Lubin Walter Michael Hunter Jr., known as “Tree,” of the Shinnecock Indian Reservation died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on May 28, 2018. He was 76.
Mr. Hunter was born May 2, 1942, to Lubin Walter Hunter Sr. and Regina Lois Hillburry Hunter in Brooklyn. He attended Catholic school and was baptized Michael, then confirmed as Francis. Mr. Hunter also attended Andrew Jackson High School where he was a 400-meter hurdler, and graduated June 1960.
He spent his summers on the Shinnecock Reservation, where he met and married Eleanor Wanda Hunter on June 23, 1962. The couple had two children, Wanda Hunter of Shinnecock and Michael Naiche Hunter of the Bronx. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 until his honorable discharge in 1967. After leaving military service, he worked as an agent in the advertising industry at Coolidge Company, and 29 years with the New York City Housing Authority as a supervisor.
Later he was a self-employed, and a “starving artist.”
In the 1970s, he became politically vocal for the American Indian movement. He also found time to play on the basketball team for the American Indian community house.
After retirement, he pursued his many interests, including reading, hunting, being a collector, a movie buff, an artist and a lover of music. He continued to pursue his education in traditional native language, culture and loved to powwow.
He is survived by his two children, Wanda Hunter of Shinnecock and Michael Naiche Hunter of the Bronx; two grandchildren, Allan Michael “Hondo” Hunter of Shinnecock and Ian Michael Naiche Reyes of North Carolina; two great-grandchildren, Mackenzie Eleanor Hunter and Delaney Millicent Hunter of Shinnecock; his 101-year-old father, Lubin Walter Hunter Sr.; siblings, Rene Christina Hunter, Wickham John Hunter, and Roberta Octavia Hunter Cuyjet; daughter-in-law Valerie Hunter; granddaughter-in-law Nakita Dawkins-Hunter; in-laws, Glenn Cuyjet, Lynda Hunter, Janet Hunter, Ralph Hunter and Jeff Hunter; nieces and nephews, Jade Lacroix, Eric Phillips, Micah Hunter, Sienna Cuyjet, Sequoyah Cuyjet and Sebastian Cuyjet; god-daughter Lynda M. “Poo” Hunter; companion Pamela Gavrity and lifetime friends, Phillip “The Beat” Brown IV, Edward “The Fox” Terry and Harry Wallace.
A wake was held at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton with funeral service at the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church.
on May 29, 2018