Shinnecock Voices: Navigating Through Ancient Waterways

For a typical adventurer, paddling from one location to another might not require cultural intelligence. However, a historical route paddled by the descendants who are aboriginal to the route requires it. Being a tribal citizen to the Shinnecock Tribe, navigating through waterways today requires experience on the water, understanding of maritime law, strong relationships with tribes throughout the route, understanding and respect of the cultural sites along the route, and proper cultural protocol in the canoe, and on land.

With the laws today and the way that the waterways are utilized today makes navigating far more challenging than what my ancestors would have experienced. With this level of cultural intelligence, we are able to have not only safe passage, but we can travel in a similar way our ancestors did.

The waters are more dangerous today than they were before the settlement of colonists, because of the use of motorboats, the overdevelopment along the waterways, bottom trolling of the seafloor and the constant pollution to the waterways. In the Northeast, paddling in canoes in open ocean is now considered dangerous in the eyes of so many because of these very reasons. Nearly 500 years ago, our waters were as calm as the energy of our ancestors.

The shoreline birds were never threatened as they could nest without development. Wakes in the tidal water were only caused by nature and not massive ships. The life in the water was not under constant threat so the stress levels of all life in the ocean were almost non-existent.

The experience to take a traditional canoe route with relatives who are spiritually and historically connected to the route was life changing. For years I have studied the historical waterways and traditional routes through oral history passed down to me, paddling in many of the waterways to learn the water, and spending as much time as possible throughout the historical route.

The first stop on the route I navigated was Nickerson Beach in Boston Harbor, traditional homelands of the Peckinpaugh people. With permission from their tribal leaders, we were able to not only camp, but hold a sunrise ceremony before the launch of the canoe. The sovereign right to the tribal people who still reside in their traditional homelands is what we recognized during the entire journey.

We landed the canoe and camped in areas that hadn’t been accessible to tribes because of the land theft over the years.

When I was asked by Freddie Wilkinson to be a guide for a small crew that included tribal people from Penobscot, Onondaga and Oneida, I came to a realization that I was about to officially embark on what I had been preparing for nearly my entire life.

The years of preparing myself for a historical journey throughout our waterways was officially here. When people first think of a journey like this, they generally focus on the fact that their body has to be in shape.

The fortune part about that part is I have paddled across the Long Island Sound once before, and have paddled for years on canoe journeys with various people from our sister tribes. For me, the preparation was more on focusing on the cultural protocol and the logistics for the journey.

Freddie invited all of the crew members to take a two-day water rescue training on the Kenduskeag Stream in Bangor, Maine. We all traded stories of our water experiences; most of the crew had more river and lake experiences than I did, and I had more ocean experiences than they did.

It was a true trade in knowledge and the start of the excitement to embark on a 1,500-mile paddle throughout Maine to the ocean and throughout the Northeastern seaboard and into the Hudson River in New York City, up toward Canada and back down to Maine. The crew calls it the “Great Canoe Loop.”

On May 7, the Penobscot cultural barriers prepared a traditional send-off for Freddie Wilkinson, Neil Bennett and Ryan Ranco Kelly, from Penobscot Territory in what is known as Old Town Maine. Along the way they were guided by other experienced Northeastern Native American canoe guides. Hickory Edwards, an Onondaga Nation member who has well over 15 years of experience paddling up and down the Hudson River into the Atlantic Ocean, joined the crew in Portland, Maine.

I joined the crew in Boston Harbor, where we were also greeted by a few of the tribes of Massachusetts. A very crucial part of the journey was the support we received during preparation and throughout the journey. Steve Anderson, who has been a longtime friend to the Shinnecock people and has been traveling out in the Northwest tribal canoe journeys, helped with charting the route, grounds crew and paddling. Mashpee Wampanoag water carrier Jodi Newcomb led the crew in a sunrise ceremony when the tribes of the New England region joined the journey.

We were sent off by many of the tribal people of Massachusetts with traditional foods, gifts, songs and prayers.

Picking up sister tribal people along the way, we paddled and portaged the canoe from the ocean over to the Taunton River and paddled throughout the routes our ancestors have always taken to get from the ocean to the bays and into the Long Island Sound. We were invited and hosted by all of the tribes throughout the route from Boston to NYC. We stayed in culturally sacred sites, many of which have not been camped in by Indigenous people for many years.

From Penobscot territory to Boston Harbor, where I joined a crew of four paddlers to guide them through our ancient sister tribal waterways, we were greeted and hosted by so many tribal communities and the unity was historic. A special thanks to Freddie Wilkinson for your vision of bringing tribal people from the entire region together.

We exchanged a lot of cultural knowledge about our canoe cultures in each of our communities. We experienced a lot as a crew that brought healing to our communities.

A special thanks to the following tribes for opening up your homelands and hosting us and providing shelter, food and resources as we traveled through: Ponkapaog, Mattakesett, Massachusett, Wampanoag, Pokanoet, Seekonk, Niantic, Narragansett, Cuchaog, Shinnecock, Unkechaug and Montaukett.

Chenae Bullock / Sagkompanau Mishoon Netooeusqua (Shinnecock) is an enrolled Shinnecock Indian Nation tribal member, descendant of the Montauk Tribe on Long Island and founder of Moskehtu Consulting. Chenae is a mogul, community leader, business leader, water protector, land defender, cultural preservationist and humanitarian.

“Shinnecock Voices” is a monthly column in which citizens of the Shinnecock Nation share stories and opinions and discuss the projects and campaigns they’re working on, to allow readers an inside view into their incredible community.