Before the Quarantine Grounds: The Indigenous Peoples and the First European Immigrants 

Dr. Robert Marraccino and Dr. Michael Vigorito  will continue to educate us about the Quarantine Grounds. They previously spoke to us about the Quarantine which stood on the present site of the National Lighthouse Museum and the burning of the Quarantine by Staten Islanders because of imagined infectious clouds (miasmas) of disease billowing over the walls.

On March 10, 2019 the duo will speak about The Indigenous Peoples and First European Immigrants to inhabit the site.

When Giovanni da Verrazzano and his crew sailed on La Dauphine into the New York Bay in 1524 they encountered many indigenous peoples in and around the waters of the upper bay - the Lenape Indians.  When the crew of La Daupine briefly set foot on land it was most likely on or near the grounds that would later become the Quarantine Grounds. These explorers and the subsequent first European immigrants, who viewed this place as a “new world”, brought infectious disease and conflict that would ultimately lead to the expulsion of the Lenape.

This talk will examine evidence of the presence of the indigenous Lenape on Staten island.  Some of the evidence is based on artifacts and human remains collected by amateur relic hunters and professional archeologists, but this evidence alone gives the wrong impression that the Lenape are an ancient and lost group of people.  We will also explore the ethnohistorical evidence of the original inhabitants of Staten Island revealing that the Lenape are very much alive although displaced from the homeland that their ancestors once called Eghquaons and Aquehonga Manacknong.

We hope you'll join us for an enjoyable afternoon. Tickets are $10 for guests and $5 forMuseum members. Light refreshments will be served.