Total Number Of Pages: 1
Source: Scanned from the original photograph which is 10 inches in width and 8 inches in height.
Language: English
Coverage: Unknown
Creators:
Red Thunder Cloud [Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West]
Rights: No Known Copyright Restrictions
Description: The reverse reads:
"From the appearance of the cars in the background of this photo, it would seem that it must have been around the early 1900's. The Sag Harbor Montauks used to have picnics and the women used to bake many kinds of bread, prepare huge quantities of clam chowder and succotash, and spend an entire day at the outing. Montauks of the Freetown Band at East Hampton remained socially apart from these people and would not attend their affairs. The attitude of the Freetown Montauk stemmed from the fact that James E. Waters of Little Neck was elected by the Eastville Band as Montauk Sachem and did not recognize Wyandank Pharoah as the titular head of the tribe. Waters convinced the Eastville Band that by hiring an attorney they could win back the tribal lands at Montauk. Many persons of dubious Indian ancestry paid Waters a fee to be declared members of the Montauk tribe. Montauk tribal law stated that anyone who married out of the tribe had to remove from the reservation and would forfeit all rights and privileges.
The Freetown Band which consisted of the Fowlers, Pharoahs, and Butlers, many of whom were born on the reservation at Indian Field, Montauk, claimed that Waters had Whites and Negroes on the rolls who paid him a fee to join the tribe, hoping to share in the millions that he convinced them would be theirs. Since the Sag Harbor Band of Montauks were not the original members who were removed from Montauk in 1879, after Frank Benson of Brooklyn bought the reservation, they legally had nothing to stand upon. The courts in 1910 even refused to recognize the existence of the Freetown Band of Montauks, who were the rightful heirs to the Montauk lands. Emma King was one of the members of the Sag Harbor Band who kept contributing money to Waters in the belief that he could win the tribal lands back from the Whites through court action. She as well as many of the East Hampton Band received no satisfaction from the courts. Here she appears as an old lady. See Photo 12 when she was a younger woman."
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