Indigenous Voices: Shinnecock Kelp Farmers

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Before these guys were even born, we used to go out

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to the bay, uh, because we're surrounded by water.

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It was, it was, you know, um, it was beautiful,

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but we knew it was deliberate to shove us onto this you 800

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acre neck that's surrounded by marsh and swamp.

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And we were supposed to die

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of swamp fever within two generations back in 1859.

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And we didn't, we, so when we used to go out there,

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and I remember we could probably fill up whole garbage bag

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of scallops in an hour.

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We would get eels, snails, muscles, clams,

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anything, oysters, and, um, you know,

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it's not like that anymore.

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And our kids still go out there and our grandkids

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and everybody still goes out there.

16
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Um, and in my case, great-grandchildren, they go out there

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and they clams, but it's just not the same anymore.

18
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It's just like, um, it's too scarce.

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Uh, we're facing a water crisis right now.

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We have a lot of pollutants in the water.

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We have a lot of nutrients in the water, nitrogen

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and carbon that we're trying to extract to rehabilitate,

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uh, the marine habitat so that we can continue

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to subside on the shellfish

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and the fish that have sustained us for over 13,000 years.

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Here in our ancestral territory.

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Shinnecock has always had, um,

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a really strong connection to seaweed.

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Uh, it's an abundant natural resources that surrounds us in,

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uh, great quantity.

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And it's always provided for us in a number of ways.

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We have used it as a fertilizer for our crops.

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We have used it to insulate our

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homes, keep us warm.

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We've used it as a medicine and a food source,

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and we have reserved rights to seaweed,

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to collecting seaweed, harvesting seaweed,

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and cultivating seaweed, um, that are embodied in a set

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of cases called the seaweed cases.

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The whole subject of kelp kind of started coming up, um,

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probably in the last year or so.

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And, um, along with some other

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very important matters, it seemed like a solution.

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I already know, we've been told by our parents

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and grandparents and everybody

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that things aren't looking really that good on Long Island,

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and we all have to do our share.

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And so we said this is one of the solutions.

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This is a really important thing for us

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because along with our language reclamation,

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our land claims, everything else.

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This is like reclaiming another thing that we have

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to reclaim and put it back, um,

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to restore it in a, in a very positive

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and responsible way.

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We definitely encourage, um,

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regenerative ocean farming with Cal.

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It's an incredible way to clean the water,

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to protect the water for the next seven generations, as well

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as restore the natural habitat for any

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fish or shellfish.

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Um, it's really a complete ecosystem, a circle

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that we're looking to restore,

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to assist in any way we can revalue all plants,

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but especially our aquatic plants who do so much to, um,

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keep our mother earth beautiful, to clean our water,

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to protect our water, to watch over our water,

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and anything that we can do to help the bays,

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to help the ocean, to help the rivers, the streams, um,

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it will pay off for the next generation and the generation

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after that.