Matinecock, New York

The Incorporated Village of Matinecock is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 810 at the 2010 census.

History

The village was incorporated in 1928. In May 1998, Worth Magazine ranked Matinecock as the fifth richest town in America and the richest town in New York.

Geography

Matinecock is located at 40°52′20″N 73°35′4″W / 40.87222°N 73.58444°W / 40.87222; -73.58444 (40.872248, -73.584312).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.7 square miles (7.0 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 836 people, 285 households, and 216 families residing in the village. The population density was 315.6 people per square mile (121.8/km²). There were 313 housing units at an average density of 118.1 per square mile (45.6/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.05% White, 1.08% African American, 1.56% Asian, and 1.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.83% of the population.

Metoac

Metoac is a term erroneously used to describe Native Americans on Long Island in New York, in the belief that bands were distinct tribes of this location. Scholars now understand that these historic peoples were part of three major cultural groups: the Lenape, Wappinger-Wangunk-Quinnipiac and Pequot peoples, both part of the Algonquian languages family. The amateur anthropologist and U.S. Congressman Silas Wood published a book in the 19th century mistakenly claiming that several American Indian tribes were distinct to Long Island, New York. He collectively called them the Metoac.

Modern scientific scholarship has shown that Native American peoples on the island belonged to two major language and cultural groups among the Algonquian peoples who occupied Atlantic coastal areas from Canada through the American South. The bands in the western part of Long Island were related to those Algonquins which previously settled in the territory East of the Hudson river, related to peoples in what is now western Connecticut. Those to the east were more related culturally and linguistically to the Algonquian tribes of New England across Long Island Sound, such as the Pequot. Wood (and earlier colonial settlers) often confused Indian place names, by which the bands were known, as the names for different "tribes" living there.