Canarsee

Canarsee

(kənär`sē), Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languagesNative American languages,
languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arrival in the New World in the late 15th cent.
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). They occupied the western part of Long Island, N.Y., and sold the site of Brooklyn to the Dutch. They paid tribute to the Mohawk, and when they stopped paying and defied the Mohawk, they were almost destroyed. Eventually, the Canarsee ceased to exist as a distinct group.