year from someone telling him they found an ancient artifact while walking along a beach.

The bones have since been collected by the Suffolk County medical examiner office for scientific study, and the artifacts are being held by the county parks department until it can be determined what to do with them, said Parks Commissioner Ronald Foley.

The area is now surrounded by snow fence and is patrolled regularly by parks police to prevent treasure hunters or curious onlookers from damaging what is considered hallowed ground.

Foley said county officials plan to meet with Shinnecock tribal leaders for advice on what to do with the items after they have been studied.

Elizabeth Thunderbird Haile, a Shinnecock leader, said she was pleased with the respectful manner of county officials.

"This discovery was made by nature, however unintentional," she said. "The fact they are being carefully tended to by the parks commissioner and his staff is very much appreciated."

A member of the graves protection committee of the Inter-tribal Historic Preservation Task Force, Haile said the discovery of the small clay pot — about the size of a soup bowl — and pipe near the bones indicates the items were probably buried with their owner, likely as part of a cremation, as was custom with her ancestors.

Cemeteries of the time "would be put in beautiful spaces like the islands at the head of an estuary, or just as possible on the highest hills nearby," she said.

Haile said that after a scientific review is complete, she would prefer that the items be reburied near where they were found.

She noted that for an ancient society, the issue of reburial is something that never had to be considered until modern times.

"The ancient people had many, many ceremonies, but they never had one on what do with a reburial; they had never unearthed each other," Haile said. "Now, we have to address that. We'll probably have to use the ancient burial ceremony and adapt it to a reburial."