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Legacy: Paul Cuffee's Grave

By Steve Wick | Staff Writer

The Rev. Paul Cuffee's grave sits all by itself in Hampton Bays, sandwiched between the railroad tracks and a busy highway. The stone marker is weather-beaten and broken in two.

To bring a measure of distinction to the site, Cuffee's descendants erected a small white fence around it. ``He was someone who mattered, yet you would not know it the way his grave sits by the tracks,'' said Janine Tinsley-Roe of Bellport, a descendant. ``But once upon a time, that was all Indian land.''

Cuffee, a Shinnecock Indian, was born in Brookhaven Town. He became a celebrated minister, like his grandfather Peter John, who preached to the Indians of Long Island. Cuffee, who in his youth was an indentured servant to a Wading River farmer, became an enthusiastic convert in his early 20s.

He preached among Indian communities at Poospatuck, a small reservation near present-day Mastic Beach; at a part of Hampton Bays called Canoe Place, and, toward the end of his career, at Montauk. It is said he was a vigorous preacher whose services were attended by huge crowds.