Mapping Meaning, the Journal (Issue No. 1)

On This Site
Jeremy Dennis
Left | Manitou Hill, Plainsview NY
Manitou Hill is a sacred hill located
on what is now known as Manetto
Hill in Plainview, New York. An oral
story, recorded by historian Gabriel
Furman in 1874, describes a legend
during a great drought. The Manitou
instructs a sachem through a dream
to stand at the top of Manetto Hill
and fire an arrow into the air, and
on the spot where the arrow lands,
people should dig until they find
water. The water spring that was
found, called Mascopas, is now
beneath a local high school athletic
field. Manitou is known in traditional
systems as the powerful and unseen
power throughout the universe,
being present during moments of
the miraculous and mysterious.
On This Site is an art-based research project
by Shinnecock Nation tribe member and
artist Jeremy Dennis intended to preserve
and create awareness of sacred, culturally
significant, and historical Native American
landscapes on Long Island, New York. Native
people existed throughout Long Island for
more than ten thousand years. We are still
present here today, and we will continue to
be here. While historical sites remain, they
have been made invisible by colonial forces.
Photography, as an entry point to history,
invites curiosity. Both indigenous and nonindigenous
viewers will likely be unfamiliar
with both the landscapes and histories
associated with each site documented in
On This Site.
Through curiosity about my own origin and
ancestral history, I gathered and combined
archaeological, anthropological, historical,
and oral stories to answer essential culturaldefining
questions: Where did my ancestors
live? Why did they choose these places?
What happened to them over time? Do these
places still exist?
Issue N o 1
23