
Shinnecock, People of the Stony Shore Photo Project attempts to reinforce our connection to the land and aims to present ourselves in a web-based portraiture platform.
The Shinnecock Portrait Project is made possible with Special thanks to MDOC Storyteller’s Institute hosted at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, in June 2018.
Collection: Patchogue-Medford Library Digital PML Rare Eastern Indian Photo Series, [Set 1]
Date: 1899
Type of Material: Photograph
Source: Scanned from the original photograph which is 10 inches in width and 8 inches in height. https://digitalpml.pmlib.org/search.php?search=item&item=338
Language: English
Coverage/Location: Shinnecock Reservation, Southampton, N.Y. (Town)
Creator: Red Thunder Cloud [Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West]
Copyright: No Known Copyright Restriction
Description:
“The State of New York erected a school for the Shinnecock Indians in the year of 1825. Its teachers were furnished by the State Education Department. Back in the 1830’s the school had only one classroom and one teacher. In 1942 the school had two rooms and two teachers.
In the year of 1875, the old schoolhouse burnt to the ground and the members of the tribe raised money to see that another one was erected. Mrs. Rebecca Bunn (Aunt Becky) taught at this time, and many of the Shinnecocks still remember the days that they spent in this school with genuine nostalgia.
Among those who have taught at this old school were Mr. Thomas A. Williams, a Negro who married Rose Kellis of the tribe, and Mrs. Lois Marie Hunter (Princess Nowedonah) the tribal historian. The photo has rare value indeed because it portrays the various physical types that various members of the tribe exhibited around the turn of the century.”
Colorized
Sissy Johnson Williams: “Thomas A. Williams & Rose Kellis…my great-great-grandparents.”1