In 1600, the estimated population of the Long Island Native Americans stood around 10,000 with 13 tribes.  Over the following 60 years as result of both battle and illness, the Indian population had fallen to roughly 500. According to the 1910 census, there were 167 Shinnecock, 29 Montauk, and 1 Poosepatuk in the region.

Wyandanch Pharaoh was the Chief of the Montauk Tribe when the English settlers came to Long Island in the early 1600s.  The Montauk tribe was friendly to the settlers and in 1637 Wyandanch formed an alliance with the English led at the time by 38-year old Captain Lion Gardiner.  The relationship between these two men was a close one, with Gardiner reportedly going through the ritual of becoming a bloodbrother with Wyandanch and learning the Montauk language.

In a deed dated July 14, 1659 Wyandanch left Smithtown to Gardiner. Wyandanch died in the same year.  In 1660, the rest of the Montauk land went to a group of East Hampton settlers. A 1703 lease agreement with East Hampton gave the Montauk tribe perpetual rights on the property.  Nonetheless, the land was eventually sold by a group of East End investors to Arthur Benson in 1879.  Tribal leaders brought a case against the Benson executors in 1909, but lost.   On November 17, 1910, NY State Supreme Court Justice Abel Blackmar found that the agreements made with Benson were legitimate and that the Montaukett’s had released all their “right, title, interest and claim to the rights and privileges in the land known as Montauk Point.”  He also found that the Montauketts no longer lived as a tribe.  He wrote “They have adopted the habits of civilization, are dwelling among whites as members of a civilized community …they rarely meet together and …there is complete absence of a distinct Indian community life, government and customs.”

Currently, representatives of the Montauketts are seeking Federal recognition of their tribal rights in a challenge to the 1910 ruling.  They hope to build a Heritage Center on what was former Montauk land that will serve to keep the history of the Montaukett tribe and other Eastern Long Island Native American tribes alive.  In this world of blurring borders, cultural histories become particularly dear.

The Club was honored to have a representative of the Montauketts, Chief Robert Pharaoh, as a guest at the 115^th Anniversary Celebration in May 2004.