The Lost Souls of Northeast Queens

It sounds like the plot to Tobe Hooper's 'Poltergeist' — the desecration of an ancient Indian Burial ground; the disappearance of hundreds of native peoples laid to rest at what would later become a suburban slice of modern America.

But the story is really about a  piece of Little Neck's past.

The year was 1931, and by decree of the city, Northern Boulevard — then known as Broadway — was to be expanded to the outer reaches of the Queens-Nassau border into Little Neck.

To clear the way for the new thoroughfare, the remains of some of those laid to rest in an ancient Matinecock burial ground were to be re-interred at .

"But where are all their remains?" asked Donna Barron, a Matinecock descendant who claimed that many of her ancestors buried in those sacred lands never made the move.

According to Barron, the 10-acre plot encompassing a triangle with points at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Little Neck Parkway, Jesse Court and 43rd Avenue, used to be the final resting place for hundreds of Matinecock.

"If you look at the register of Matinecocks that actually made the move to the mass grave at Zion church, there are only 13 names on it," Barron said. "Which seems odd when you consider that my people lived in this area for thousands of years and used that land to bury our dead for at least a couple of hundred."

The history of the Matinecock in Queens is believed to predate the birth of Christ, with the early members of what was an offshoot of the Lenape Indians of Delaware settling the area in 1200 B.C., according to Mandingo Tshaka, spokesperson for the Matinecocks of Flushing.

"They were the largest group living on Long Island, before the Dutch settlers began colonizing in 1609," Tshaka said. 

Soon plagued with European diseases and battles between white settlers over land rights, the Matinecock nation quickly vanished once the early Dutch and English settlers staked their claims on Long Island. 

"By roughly the 1730s, all Matinecock villages on Long Island were gone," Tshaka said. "And the remaining tribe members assimilated into the European communities." 

Today a at Zion Episcopal Church reads: "Here lies the last of the Matinecock," marking the tribe's burial ground.

"But there are still some of us around," points out Eric MaryEa, documentary film maker and producer of 'The Lost Spirit,' a film that focuses on the moving of the Matinecock Burial ground. 

"It's important we protect future generations, by teaching everyone about this history, and make sure nothing like this ever happens again," MaryEa said.

Still, some tribe members say it's hard to look forward without knowing exactly what has happened with the remnants of their past.

"I just want to know definitively where my ancestors now rest," Barron said. "And what happened to all the artifacts they were buried with."