Marian Mathison Desrosiers was an history educator of middle and high school students for thirty years and has been a professor at Salve Regina University for a dozen years. She was awarded Fulbright Fellowships to India and Russia. Her research for John Banister of Newport: The Life and Accounts of a Colonial Merchant (2017) revealed the vagaries and complexity of mid-eighteenth-century trade in New England. Dr. Desrosiers’ upcoming book focuses on John, Christian, and Thomas Banister during the War for American Independence. She has also published works on Irish immigrants and women in the judiciary and the military. She can be reached at marian.desrosiers@salve.edu.
Mary Laura Lamont is a park ranger at the William Floyd Estate, Fire Island National Seashore, and is in charge of museum collections, interpretive programs, exhibitions, and publications for the site. She has contributed many science and natural history articles for various publications. Mary has also been the long time Educational Chairperson for the Long Island Botanical Society, and the compiler of the historic Orient Christmas Bird Count.
John A. Strong is a Professor Emeritus of History and American Studies at Long Island University. He is the author of four major books, including The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island From Earliest Times to 1700, “We Are Still Here”: The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island Today, The Montaukett Indians of Eastern Long Island, The Unkechaug People of Eastern Long Island, and numerous journal articles on the Indian peoples of Long Island.
Christopher Verga is an instructor in Long Island History and Foundations of American History at Suffolk Community College and a contributor to the online local news site Greater Bay Shore. Published works include “Civil Right Movement on Long Island” and “Bay Shore.” Verga has his educational doctorate from St. John’s University. His dissertation work included Eastern Long Island Native Americans and the impact of tribal recognition within their cultural identity.