ost of the Matinecock, the Native American group Indigenous to what is now eastern Queens, were either killed or driven east to Long Island in the 17th century, but in 1931 a large native burial site was excavated by developers at the Zion Church on Northern Boulevard in Little Neck, where some of the last native speakers are likely interred today. A modern-day tribal leader, Osceola Townsend, has said that some 200 Matinecock families live in and around Queens, and the group is still fighting for official government recognition.