THERE ARE FEW clues and much conjecture about Wyandanch, the Montakett chief who befriended Lion Gardiner and changed the course of Long Island history.

``I have always seen him as a strong man, a powerful man,'' said Robert Cooper. Born and raised in the Freetown section of East Hampton, Cooper traces his ancestry all the way back to Wyandanch. ``I think he might have looked like Stephen Talkhouse Pharaoh.''

A photograph of Pharaoh, himself a descendant of Wyandanch, that was taken in 1867 shows a tall, lean man with long, graceful fingers and shoulder-length black hair parted above his left eye.

The name Wyandanch, in different spellings, appears in only a handful of official records and personal letters. It is clear he was an influential man, a deal maker, and a man who put himself at the forefront of his people. The name is first mentioned in Lion Gardiner's account of the 1637 Pequot War, which he wrote in 1660.

In it, Gardiner writes, ``Waiandance, next brother to the old Sachem of Long Island,'' traveled to Connecticut to meet him and to discuss trade possibilities between his people and the English. If the Indians could trade with the English, Wyandanch told Gardiner, he would make tribute payments to him, as he had done with the Pequots. Tribute payments were a form of protection money. The Montauketts, and presumably other Long Island Indian groups, paid the powerful Pequots to leave them alone; now Wyandanch proposed the same relationship with Gardiner.

In the long view of history, what are we to make of Wyandanch? Did he seek an alliance with the English to protect his people or was he used by Gardiner and others to sell off his people's ancestral lands?

``Wyandanch has to be seen in the context of the times,'' said Long Island Indian scholar John Strong. With hundreds of Pequots killed in a matter of days, the English were now seen by Indian groups of the area as the new power on the scene, one that could dominate them the way the Pequots had.

``My fix on Wyandanch is that he was astute enough to recognize what the English represented in the aftermath of the Pequot War,'' Strong said. This would explain why Wyandanch approached Gardiner just days after the English assault on the Pequot fort.

``He was probably both a realist and an opportunist. He knew he had to make accommodations to protect the Montauketts. The English gave him a lot of trade goods and status that increased his power, which was their intention. But we can't know today what was in his head.''

History shows that, once Gardiner and Wyandanch met, their friendship lasted until Wyandanch's death. Gardiner said Wyandanch was ``a true friend to the English'' who warned them of threats made by northern Indians. He also tells of a time in the late 1640s when Wyandanch helped authorities in Southampton arrest two Indians for the murder of a white woman.

It is hard to know for certain today, Strong said, whether Gardiner was taking advantage of Wyandanch in hopes he would get favors later in terms of land deals.

``My first thought on that was that Wyandanch was a puppet used by Gardiner,'' Strong said. ``But I think that assessment is too simplistic and does not take into consideration what it meant to be a Native American on Long Island at that time.''

In 1660 -- a year after conveying 10 square miles of what is today Smithtown and Setauket to Gardiner -- Wyandanch was dead. In his account of the Pequot War, written that same year, Gardiner makes this comment about Wyandanch: ``. . . for in the time of a great mortality among them he died, but it was by poison; also two-thirds of the Indians upon Long Island died . . .'' Historians say this is a reference to a smallpox epidemic that year that killed thousands of Indians.

Strong said he suspects Wyandanch may have been poisoned by other Indian groups angered at him for selling their land to the English without their consent. Although there are records showing Wyandanch selling the English land in the western part of Long Island, far from his home territory, there is no hard evidence of his being murdered in retaliation.

Who had the motive to kill him? Perhaps the Corchaugs, on the North Fork, Strong speculates. Seeking to resolve questions about land ownership of large tracts, including Plum Island, Southold officials met in early 1659 with Wyandanch, hoping, it would seem, that he would sign on the dotted line and certify their ownership.

``Wyandanch asserted that the Corchaugs were not now, nor had they ever been, the owners of either the North Fork or Plum Island,'' Strong writes. The Montauketts owned these lands. A short time later, Wyandanch sold Plum Island to a Connecticut man for such items as a barrel of biscuits and some fish hooks.

The last document signed by Wyandanch involved a transaction with Lion Gardiner. In a letter, Gardiner said he was heartbroken at his friend's death. After his death, no Long Island Indian emerged as a deal maker for the English, nor do sachems -- chiefs of their bands -- appear in the record books. None was needed, since so much of the land was now in English hands.

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