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The early Native Americans were broken into thirteen communities on Long Island. They all spoke a very similar language and were known as a peaceful people. Never very large in number, their total population was probably never more than 6,500. These various communities seemed to get along pretty well with one another.

• Canarsies (meaning “at the fenced place”) who lived from what is now Brooklyn and Jamaica.
• Rockaways (“sandy land”) – Rockaway Beach to Long Island Sound.
• Matinecocks (“at the hilly land”) – Flushing, Glen Cove, Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington.
• Massapequas (“great waterland”) – Seaford to Islip. They also occupied Bethpage.
• Merricks (“plains country”) – Merrick.
• Nissaquoges (“clay country”) – Nissaquoge to Stony Brook.
• Secatogs (“black or colored land”) – Eastport to Bridgehampton.
• Setaukets (“land at the mouth of the river”) – Stony Bronk to Wading River.
• Unkechaugs (“land beyond the hill”) – Patchogue to Westhampton.
• Corchaugs (“principal place”) from Wading River to Orient Point.
• Manhassets (“island sheltered by islands”) – Shelter Island, Ram Island and Hog Island.
• Shinnecocks (“at level land”) – Westhampton to Easthampton.
• Montauks (“fortified place”) – Easthampton to Montauk Point. Their chief was the grand chief of all the Algonquin’s.