Human Activity on Long Island

Long Island was settled by various Native American Indian tribes long before European settlers arrived. There were 13 tribes settled on Long Island the Matincock, Nesquake, Setalcott, Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhasset, Montauks, Canarsee, Rockaway, Merrick, Marsapeague, Secatogue and the Unkechaug, these tribes also had many parts with thier own names. Many of the names of rivers and features bear indian names and so do some towns. (http://www.richmondhillhistory.org/indians.html#IndianTribes)

During the first phase of  European settlementLong Island was originally a Dutch colony, but eventually became an English Colony. Most of the immirgrants coming to Long Island were from northern and western Europe, followed by a shift to southern and eastern European imigration. For Long Island this was quite a few Italian and Slavic peoples, although there was a large Irish immirgration but the Irish were considered undesirable as much as the Italians and eastern Europeans. Long Island was largely settled by the time the United States came to being in 1776.

Today the population of Long Island is still largely white of European decent as shown by the slides from lecture, the Black, Asian, Latino and Native American populations of Long Island are incredibly low by percentage. Long Island is not a very ethnically diverse culture of people. Among many factors that inhibit tihs is the cost of living on Long Island, being high, is not conducive to many of the minority populations in the United States. The racial/cultural lack of diversity was evident when I was growing up, when I graduated high school out of my graduating class of 254, there were no black students, Indians and Asians make up the rest of the minorities there were less than 10 of them combined at that time. Many of the towns on Long Island repeat this pattern, some are more culturally diverse than others but it seems that the further east on Long Island that you get, the more homogenous the population, with proximity to New York City (NYC) bringing more ethnic and cultural diversity.

The lack of cultural differences is also shown in the predominate religions on Long Island. Overwhelming Catholic and Christian there are almost all other religions represented but in the vast minority. For example in the town I grew up in when I graduated high school 95% of my classmates where a denomination of Catholicism, my town of 16,000 people had 12 churches along the lines of Christianity, no mosques, 1 very tiny Synagogue, and there was only 1 Mormom temple in all of Suffolk County at the time I was growing up.

According to 2010 Census you can see a shift in racial/ethnicity as you move away from NYC towards Suffolk County (which is where I grew up). And according to the Association of Religion Data Archives for 2000 a  shift towards Catholic/Christian denominations.

 

Racial Groups, ethnicity, and religoius groups on Long Island Compated to State and Nation
County	Population 2010 Census	% white	% Black or African American	% Asian	% Other	% Mixed Race	% Hispanic/Latino of any race
Kings	2,504,700	42.8	34.3	10.5	9.3	3	17.6
Queens	2,230,720	39.7	19.1	22.9	13.7	4.5	57.5
Nassau	1,339,532	73	11.1	7.6	5.9	2.4	14.6
Suffolk	1,493,350	80.8	7.4	3.4	5.9	2.4	16.5
LI Total	7,568,304	54.7	20.4	12.3	9.3	3.2	20.5
NY State	19,378,102	65.7	15.9	7.3	8	3	17.6
USA	308,745,538	72.4	12.6	4.8	7.3	2.9	16.3
source is the 2010 US Census

County	Population 2010 Census	% Catholic	% Not Affilaited	% Jewish	% Protestant	Estimate of % not reporting
Kings	2,504,700	37	4	15	8	33
Queens	2,230,720	29	37	11	5	15
Nassau	1,339,532	52	9	16	7	15
Suffolk	1,493,350	52	21	7	8	11
LI Total	7,568,304	40	18	12	7	20
NY State	19,378,102	42	20	9	10	16
USA	308,745,538	22	37	2	23	12
source is the Association of Religion Data Archives for 2000

As you can clearly see, the population density decreases as  you move away from NYC with Nassau County being very urban and as you move into Suffolk county it gets less and less urbanized, until near the east end of Long Island you have farms and vinyards and open protected spaces.

To show an example of the different levels of urbanization of Long Island, here is a a video of the North Fork of Long Island, specifically over Cutchogue. Notice there is farmland, and lots of open space, not what most people assume are qualities of Long Island.

To contrast here is a cockpit view of a plane landing at LaGuardia airport, which is on the North shore of Long Island close to NYC. You can notice a vast difference in the developement along the ground as far as buildings, lack openess and space.



I hope this gives you a sense of the diversity of Long Island, and takes away some of the stereotype that Long Island is just an extension of NYC, because it is certainly not.