Unlike many New Yorkers who are just now losing their native inflections, much of the state's Indian population hasn't had a mother tongue for centuries. Shinnecock and Unkechaug are two extinct Long Island languages that tribal leaders and academics want to bring back to life, the Times reports. Ultimately they'd like Native American kids to start learning the languages in school: “When our children study their own language and culture, they perform better academically,” said Chief Harry Wallace, elected leader of the Unkechaug Nation. “They have a core foundation to rely on.” more ›

Even engaging in dirty politics couldn’t save the Seneca Indians’ mail-order cigarettes. On Thursday the Senate unanimously voted to ban tobacco sale through the mail, a business largely practiced by West NY's Seneca Nation. The House gave its stamp of approval to the bill last spring, but it was sidetracked when the Native Americans took up aggressive lobbying, getting other tribes on board and threatening to spend $250,000 on a smear campaign of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who supported the bill. The Senecas dubbed their efforts “a 21st-century Little Bighorn-type battle,” reports the Times. In a statement, their president was enraged: “Not one senator stood up for Indian Country; they should be ashamed of themselves for selling out our rights and local jobs” he said. more ›

One of the largest casinos in the world, Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, is losing ground because of a set of bad wagers. Now with earnings dropping every year, it's just a question of how long the Indian-operated dice joint is able to stay at the table. Foxwoods, run by the Mashantucket Pequots, has the most slot machines of any casino world-wide. But according to the Times "slot revenue fell by 13.5 percent to $709 million in the 2008-9 fiscal year from a high of $820 million in 2004-5. In November, the tribe announced it was paying only $14 million on a $21 million debt payment." In total the betting house is $2 billion in the hole. more ›

The Seneca Nation is pressuring Governor Paterson to veto a bill that would tax cigarette sales to non-Indians; officials estimate the tax could generate $400 million in revenue, and Mayor Bloomberg recently said that tax revenue could save us from MTA fare hikes. The tribes argue that treaties dating to the 19th century make them exempt from state sales taxes; greedy white man legislators insist that sales to non-Indians are taxable. The debate is happening against the backdrop of a looming $6.4 billion deficit, and the Sun reports that Paterson could sign the bill as early as next week. But Seneca lawyer Robert Odawi Porter warns that would hurt the tribe's employment of 5,000 people and other economic benefits for western New York: "The state still comes out ahead. It just doesn't go into the Albany trough." more ›

THEATER: We saw Fiona Shaw in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days on Saturday and highly recommend it. Shaw is mesmerizing in her performance as Winnie, crystallizing in her 90-minute virtuoso performance all the desperation, self-delusion and absurdity of an entire lifetime. (Her little-seen costar Tim Potter is also a hoot as Willie.) The production is as bitterly funny as it is affecting, and, as a metaphor, the blasted landscape that devours Winnie is as potent as it was in 1960, when the play was written. In our interview with Fiona Shaw she mentioned talk of a Broadway transfer, but don't take any chances; see it at BAM before it closes on February 2nd. – John Del Signore more ›

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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MOVIES: A lavishly restored print of Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s visionary film The Holy Mountain has been making the rounds this year; it’s back again this weekend at IFC Center for a pair of midnight screenings. First released in 1973, The Holy Mountain has grown into a cult classic for its surreal, psychedelic imagery and a serpentine, metaphysical storyline, which takes as inspiration, among other things, "The Ascent of Mt. Carmel" by St. John of the Cross and the idea of a mountain uniting heaven and earth. more ›

MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two... more ›

New York may have a casino in Vegas, but it has never had one in...New York. Well, not in quite some time -- though it is documented that there were casinos on Broadway in SoHo in the early 1800s (and of course in the 1900s there were places like Chumley's that secretly served as gambling dens). To legally gamble within city limits these days you only have a couple of options: OTB or the NY State Lottery. more ›

The Yankees' season ended last week, but the team is still a hotbed of activity. A group of executives for the Bombers will be meeting in Tampa, FL early next week to come to a decision regarding the fate of Joe Torre, the team's manager. George Steinbrenner, who made a name for himself as an eager firer of managers before taking an involuntary break from baseball, declared that he'd like to fire Torre after last... more ›

However, they still trail 2 games to 1 and Joe Torre’s neck is still on the line. Torre has done the right thing and announced that Chien-Ming Wang will start tonight on short rest. Wang gives the Yankees a better chance of wining than Mike Mussina, but keeping Cleveland in check will not be easy. To make matters worse, Joba pitched two innings Sunday and Mo one, so their availability in a close game is in question. What happens later tonight is impossible to predict, but at least we have another game to watch. more ›

Stuyvesant High School is known for many things - high SAT scores, award winning students, and admission to elite universities. Football is certainly not of of those things. A new documentary, The Peglegs of Stuyvesant High, airing tonight at 6:30 pm on CSTV, focuses on the 2006 Stuyvesant Peglegs (named after Peter Stuyvesant, who had a wooden leg). Coming off a winless 2005 season, new coach Brian Sacks tries to lead his team to its first winning season in years, but is up against parents that would prefer that their students join the chess team and some players that have never played football before. more ›

This past week, the big wedding wasn't even real! According to the many paparazzi photographs of the Sex & the City movie filming, it seems that Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw is finally stepping down the aisle. With, we assume, Mr. Big. The wedding between the fictional sex columnist-turned-author and the rich business guy (it's never been totally clear what Big does, except smirk and show up at the right and wrong times) took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The bride wore Vivienne Westwood, her bridesmaids did not wear matching bridesmaid gowns. We'll know more when the movie comes out next year. more ›

Tonight, the Yankees will face off against the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium, and many hope the Bronx Bombers can avoid the sweep (and mayflies) and claw their way back to winning this first round of playoff games. Since things are so nerve-wracking, we thought some Yankees fans - and even haters - might be find this Village Voice story funny. more ›

And, that was devastating for the Yankees because their bats have been extinguished by great pitching by the Indians. Fausto Carmona was amazing, allowing three hits over nine innings and Rafael Perez dominated the Yankees for a second night. When the Yankees used up Joba and Mo it was only a matter of time. Luis Vizcaino walked the leadoff batter and after the bases were loaded, Travis Hafner lined a 3-2 pitch for a single and the game-winner. more ›

• IIndians 12, Yankees 3: Well, that didn't go as planned. Chien-Ming Wang didn't have his sinker, gave up a ton of two-out and two-strike hits, and the Yankees got buried. Their patient bats wore out C.C. Sabathia, but they only got three runs for their efforts against him, and that wasn't nearly enough given the way Wang pitched. Then they stunk up the joint against the Indians bullpen, but by them the game was over. It's only one in a five-game series, but the Yankees have an uphill battle. Remember who's likely pitching in Games 3 and 4: Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina. Andy Pettitte will face Fausto Carmona in Game 2 on Friday. Want a positive spin? The Yankees have never lost a division series in which they have lost the first game. That includes 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004. Those teams were better than this one though.
• Rangers 5, Panthers 2: A sluggish second period couldn't slow down the Rangers, who lit the lamp four times in the final session to pick up a win in their season opener. Who knows what Tom Renney said in the dressing room during the intermission, but it worked. The Rangers got three goals in two minutes and two in 12 seconds. Chris Drury, one of the big offseason signings, got a goal in a five-point performance.
• Lightning 3, Devils 1: Things didn't come up roses for the Devils, who started a season-opening nine-game road trip with a loss in Tampa Bay. Why the long trip? They're waiting for their new arena.
• FC Toronto 2, Red Bulls 1: Ah, the own goal. Soccer players' way of giving back -- to their opponents. Blame this one on Chris Leitch, who kicked the ball into his own net for the deciding score. New York will have to wait for a playoff berth.
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Historical ecologists and research cartographers are using historical pre-Revolution military maps produced by the British to create a 21st Century digital rendering of the topography of Manhattan in the 17th Century, before the arrival of European colonists. The New Yorker has a slideshow of a number of images that are attempts to show Manhattan as it was occupied solely by Lenape Indians. The basis for the topographical model was drawn from this 1782 map* drawn up by the British military to help defend the colony from George Washington and the Continental Army. The image above is a rendering of what a 17th Century Times Square looked like in comparison to West 42nd St. today. more ›

• Yankees 11, Indians 2: We thought things were supposed to be tougher for the Yankees when they played winning teams, but that doesn't seem to be the case. While Mike Mussina allowed one run in the first inning, the Yankees scored all they would need in the second when they tagged Paul Byrd for 7 runs. The inning included a two-run homer by Alex Rodriguez, who added another two-run shot in the 8th inning. While each Yankees starter had a hit, Jose Molina had four hits and Derek Jeter had three for the 2nd night in a row. The home runs by A-Rod continues his streak of home runs against Cleveland this year. He's now hit one in each of the five Yankees-Indians games this season.
• Marlins 7, Mets 5: It was looking good for win #301 for Tom Glavine until the Mets bullpen entered the game. Handed a 3-1 lead in the 7th inning, Guillermo Mota proceeded to load the bases full of fish (he inherited 1 runner, to be fair) before giving up a grand slam to Josh Willingham. The Mets bailed Mota out in the bottom of the 7th, scoring two runs to tie the game, but Aaron Heilman was quick to give the Marlins the lead again in the 8th inning. David Wright had two home runs (two-run and solo) to the left field bleachers in the loss.
• Doubledays 3, Cyclones 0: Auburn took the lead with a two-run bases loaded single in the 1st and never looked back. Brett Cecil and three relievers held the Cyclones to five hits in the victory.

• Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally as impressive as Hughes, if not more so, was Joba Chamberlain who pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings. Chamberlain picked up one strikeout in the 7th before striking out the side in the 8th. The win put the Yankees in a tie for first-place in the Wild Card standings and gave them the same record as the Mets (not that it matters).
• Marlins 4, Mets 3: Perhaps it was the cold weather that pushed Billy Wagner into the blown save territory last night. Wagner, who hasn't exactly inspired confidence recently, blew only his 2nd save of the season. Wagner allowed a two-run double by Hanley Ramirez in the 9th to spoil the return of Carlos Beltran from an oblique strain. Beltran had the go-ahead, three-run homer in the 5th inning, but the Mets were unable to capitalize on a night that the Braves loss.
• Cyclones 4, Doubledays 3: Brooklyn won its third straight game last night by defeating the Doubledays. The Cyclones took the lead in the 7th with a two runs in the inning. Doubledays starter Marc Rzepczynski had a career high 10 strike outs in six innings of work.

THEATER: The annual Soho Think Tank Ice Factory, arguably New York’s most impeccably curated theater festival, has been hosting an exhilarating array of new shows every weekend since July 4th . Starting tonight you can sink your teeth into Vampire University, in which “a struggling vampire family descends on an evangelical college in the Midwest, the dad’s mid-life crisis of immortality triggers a desire to come back to life and the gulf between first and second generations vampires has never seemed greater.” Scored to live Theremin! John Del Signore more ›

• Yankees 9, Royals 2: After scoring 38 runs in two games, nine runs in one game doesn't seem like much. What's wrong with these bums? Only eight of nine starters scored a run. Even though all nine starters had hits, six of them managed just one. That kind of weak production just isn't going to get it done. Roger Clemens threw seven innings of two-run ball. He didn't walk a batter and struck out three, but the Yankees' five-run ninth made things a little less dramatic. When Ron Villone pitches the ninth inning, things are going really well or really poorly. more ›

• Yankees 6, Blue Jays 1: Roger Clemens gave up a run in the first and didn't dazzle anyone with his brilliance during six innings, but that first-inning strike was all the Blue Jays would get. They would go on to rue their missed opportunities after Shaun Marcum controlled the Yankees for six innings before Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run double to start a four-run eighth. more ›

• As baseball takes it's yearly break to play a somewhat meaningless game, there was so much mutual respect between Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez that we almost think that Barry and A-Rod should get a room. With Bonds on the verge of Hank Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs, Bonds said that when Rodriguez breaks his in the future, he'll be there. “And when you do, you don’t have to worry about calling me. I’ll call you. If you want me there, I’ll be there. I’ll be there in a heartbeat.” Bonds, who is 42, is only four homers away from tying Aaron and Rodriguez is at 494 career home runs at the age of 31. What did A-Rod say about Barry? “I love Barry. I’m one of his biggest fans. If you think about his work on the field over the last 20 years, it’s been second to none, maybe Babe Ruth or the all-time greats."
• Speaking of A-Rod, Shaun Powell thinks that it's no longer a question of whether Rodriguez is good enough for the Yankees next year, but a question whether the Yankees are good enough for A-Rod. Rodriguez can opt-out of the final years of his contract, making him a free agent next year. Powell's reasoning? The Yankees are no longer contenders, but a team that's headed in the wrong direction. A team that has less of a chance to win a title than the Indians, Tigers, or Brewers.
• Down in the Minor Leagues, Lastings Milledge is on the mend from his strained ligaments and could return the the bigs after the All-Star break. Milledge is lighting it up with AA Binghamton, hitting .435, with three home runs, a double, a triple and eight RBI. L Millz, who last made news when rapping, is heading to the Cyclones to keep playing through the All-Star break. Milledge's recovery couldn't come sooner for the Mets, who have three outfielders on the DL.

The Abora 3 itself is “old school” to say the least. Built of 12 tons of bundled reed by the Aymara-Indians in Bolivia, the Abora III was shipped to Liberty Harbor, New Jersey to be prepared by Gorlitz and his crew. more ›

READING: Today NY Mag asks, "What does Tina Brown have to do to get some attention?" Well tonight she's signing copies of her new book (a tell-all on Princess Di) called The Diana Chronicles. more ›

Five minutes into the third period, Matt Cullen unleashed a vicious slapshot that caromed off the top crossbar and appeared to bounce out of the crease. Replays showed the puck had bounced down into the goal and the Garden erupted when the tally was put on the scoreboard. more ›

Michael Nylander had a hat trick and an assist, while Ryan Callahan had two goals and Henrik Lundqvist had 21 saves. Now, they need to complete the sweep tonight at the Garden. more ›

The Villager is reporting that the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation last week submitted a report calling for the creation of a South Village Historic District. Comprised of 38 blocks and about 800 buildings, it would be the city’s first tenement-based district. more ›