Updated October 14, 2024.
Long before Astoria was called Astoria, a creek known by the local Indigenous peoples as Sunswick, traveled northward from what is now Queens Plaza, up the present-day route of 21st Street, and opened into the East River, where Socrates Sculpture Park stands today.
The Indigenous inhabitants of the land surrounding Sunswick Creek were displaced as European colonists, and later on, Americans, settled in the area. The land itself suffered, too. Beginning in the mid-1800s, investors sought to turn the land into a residential and commercial hub, naming it "Astoria" after wealthy fur merchant John Jacob Astor. Sunswick Creek became polluted with the new inhabitants' waste and sewage. The increasingly stagnant water made its marshy surroundings a breeding ground for mosquitoes and disease.
By the turn of the 20th century, residents of the now-booming Astoria regularly clashed with local authorities over management of the creek and its detrimental impact on public health. The solution was to completely bury Sunswick Creek under new industrial buildings; its only visible remnant is a small inlet at the southern end of Socrates Sculpture Park.
Like Sunswick Creek, the history of Native Americans in New York is buried. The Lenape people of the New York City area did not leave written records, so much of what we know comes from the Europeans. Although European accounts of encounters with Native Americans are often full of bias, they shed light on the lesser-known presence of Indigenous peoples in modern-day Queens.
For centuries prior to the arrival of the Europeans, much of the Northeast, from Delaware to Connecticut, was known as Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape.
Astoria itself was not well-populated. Much of Western Queens overall was uninhabited hunting ground for the local tribes; the land between Long Island City and Corona was known in the Algonquin language as Wandownock, meaning “fine land between the two streams,” referring to the East River and Flushing Bay.
The name “Sunswick” was likely not the original name of the creek or the surrounding land; it is believed to have originated from the Algonquin term Sunkisq, meaning “woman chief” or “sachem’s wife.” The peninsula just north of the creek, now known as Hallett's Point, was known as Sintsinck, meaning “stony place," by the Native Americans.
A number of related Lenape peoples lived in other parts of what is now New York City. The Munsee subtribe dominated parts of Manhattan. The closest group to Astoria were the Mespeatches, who lived alongside Newtown Creek in what is now Maspeth, which derives its name from the tribe. Mespeatches in Algonquin means “bad water place,” likely referring to the stagnant water in the creek.
The Canarsee were another branch of the Lenape who primarily lived in Brooklyn, are the namesake of the Canarsie neighborhood there, and appeared to have a presence in Astoria as well. The Rockaway, as their name suggests, lived on and around the Rockaway peninsula, with theories abounding as to the etymology of the name and its geographic indicators. The Matinecock primarily dwelt in Northeast Queens and along Long Island’s north shore.
These names are debatable; it is uncertain whether the Indigenous peoples themselves actually identified as Mespeatches, Canarsee, or Rockaway, or whether Europeans assigned these names to people based on nearby locations, as was common practice.
The Dutch West India Company established the colony of New Netherland in modern-day New York and New Jersey on Lenape land. Its member Jacques Benfyn was the first non-Native landowner in now-Astoria, having been granted in 1638 a peninsula beneath the intersection of three waterways- the East River, the Harlem River, and the Long Island Sound.
This turbulent meeting point was called hellgat in Dutch, or Hellgate in English. Today, the Hellgate and Triborough Bridges pass over this very spot. The peninsula itself, formerly called Sintsinck, was renamed Hellgate Neck, and Benfyn built a grain plantation there.
Despite initially peaceful relationships with Native Americans in their colonies, the Dutch eventually turned to violence to eliminate the Indigenous population. From 1643-45, New Netherland Governor Willem Kieft led a two-year campaign of brutal raids against the Lenape, known as Kieft’s War, indiscriminately slaughtering, drowning, and mutilating men, women, children, and infants.
The local tribes, including the related Canarsee, likewise used violence to defend their homes from European conquest. During Kieft’s War, Benfyn’s plantation in now-Astoria was destroyed, along with many European farms and settlements. As a result, Kieft was fired from his post as governor, and was replaced in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant.
Five years later, in 1652, the first inhabitant of now-Astoria, British-born William Hallett, relocated to New Netherland from Greenwich, Connecticut and on December 1 of that year, bought Benfyn’s land on Hellgate Neck from Stuyvesant, supposedly in coordination with the Native Americans.
Hallett’s stay did not last long; in 1655, his farm was burnt down by Native Americans, likely the Canarsee, so he moved further inland to Flushing. Stuyvesant ordered all Europeans to leave their farms and move into the villages. The destruction of Hallett’s home may have been caused, at least in part, by Stuyvesant’s improper coordination with the Native Americans when selling the land to Hallett.
In 1664, the British took over New Netherland, renamed it New York, and deposed Stuyvesant. Hallett petitioned the new British governor, Richard Nicolls, for his former land back. To prove his initial purchase of Hellgate Neck, Hallett presented two Native Americans, Shawestcont and Erramorhar, under the authority of Mattano, “chief of Staten Island and Nyack.”
The Nyack were a subtribe of the Canarsee who originated in what are now Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, but, according to records from Hallett's 1664 sale, lived in "Shawcopshee on Staten Island." This apparent discrepancy may be owed to Chief Mattano's forced sale of much of southern Brooklyn and relocation of the Nyack to Staten Island, made under thread of Dutch attacks. This took place in 1652, the same year Stuyvesant originally sold Hellgate Neck to Hallett without full consent of the Natives.
Hellgate Neck was renamed Hallett’s Point, as it is still known today. Hallett’s property grew from a 162-acre farm to over 2,000 acres, stretching from what is now Broadway to Bowery Bay, extending eastward to what is now Steinway. The land remained in possession of the Hallett family for generations.
The New York colony grew and eventually gained independence. The area around Hallett’s Point was later renamed Astoria after John Jacob Astor, himself an immigrant from Germany, in order to attract investors, and since then has been one of New York City’s most sought-after neighborhoods by newly-arrived immigrants, young professionals, and real estate companies.
Meanwhile, the Lenape were decimated through war and disease, and the survivors were expelled from their homeland. Today, most Lenape do not even live in the New York City area. Their history prior to the colonial era is, in many ways, lost.
Nevertheless, names like Sunswick and Sintsinck are present today on street signs, bars, and playgrounds throughout Astoria, with little public knowledge of the stories behind the names, or of the creek buried beneath the buildings.
It is both possible and important to acknowledge the violence that is foundational to Astoria and New York City as a whole, while also celebrating the thriving, diverse neighborhood that Astoria is today.
The Lenape Center in Manhattan is led by Lenape elders with the goal of educating the public about the true history of the Lenape nation in New York, and honoring their continued presence and contributions to our society.