Sam Pharahoh Wasn't the Last Montaukett

By Steve Wick | Staff Writer

In 1927, when Steven Talkhouse Pharaoh's nephew, Sam Pharaoh, died, The Bridgehampton News carried this story under the headline "INDIAN PRINCE IS FROZEN TO DEATH."

Sam Pharaoh, the last of the royal family of the Montaukett Indians and a descendant of Wyandanch and other Indian chieftains on Montauk, is dead. His body was found on a grassy knoll near Three Mile Harbor, frozen to death, and had apparently been there for a week or more.

This last descendant of a truly noble line was laid to rest at East Hampton on Friday ... The last of the Montauketts was the son of David Pharaoh and Maria Banks ... Sam's father, King David, up until the time of his death, was an honest citizen and a worthy king. For years he had tried to regain possession of the Montauk acres ... but without success.

Sam Pharaoh was not the last Montaukett. Today, his descendants are still trying to reclaim part of the land that once belonged to their ancestors.