Zig-Zagging Motorboat Swamps Canoe Crewed by Native Americans on Boston-to-New York Journey

What was supposed to be a celebration welcoming a group of paddlers canoeing across the Northeast, to the Shinnecock Territory, on Friday nearly turned into a tragedy when a passing powerboat kicked up a high and choppy wake, possibly intentionally, that swamped their canoe in the Shinnecock Canal, scattering its six-member crew and their possessions into the strong current.

The crew members, who included Chenae Bullock and Sienna Hunter-Cuyjet of the Shinnecock Nation and three other Native Americans, were rescued by a support boat, which itself was nearly swamped by the churning wake, and other Good Samaritans, who came to their aid as they were swept under the Montauk Highway bridge.

The Just Chillin’, a 40-foot boat from South Jamesport that swamped the canoe, did not stop.

Numerous people on shore reported the incident to Southampton Town Police starting at 6:07 p.m. Although a marine patrol boat responded, it was unable to locate the Just Chillin’.

The paddlers were able to right their canoe and bail out the water before triumphantly completing the day’s leg of their journey about an hour and a half later at Cuffee’s Beach on the Shinnecock Territory as the sun set. They were greeted there by an emotional crowd, given blankets and escorted to a waiting fire, where the group prayed, danced and sang before moving to the tribe’s community center for a potluck dinner and a presentation of gifts to the paddlers.

“Canoe Place and the Shinnecock Canal are both ancestral landmarks of the Shinnecock Nation,” Shinnecock Nation Chairman Bryan Polite said in a statement. “I was absolutely horrified by what I witnessed in the canal as a reckless boat driver capsized their mishoon,” a large wooden canoe.

“Southampton residents must understand that the Shinnecock people are interwoven into the very essence of Peconic and Shinnecock bays. No vessel should be allowed to disrupt and almost fatally harm our family. I thank the Creator that nobody was injured, but the experience left me shaken and extremely angry with the blatant disregard for my Shinnecock people.”

The canoe’s crew also included Hickory Edwards, a member of the Onondaga Nation, Ryan Ranco of the Penobscot Nation, Neil Benedict of the Oneida Nation, and Freddie Wilkinson of Madison, New Hampshire, who is writing about the journey for a book that will be published by National Geographic. Steve Anderson, a Vermonter, who has led paddle trips, was supposed to be on board but missed Friday’s leg of the journey because he wasn’t feeling well.

Bullock said Wilkinson had asked her to participate in the journey as a guide after coming to Southampton last year to participate in a paddle event she hosted at Conscience Point. She joined the others in Boston on June 1 for its leg to New York City, where they were expected to arrive on Wednesday, June 14.

The voyage, a year in the planning, was intended “to honor our traditional ways of paddling the mishoon along the ancient waterways of the East Coast of our shared ancestral territories,” Bullock had posted earlier this week.

It was important, she said later that evening, that the voyage pass through the Shinnecock Canal, which was originally dug by her ancestors, and make one of its stops at the Shinnecock Territory before continuing on to New York City.

Until the incident in the canal, it had been smooth sailing, according to Bullock.

“The waters have been so calm the whole way down,” she said. “As people of the water, we understand you have to put those prayers out on the water. And your energy has to be right. Sometimes it takes a while to get in the canoe — until we can come to one accord.”

Bullock said when the group was tossed from their canoe her mind went back to the Circassian, a ship that ran aground off Bridgehampton in 1876, killing 10 Shinnecock men who had been sent out to the ship to try to salvage its cargo when it was broken up in a second storm.

“I thought of my people having to witness this again,” she said. “But I prayed to the Creator and was able to stay calm.”

A small group of Shinnecock had gathered on the west side of Shinnecock Canal Friday afternoon, waiting patiently for the canoe, which was about six hours behind its originally scheduled noon arrival time.

Their arrival time had been pushed back to 2 p.m., and then to 5 p.m. Finally, at about 6 p.m. the canoe came into view to the north, moving smoothly and briskly in the swift current. The Shinnecock on shore began to sing to the accompaniment of drumming. Some, including Polite, waved the nation’s gold flag.

At the same time, the Just Chillin,’ a gray-and-white powerboat, was headed north through the canal. As it passed the Shinnecock assembly, it began to zig-zag through the narrow canal, creating a deep and choppy wake. Some onlookers said the boat appeared to have increased its speed as it passed the canoe.

Some members of the crowd at first cheered as the canoe’s crew tried to retain control as their boat was tossed this way and that way by the churning wake kicked up by the powerboat. But there were gasps and cries as the canoe turned sideways in the canal and was swamped by two direct hits from the waves. The boat then capsized, dumping the six crew members and their gear into the water.

A support boat that accompanied the canoe was also buffeted by the motorboat’s wake. It followed the canoe southward, plucking crew members and gear from the water. Good Samaritans also came to their aid. At least one of the paddlers swam to the east side of the canal, where he was helped onto a dock.

Wayne Duncan, a witness, estimated that the motorboat was traveling a minimum of 15 to 20 knots, about 20 mph, as it moved through the canal, where there is a 5 mph speed limit. “That was intentional,” he said.

Ferdinand Lee, who piloted the support boat, was more diplomatic.

“He definitely did not follow boating etiquette,” he said, adding that he was afraid his own boat was going to be swamped itself, as it nosedived between waves. “My co-pilot got knocked all the way to the back of the boat,” he said of Dudley Nation, who was also on board.

The two men credited Captain Denise Kliner, who was running a water taxi at the restaurant Rumba on the water just south of the Montauk Highway bridge. They said she helped them collect gear and directed them in righting the canoe, so it could complete its journey.

Southampton Town marine patrol responded to the scene. On Saturday, Town Police said the matter had been turned over to the New York State Police, who did not reply to a request for comment.