Shinnecock: "colored" covered both Black and Native (Long Island, 1790 to 1900s)

SUMMARYShinnecock: "colored" covered both Black and Native (Long Island, 1790 to 1900s) [Connections: Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDBabylon town historian Mary Cascone told WSHU that "colored" was used for both Black and Native American people and that darker people were often listed as persons of color. Before 1860 the census had no "I" for Indian. She could not find records naming Native students at Colored School No. 6 in North Amityville, though their descendants have ties there. Shinnecock member Shane Weeks, with Native, African American and Scottish ancestry going back about 12 generations on Long Island, says Shinnecock is his nationality: "Here on Shinnecock, we were slaves back in 1600s, 1700s." The Shinnecock Nation was federally acknowledged in 2010

PATTERNThe school was "colored," the census was "colored," and the Native children in those records were not counted as Native

LENS (WW9)Native children sat in the "colored" school, and the label did not record them

OPENCensus pages for the Shinnecock reservation, 1850–1880, to show the "Mulatto/Black/Indian" labels by household. Note Joysetta Pearse's counter-view in the same piece ("They were not Native American themselves"); DISPUTED within the community

SOURCEWSHU, "It's Complicated: Identity and the Descendants of Long Island's Enslaved People," July 20, 2020; Wikipedia, Shinnecock Indian Nation.