Rose Samuels, Shinnecock descendant, dies

They set the dove-gray coffin down lightly on high supports, where it lay in the shade of autumn-thinned trees beyond a shimmering tidal creek. To the west, at the edge of Shinnecock Bay, tribal members beat a single drum and sang an honoring song, a native burial tradition. Surrounded by hundreds of friends and family, some wailing at the mention of her name, Rose Eleazer Samuels was finally home.

Samuels, a direct descendant of Shinnecock and Unkechaug Indians and long a champion of their struggles and of her right to tribal land, died last week of natural causes. She was 75.

Samuels fought unsuccessfully for decades to return to the Shinnecock reservation, where her father was born and raised. She realized the goal only in death.

"It hurts me to my heart that the only way she got her land is to be buried there," said her daughter Sharilyn Daugherty of Stone Mountain, Ga. "It's so bittersweet."

Daugherty said her mother's struggle for the right of all tribal members to live on the Shinnecock reservation would be carried on by her children, grandchildren and other family members. Beverly Jensen, a Shinnecock spokeswoman, said the tribe would not comment.

"It's symbolic that she is going back to where her father is from, and to be buried there," said Janine Tinsley-Roe a cousin of Samuels' and executive director of Shinnecock-Sewanaka Society Inc., which advocates for tribal causes. "She was truly a spiritual elder here, but she didn't have tangible land."

Samuels was a great, great, great granddaughter of the Rev. Paul Cuffee, an Episcopalian Saint who ministered to the Shinnecock faithful 200 years ago.

Rose Eleazer was born in Patchogue on May 1, 1936, the daughter of Paul Cuffee Eleazer and Rose Madelyn Smith Eleazer.

She grew up in Sayville and went to Sayville High School, where she was the first Native American on the cheerleading squad. She later attended St. Rose College in Massachusetts.

In 1954 she married Harry L. Samuels and they lived for 20 years in California before divorcing. The couple had five children.

Rose Samuels returned to Long Island in the early 1990s and she was famous for a Native American pumpkin bread that she sold at the annual Shinnecock Pow Wows.

In addition to her daughter Sharilyn, Samuels is survived by a son, Ronald Glenn Samuels of Stone Mountain, Ga., two other daughters, Roslyn Gayle Samuels Sledge of Lithuania, Ga. and Darlene Rose Samuels Muhammad of Bay Shore; two sisters, Viola Gavin of Central Islip, and Charlotte Pierce of Centereach; 10 grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. She was predeceased by a son, John Richard Samuels, and her former husband. The family requests that donations be sent to a scholarship that will be established in her name to NAWAH, 1 Maple Ave., #210, Patchogue, NY 11772-2854.