How Native American People Lived on Fishers Island

Join us at the Museum for an illustrated talk with archaeologist John Pfeiffer who will give an overview of Fishers Island archaeology that focuses on the excavation of sites, artifacts discovered, and John’s interpretation of how Native American people lived on the Island. This talk is based on co-research during the 1980s and 1990s, with Dr. Robert Funk of the New York State Museum – which began as a survey of what had been discovered earlier, and evolved into a thorough study focusing on newly discovered sites, as well as scientific excavations of some of the earlier known places where prehistoric materials had been found. Together, the data generated a reasonable picture of how island resources were utilized by indigenous people and how the availability of such resources changed over time. Funk and Pfeiffer’s experience from mainland archaeological sites, when compared to the discoveries on Fishers, demonstrated a special island adaptation that permitted stable subsistence… View Source