Aquinnah is a town, formerly known as Gay Head, located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts. It was first settled in 1669 and was officially incorporated in 1870. Many year-round residents of Aquinnah are descendants of the Wampanoag Indians. Because of the extremely dangerous rocky ledge offshore, the seas around Aquinnah have always been a place of great peril to the mariner. One of the first revolving lighthouses in the country was erected atop the Cliffs in 1799.