From the Daily News:THIS SAD tale of a Native American tribe has all the drama an aspiring filmmaker could hope for - the upheaval of an ancient burial ground, eerie hauntings and a battle over land rights.
And, most tragically of all, it's true.
After hearing tales of restless spirits of Matinecock Indians haunting Little Neck, Eric MaryEa decided to investigate the history of the tribe.
Tracking down the dwindling group wasn't hard - they are part of his family tree.
MaryEa, a 24-year-old St. John's University graduate, is half Matinecock and half Italian.
He became interested in documenting Matinecock history when his grandfather told him that their ancestors' spirits still haunt the businesses near the intersection of Northern Blvd. and Little Neck Parkway.
MaryEa's documentary, "The Lost Spirits," debuted at the Big Apple Film Festival this fall and was screened this month at the Queens International Film Festival. It chronicles the Matinecocks and their struggles after being pushed off their land in 1931, when the city began widening Northern Blvd.
Much of the land cleared for Northern Blvd.'s extra lanes was a Matinecock burial ground. Archaeologists moved the bodies to a mass grave down the street at Zion Episcopal Church.
Photo from Forgotten-NY.
4 comments:
You can still find Matinecock arrowheads in the Marsh in Manhasset and Port Washington Isle
I heard that, went looking for them, did not find them.
www.forgotten-ny.com
You have walk in deep all the kids got the easy ones.
They are there you have to stir the to layor around one every 2 square yards average
At first they look like nickle to half dollar sized rocks its easy to miss them.
They are along Sitsink Drive East and at the north end of Sagamore across the Soundview shopping center.
The marshland (then water with a tideline 200 years ago)
Here is a photo
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-map-478047-map_of_manhasset_ny-i
Picture where the banks of this canal met the mainland. Wear high boots ticks and chiggers in ther eduring summer
My mother was a Matinecock. We lived on Preston street in Port
Washington and as a child in the early fifties, we used to play in the woods and find arrowheads all the time.
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