Press Releases

October 12, 2001
Freshman Class to Visit Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum

Contact:
Patricia Conway
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

The freshman class of Southampton College will visit the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum on three Fridays in October. The students, the largest group to visit the Museum since it opened this past June, will tour the new museum, walk along the shoreline of Shinnecock Bay and view the holding tanks and quarantine facilities the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium keeps at the site of the former Shinnecock Oyster Project.

"The goal of the museum is to bring the Shinnecock culture out beyond the reservation and into the greater Long Island community," said Winonah Warren, a member of the Board of Directors of the Museum. "We want to be a very viable part of the community and we want to tell our story in a way we don't think it has been told before." The College, in turn, is thrilled to be giving the students a glimpse of a primary part of the community.

Lisa Bowen, another member of the Museum's Board of Directors and Academic Coordinator of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at the College, played an integral role in setting up the visits. "It's wonderful that the College has expressed such an interest in the history of the Shinnecock Nation," she said. "As a member of the Board, I am pleased to welcome the students to our museum."

The Museum, located on Montauk Highway near the West Gate Road of the Shinnecock Reservation, is the first and only museum on Long Island that is owned and operated by Native Americans. It displays art and artifacts from distinct periods in Shinnecock history and includes exhibitions about Shinnecock whalers and decoy carvers. Shinnecock artist David Bunn Martine has created large murals that tell the story of the Shinnecock history from Paleolithic time to the present.

"The reservation is a great cultural and natural resource, but far too often our students leave Southampton knowing very little about our neighbors," said Alice Flynn, Director of New Student Services at Southampton College. "It is our hope that this is just the first of many such cultural experiences for our students."