MONTAUK

a confederacy of Algonkian-speaking Indian tribes who lived on the eastern and central parts of what is now Long Island, N.Y.; they included the Shinnecock, Manhasset, Massapequa, Montauk proper, Patchogue, and Rockaway. Like other Algonkian tribes of this area, the Montauk depended largely on the cultivation of corn (maize) by women for their subsistence, supplemented by hunting and fishing. They were semi-sedentary, moving seasonally between fixed sites as food resources required. The Montauk were dominated by the Pequot until the destruction of that tribe in 1637; the Narraganset then attacked the Montauk. Disease cost the Montauk most of their number, and about 1659 the estimated 500 remaining members of the tribe sought refuge with the whites at Easthampton. By 1788 only 162 Montauk remained; most of these joined a band of remnants of various Algonkian tribes near Marshall, N.Y. A few mixed-blood descendants remain on Long Island, where they are officially called the Shinnecock Indians.