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In 1640, English colonists entered Shinnecock land. There they met peaceful, resourceful people who had been in the same geographical area for thousands of years. The Shinnecocks' land extended eastward to the Easthampton town line and westward to the Brookhaven town line, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Peconic Bay to the north.

In a gesture of friendliness, the Shinnecocks parceled out eight square miles of land to the settlers. Numerous unfair land transactions had by the 1850s reduced the tribe's holdings to its present eight hundred acres. A legislative act in 1859 designated this small neck of land as the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. It is located two miles west of the village of Southampton, New York, in Suffolk County.

There they met peaceful, resourceful people who had been in the same geographical area for thousands of years.

A remarkable, colorful and curious assertion. Without a written language, or being able to count past 100, I doubt very much that this can be substantiated.
Under the circumstances (and total hearsay), they might as well have been quoted as saying, "a million years," by the PC do-gooder who originally wrote this down.
The peaceful part, ditto.

In 1640, English colonists entered Shinnecock land. There they met peaceful, resourceful people who had been in the same geographical area for thousands of years. The Shinnecocks' land extended eastward to the Easthampton town line and westward to the Brookhaven town line, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Peconic Bay to the north.

Uh, no. There is little evidence that the eastern woodland tribes, like the Shinnecocks stayed in one place very long. The Shinnecocks may have lived on Long Island for hundreds of years. Or, they may have been new arrivals. There's no documentary evidence and the archaeological evidence--as far as I'm awared--is not conclusive. Even the "settled" Iroquoian tribes tended to move around a lot. Once they exhausted the game and soil in an area, they abandoned their palisaded villages and moved on. The Shinnecocks just happened to inhabit eastern Long Island when European settlers arrived. But that in itself is not proof that they had for thousands of years.

Furthermore, the North American continent was in a perpetual state of war and conflict before, during, and after the first arrival of Europeans. The system of blood-feuding that existed in the Eastern Woodlands meant that there zero, none, zip, nada "peaceful" tribes. That is pure mythology. If you lived in eastern North America, you were either raiding or in immediate danger of being raided.

Numerous unfair land transactions had by the 1850s reduced the tribe's holdings to its present eight hundred acres.

I've decided the last house I sold was an unfair land transaction. I want to go back and get $50,000 more for it.