Beadwork

• For centuries, the Shinnecock practiced beadwork, the craft of weaving beads together on a specialized thread or attaching beads to the surface of clothing, baskets and other items. The Shinnecock have been making fine, cylindrical beads from quahog clam shells and whelk shells called wampum. These beads were white or purple in color, and they were woven into pottery, textiles and baskets, or strung together to make belts, headbands and other decorative pieces. During the 1700s wampum produced by the Shinnecock and other tribes of the New England coastline became so prized it became the basis for currency among European settlers and Native Americans.
  
  

Basket Weaving

• Basket weaving was an important craft in traditional Shinnecock culture, and today a few families on the reservation still make baskets using traditional methods. The Shinnecock used baskets for cooking, storage and to scoop oysters, clams and fish out of rivers and calmer coastal waters. Baskets crafted by the Shinnecock were various shapes and sizes, depending on their intended purpose, and typically made of flexible strips made of oak and maple wood.
  
  

Canoe Making

• The Shinnecock hand-crafted dugout canoes by hollowing out large trees with a wide girth, often birch, to navigate inland waters and to go fishing in the ocean. In addition to a wide array of once-plentiful fish, the Shinnecock pursued whales in their dugout canoes from the coastline of Long Island. These huge dug-out canoes could often accommodate up to 20 or 30 individuals, but they could also be easily maneuvered and even carried over land by just a few people.
  
  

Pottery Making

• Like nearly every other Native American tribe across the continent, the Shinnecock became well-practiced pottery makers who used the items they made on a day-to-day basis. Consistent with other Algonquin tribes of the area, the Shinnecock Indians first carved pots and bowls out of soft soapstone before adopting ceramic pottery making methods to produce cookware, storage vessels and decorative pieces. Pottery items are still crafted using traditional methods by some families on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on the south side of Long Island.