Long Island and Rhode Island. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor and purportedly landed at Coney Island. Adriaen Block followed in 1615 and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as "Sewanhaka" ("Sewanhacky" and "Sewanhacking" were other spellings in the transliteration of Lenape). "Sewan" was one of the terms for wampum (commemorative stringed shell beads, for a while also used as currency by colonists in trades with the Lenape), and is
Settler colonialism the United States, especially in the area of treaty rights and sovereignty. Much contemporary literature written by indigenous scholars and scholars within the field of American Indian Studies/Native Studies centers around recognising the disruptive effects that settler colonialism has had on Native American tribes, including land loss, destruction of tribal languages and cultures, and tribal efforts to maintain recognition of rights they have gained via treaties with the United States government. The United States has acknowledged its history of slavery, but has not yet publicly dealt with the historic violence of settler colonialism. Although settler colonialism is a racial issue,