Shinnecock Nation presents canoe to Long Island Children's Museum

Amid Native American ceremonial chanting and drumming, members of the Shinnecock Nation presented a dugout canoe called a mishoon to the Long Island Children’s Museum in Uniondale recently, where it will become part of the first new permanent exhibit at the museum in more than a decade.

“Saltwater Stories: We Need the Sea & the Sea Needs Me,” scheduled to debut on Oct. 11, will be devoted to Long Island’s maritime history. The dugout canoe, crafted in the traditional manner by Long Island tribe members in Southampton, will be one of the exhibit’s central artifacts, says Maureen Mangan, museum director of communications. The mishoon will remain on display in the museum lobby until the exhibit's opening, when it will move upstairs to the gallery currently devoted to the Pattern Studio exhibit, which will be retired. Once it moves upstairs, children will be able to climb inside, Mangan says.

The new exhibit will also include a fishing boat, a bay house, a fish market, and an area called “Lifting the Ocean’s Lid” that will explore what’s underwater and suggest ways families can help protect the sea, Mangan says. Visitors will enter the new exhibit through a 9-foot-wave, because “for so many people on Long Island, their first connection to the water is a day at the beach,” Mangan says. The new gallery will be included with museum admission. The last permanent galleries at the museum, called “Sound Showers” and “Feasts for Beasts” opened in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

‘Pewea Koowa' unveiled

The 10-foot long mishoon was created by hollowing out a white pine tree log using a controlled burn and hand tools over a three-day period in April. It was rolled into the museum lobby under black fabric and unveiled to a crowd of children, adults, and museum and local officials on June 30. Paddles were also presented.

“We’ve been here for thousands of years. These are mishoons you would see all around these waters on Long Island,” said Chenae Bullock, Shinnecock cultural steward, during the presentation, when she was dressed in traditional buckskin, pucker moccasins and wampum shell jewelry. “It doesn’t just represent the Shinnecock, but also other tribes throughout Long Island. It’s really nice to have a representation here for our youth.”

This mishoon is dubbed “Little Pine” – or Pe—ea Koowa in the Shinnecock language — and has markings etched along the sides to represent pine trees and waves. Boys and girls from the Boys and Girls Club of the Shinnecock Nation helped to make the mishoon along with their tribal elders and attended the presentation ceremony at the museum.

“We collected sticks to make the fire to burn it out,” says Jaycen King, 12, a member of the club. “We put a fire in the middle so it makes a hole. We made brooms to sweep all the ashes.”

Says Serene Boyd, 7: “It was dusty. Canoe dust got in my eye. But it was fun.” Tribe members held a ceremony when they put the canoe in the water before delivering it to the museum.

'A very big deal'

“It’s very much a handing down of traditions. Chenae reminds us that this isn’t something you learn on YouTube or TikTok. It’s taught to you by the elders,” Mangan says of the making of a mishoon. “You realize how much of a role the indigenous community has had in terms of maritime traditions and also environmental activism.” A video that followed the mishoon procedure “From Fire to Water” will be on display at the exhibit. “We have a whole jar of the ashes to incorporate into the gallery,” Mangan says.

The museum commissioned the mishoon and is also gifting funds for the Shinnecock to make another mishoon to keep for their community, Mangan says.

“This is a very big deal,” Shane Weeks, who worked as an apprentice on the mishoon creation, told the crowd when presenting the mishoon. “This is the first one in almost 15 years that our community has done.”

“We appreciate the trust given to us to take care of it,” said Erika Floreska, museum president.