The League of Iowa Human & Civil Rights Agencies

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — As Shinnecock Indians returned to their reservation on Long Island after World War II, elders warned that their tribe’s long struggle for survival was once again threatened.  Decent jobs were scarce and many Shinnecock veterans were leaving, draining the reservation of needed hands.  “The older men said, ‘If all of you young men move away, who is going to be here to carry on the work of the reservation and our traditions?’ ” recalled one war veteran, Harry K. Williams, who is now 85. It has been a stark and constant choice in the life of the tribe: a pastoral yet relatively impoverished existence on the 800-acre reservation or something different beyond its borders.

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