By Jeremy Walsh
The state’s plan to replace the 69−year−old Kosciuszko Bridge linking Maspeth with Brooklyn has attracted the attention of two additional native American tribes after the Federal Highway Administration ruled input was required from two other tribes that used to call Newtown Creek home.
The nearby Canarsie and Matinecock tribes, each about 300 strong, have asked the feds to be consulted on the project after the highway authority decided last month that a response from the Delaware Nation and Stockbridge−Munsee Mohican tribes was necessary before the state Department of Transportation could proceed with its project.
Perry Reid, a spokesman for the Canarsie, said his tribe was not upset, but a little confused when they read about the inclusion of the other two tribes, which are based in Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
“It didn’t seem right why they were contacting tribes so far away,” Reid said. “Maybe they didn’t know that we’re still here.”
The Canarsie ranged all over what is now Brooklyn; Hempstead, L.I.; Manhattan; and Staten Island, Reid said.
“We got pushed out, but we’re still in the area,” he said. “We just don’t have a land base.”
Chief Little Fox of the Matinecock Tribe on Long Island said he reached out immediately to the DOT when he heard the news reports.
“I’d just like to get the government to work with us and help us try to get us … some kind of land,” he said. “There’s nothing against the bridge that we are trying to put a stop on. We are not fighting people. We are the people who try to work with the government.”
The Delaware Nation and Stockbridge−Munsee Mohicans did not return phone calls by press time Tuesday.
DOT spokesman Adam Levine said the agency would like to have all four tribes “on board” as part of the project.
“If they’re interested in the archaeological aspects of the area or the design of the bridge, they are welcome to participate,” he said. “We expect to incorporate their views.”
Bob Singleton, former president of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, agreed that the area the bridge occupies was significant to native American history.
“One of the most significant villages in Queens was at the head of Newtown Creek in Maspeth,” he said. After the local Mespat tribe sold the land, they retained rights to gather salt grass and other herbal and ceremonial items from the creek, he said.
One former Maspeth resident, Ralph Soliecki, recalled doing an amateur archaeological survey of a site near the bridge in 1933 that turned up an old burned trader’s hut and other artifacts.
“We found arrowheads and other stone implements like scrapers and gouges and things like that,” Soliecki, 91, said.
State transportation officials expect the green light from the highway authority in February. The DOT has said it probably will begin construction on the bridge in 2010.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e−mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 154.
