Why New York's Indigenous 'Kelp Community' Cultivates 'Seaweed Cousins'

On the eastern tip of New York's Long Island, a community of Indigenous Shinnecock women is cultivating kelp, not just as a crop, but as a means to heal the ocean and assert their sovereignty. The Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, operating a kelp nursery in East Hampton, are nurturing sugar kelp, a species related to Korean seaweed.

Their work is a direct response to environmental challenges. "If only we could surround Shinnecock Bay with kelp and protect it," says farmer Danielle Beagan Hobson, referencing threats like rising sea levels and superstorms. The community envisions surrounding their peninsula with kelp to revive marine life and restore the area to its former state. Donna Collen-Smith, another member, echoes this sentiment in the documentary 'Seaweed Stories,' stating, "I want to surround the peninsula we live on with kelp. Then marine life will come back, and it will return to its old form."

The cultivation of sugar kelp, which grows over 60 cm annually, is more than just farming. It's about restoring the relationship with the ocean and practicing sovereignty. The waters near Shinnecock Bay have long suffered from excessive development and chemical fertilizer runoff, leading to high nitrogen levels. Kelp absorbs nitrogen and carbon from the water, helping to re-establish the natural cycles of energy and life. Even in their five years of operation, the farmers have observed the return of scallops and seabirds to the area, species that had become scarce due to environmental degradation.

“

If only we could surround Shinnecock Bay with kelp and protect it.

This initiative also represents a reimagining of self-sufficiency for the Shinnecock people, a way of life that has been largely absent since World War II. Historically, the Shinnecock people inhabited much larger territories, but colonial settlers gradually encroached upon their lands. Disputes over resources, including seaweed, are documented, such as an incident in the mid-19th century when settlers took Shinnecock seaweed for fertilizer. These historical conflicts, including the "seaweed dispute," later became crucial evidence for the Shinnecock tribe's eventual federal recognition in 2010, a process that itself highlights the complexities of Indigenous sovereignty within a settler-colonial framework.

For Indigenous communities along the East Coast, preserving or revisiting pre-colonial ways of life is a profound challenge. While they continue to live on ancestral lands, the territory available to them is a fraction of what it once was. The kelp farming project thus extends beyond land rights, encompassing access to the coast, the ocean, and the stewardship of marine waters, offering a path toward a more holistic form of sovereignty.

“

I want to surround the peninsula we live on with kelp. Then marine life will come back, and it will return to its old form.