A North Fork museum preserves Long Island’s Indigenous history
On Southold’s Bayview Road, a small museum preserves Long Island history that extends far beyond the colonial era.
The Southold Indian Museum (1080 Main Bayview Road, Southold, 631-765-5577) grew out of the Incorporated Long Island Chapter of the New York State Archaeological Association, which was established in Southold in 1916. The museum was built in 1962.
Today, the museum houses tens of thousands of artifacts relating to Long Island’s Indigenous peoples. Its collections include stone and bone tools, projectile points, pottery and other archaeological materials. The chapter’s work has long extended beyond displaying objects, with members documenting archaeological sites, maintaining exhibits and sharing information about Long Island’s Indigenous history with the public.
For museum president Lucinda Hemmick, preservation, research and education remain central to the institution.
Hemmick, a retired Longwood High School science research teacher, became involved with the museum about a decade ago after a student expressed interest in studying projectile points. That interest led to research projects using artifacts already in the museum’s collection, including investigations into the geological origins of soapstone found at local archaeological sites.
