Floy d students "double pleasure'
in a federal gum testing project
Rv
lMO DOE
By RORIM
ROBIN Vni
YOUNG
ROE
Approximately 450 William Floyd (middle
school) students will be asked to chew a pack of
gum a day for three years as part of a federallyfunded study of two different sweeteners.
Such a proposal by Dr. Gary Leske of the State
University at Stony Brook Department of Children 's
Dentistry was approved by the William Floyd School
Board Monday night.
Dr. Leske said his project would follow the guidelines of
a Finnish study which claimed that one of the natura l
sweeteners, Xylitol , actually reverses tooth decay.
The students will be examine three times during the
course of the study . Half will chew a gum sweetened with
Xylitol and the other half one sweetened with Sorbitol.
Both are natural sugars , Dr. Leske said.
Leske has a $220,000 contract with the National Institute
of Dental Reserach , the only contract of its kind in the
U.S. today, he said.
One sidelight of the program that was influential in the
board's deciding to accept the project is that classroom
aids-paid for by the federal grant-will be on hand for
several hours a day. Their duties as far as administering
the gum program are limited , Leske said , and they will be
available to help in other classroom duties.
According to the study guidelines, aids will hand out a
pack of gum (five pieces) a day to the partici pating
students who will chew three of the pieces during the day
for a minimum of five minutes. The other two pieces will
be consumed after school .
During vacations , Leske said , participants will be sent a
supply of gum at home with "enough for the other children
in the family. "
The "double your pleasure " Wm. Wrigley, Jr .,
Company which is supplying the gum for the federal
project , is test-marketing a new kind of sugarless chewing
gum-Orbit~which is sweetened with Xylitol, on the West
Coast.
Xylitol , which is said to have a sweetness comparable to
that of cane and beet sugar , is nearly twice as sweet as
two other sucrose substitutes-Sorbitol and Mannitol . It
has been approved as a sweetening agent since the early
1960s.
The reason Xylitol has not been a popular sweetener ,
Leske said , is because it costs $2.70 a pound , about 10
times as much as sugar. Consequently , the gum costs
more on the candy stand .
Xylitol is extracted from fruits , vegetables and plants
rich in xylan . In Finland it is dubbed "birch sugar "
because . the country 's abundant supply of birch trees is
used as the raw material.
The Finnish study was conducted on 125 dental students.
Leske said he would like to use fifth or sixth grader s
because that is the "high decay period" of a child's life.
Another 150 students in the three grades above the test
group grades will be given visual exams, Leske said , as a
control study.
MUSIC FOR A SCOTSM AN'S EARS was played Saturday night by bagpiper Jim McPhillips of the Suffolk County
Police Emerald Society Band at the East Moriches Presbyterian Church Scottish Dinner. More photos on page 3.
Tony Jerome Photo
It's not so quiet on the Mastic front
Indians on the Poospatuck reservation in Mastic - descendants
of the Unkechaug tribe - are feuding among themselves over a recent
federal audit and a council election that has put a former council
treasurer who misappropriated federal revenue sharing funds on the
tribal council.
Last Tuesday, April 12, Ronald Bell, who
was council treasurer when , according to a
federal aduit , $14,000 in federal revenue
sharing funds were improperly spent , was
elected a trustee .
Many members of the tribe, some
sources report , boycotted the election and
are now angry that the audit results were
not made known first.
The next day, a U.S. Treasury
Department auditor reviewed the use of
federal funds by council members and
found that some of it had been spent on
items such as food and cl eaning of the
reservation cemetery . These items are not
mentioned in federal guidelines for
permitted use of federal fu nds. In addition ,
some sources say, checks for the
expenditures were cashed without full
council meetings and discussions are
required by law.
On the other hand , he said , the state is
Now, Emmett Smith , the reservation 's
head trustee , has written to the state's responsible for settling Indian affairs but
supervisor of Indian welfare to ask that the must follow a prescribed set of guidelines.
election be voided.
He said he would try to contact Eleanor
But , Assemblyman I. William Bianchi ,
, the only person on the state
Patterson
said
Jr. (D-Bellport) contacted in Albany,
level
who
has direct contact with the
the state has "no power to override a
Indians,
to
decide a course of action .
council election."
Mastic has some living' Indian lore
The Unkechaugs are one of two Indian
tribes who at one time owned all the
"lands , meadows and waters " now
embraced by the Town of Brookhaven ,
according to local history books.
The Setalcots (or Setaukets ) owned the
northern part and the Unkechaugs the
southern part.
The territory of the Unkechaugs (a tribe
erroneously called the Pachaugs or
Patchogues in some annals ) began at the
small stream known as Namkee between
Blue Point and Bayport (or the eastern
boundary of the Secatogues of Islip) and
ran eastward as far as the western
boundary of the Shinnecocks of
Southampton , at Seatuck Creek in
Eastport. The Unkechaugs also claimed
the Atlantic Ocean as their south boundary
and the middle of the Island as their
northern bounnary . But , as the latter line
was also the south boundary of the
Setalcots ,"there is good reason to believe
that along this common boundary there
were marked trees , probably extending
from Lake Ronkonkoma to the headwaters
of the Peconic at Manorville ," historians
say.
Both the Setalcot and Unkechaug
Indians were federated with their sachems
(leaders) , with other Long Island subtribes under the protection of one great
chief or governor who was also the sachem
of the royal Montauk tribe .
At the time of the settlement of
(continued on page 1 6 B)