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Catching Up With the Present

Staff Writer

Here are some developments on stories we covered in the first three chapters of ``Long Island: Our Story.''

Montauketts Elect a Chief

Robert Cooper, an East Hampton man who traces his ancestry 350 years back to Wyandanch, the most influential Indian in Long Island history, has been elected chief of the Montauketts.

The election, held Nov. 22, caps efforts by the Montaukett community to organize itself, establish a tribal roll of members, and write a constitution and bylaws. Cooper won 37 of 45 votes cast.

``We have not had a chief since Wyandank Pharaoh in 1920,'' Cooper said. ``There was no election in between, which was a tragedy. Now we are finally getting organized and putting the Montauketts on the map again.''

The Montauketts are also pressing the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition, which would mean they are a bona fide Indian tribe with certain rights and privileges. At the turn of this century, a judge in Riverhead ruled that the Montauketts were no longer a viable tribe. To earn recognition from the federal government, the Montauketts must supply histories of their people, along with genealogies that prove they are the descendants of a group that existed on Long Island at the time of contact with Europeans, and they must show that they continued to exist as a group during the past three centuries.

To Cooper, recognition means respectability for his people and the ability to make a long-standing land claim at Montauk, where the Indians lived for thousands of years.

``We want this more than anything in the world,'' Cooper said. ``Only then can we adequately satisfy the spirits of our departed.''

Underhill Responses

After reading an account of the life of John Underhill -- a 17th-Century English mercenary who participated in battles with Connecticut and Long Island Indians, which historians say resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 Indians -- his descendants say the story misrepresented his life.

N. Robert Underhill, president of the 550-member Underhill Society of America, wrote that the story failed to take into account Underhill's earlier accomplishments as a leading official in several New England towns. Underhill noted, ``The natives were not entirely innocent. Also, at least some of the tribes in the region had been warriors before they met the Europeons ... It may be that the settlers overreacted and didn't have to kill so many, but they were few in number in a very strange land, and they came from a culture where disputes were often settled in atrocious ways.''

As for a 1644 battle in Massapequa that John Underhill participated in, Everett Underhill, who is vice president of the society, said Indians of the region had terrorized Dutch settlers, and he asked: ``How many of us would not be here today had Underhill failed?''

Rapeljes Step Forward

After reading an LI Life story about the Rapelje family of Glen Cove, more than 50 people from across the country contacted the family to say they, too, are descendants of Sarah de Rapelje -- the first white child born in what is now New York State.

``We have received calls from California, Florida, Rhode Island and a number just from Long Island,'' said Peter Rapelje, whose family has collected Rapelje memorabilia that dates back to the 17th century. ``I would never have thought the response would be this great. People are sending their genealogies to me. It's wonderful.''

One of those who saw the story was Clarence Rapelyea, who traces his ancestry back to both Sarah de Rapelje and to the Matinecocks who lived along Long Island's North Shore.

``My family has always been proud of our Rapelje ancestry,'' Clarence said. ``It's fascinating that it dovetails with Native American history, too.''

Recalling Tackapousha

Newsday wrote a number of stories that touched on the life of Wyandanch, the legendary Montaukett sachem who sold tens of thousands of acres of Long Island real estate to an Englishman named Lion Gardiner. A sachem who was Wyandanch's contemporary was Tackapousha, the leader of the Matinecocks and related Algonquian bands along the North Shore.

In the mid-1650s, Tackapousha feared his people would be crushed by Dutch settlers on western Long Island. So he formed an alliance with sachems from other Indian bands of the region to represent the Algonquians at negotiations with the Dutch. This action by Tackapousha helped make him one of the two most powerful Algonquian leaders on Long Island, the other being Wyandanch. Tackapousha died around 1694, more than 30 years after Wyandanch's death. Like Wyandanch, Tackapousha's exact burial place is not known. Nassau County operates the Tackapausha Preserve (spelled differently), in Seaford.