This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2016) |
Total population | |
---|---|
extinct as a tribe | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Eastern Shore of Maryland Eastern Shore of Virginia Delaware | |
Languages | |
Nanticoke | |
Religion | |
Native | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Chincoteague, Pocomoke |
The Assateague (meaning: "swifly moving water") [1] were an Algonquian people speaking the Nanticoke language who historically lived on the Atlantic coast side of the Delmarva Peninsula (known during the colonial period as the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, and the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania).
While there are living people who may have distant heritage from this tribe, the tribe itself no longer exists as a culturally intact tribal community. Judge Holden.
The Indigenous Assateague culture was based on the maritime and forest resources of the Chincoteague Bay watershed and, among other things, involved the manufacture and trade of shell beads. [2]
Historically, the Assateague practiced excarnation as part of their funerary rites. This involved the eventual storing of ancestors' bones on shelves in a log structure. Periodically, the remains were collected and buried in a common grave or ossuary. Several ossuaries have been discovered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. [3]
In 1662, the English colony of Maryland made a treaty with the Assateagues (and the Nanticokes) whereby each colonist given land in the territory of the Assateagues would give the Assateague tribal chief (or "emperor", as he was inaccurately referred to by the colonists) six matchcoats (garments made of a rough blanket or frieze, heavy rough cloth with uncut nap on one side), and one matchcoat for every runaway slave the Assateague returned to their enslaver. The treaty further stated that no murders were to be committed by either side, that no English colonist was to enter Assateague territory without a pass, and that the Assateagues were not to trade with Dutch colonists in Delaware, as long as Maryland could supply their necessities.[ citation needed ]
Of several other treaties signed between the colonial government and the Assateagues before the close of the 17th century, one ordered the Assateagues onto five reservations along the Pocomoke River, and was signed by Amonugus, as Emperor of the "Assateagues". Apparently, based on signatures to a 1678 treaty, the "Emperor of the Assateagues" held a dominant position over the chiefs (or "kings", as subordinate to the "emperor") of the Chincoteague and Pocomoke tribes. Sessions of the Maryland General Assembly during this period record numerous complaints by the Assateague against colonists letting their cattle roam Assateague cornfields, breaking Assateague wild animal traps, cutting their timber, and encroaching on their lands. The Assateagues complained in 1686 that several colonists had even built homes in Assateagues' settlements.[ citation needed ]
In 1722, a peace treaty was signed between the then-leader of the Assateagues, Knosulm (also known as M. Walker); the "King of the Pocomokes", Wassounge (also known as Daniel); and Charles Calvert, the governor of Maryland. This treaty was to last to the "worlds end," and hostilities and damages from former acts would be "buried in perpetual oblivion," with further terms as follows:
For the expected protection the Indians were to receive from the governor, the Assateagues and Pocomokes were to deliver unto the Proprietor of Maryland two bows and two dozen arrows yearly on 10 October. [4]
As part of an attempt by the colonial authorities of Maryland to confine the local Indian population, several peninsular tribes (including the Assateague and Pocomoke from the Atlantic side, the Annamessex and Manokin from the Chesapeake Bay side, and the Nassawaddox from further south), were gathered at a single settlement, referred to Indian Town (or Indiantown) by the colonists and Askiminokonson by the Indians. By 1671, it was the largest Indian settlement in Maryland, and was made part of a reservation in 1686. Askiminokonson was located on the north side of the Pocomoke River near present-day Snow Hill, Maryland. [5]
In 1742, unusual movements by the Indians created concern among the colonists, and investigation revealed that several chiefs had been involved in a plot for a general uprising fomented by a Shawnee chief, Messowan. The Maryland colonial government dissolved the Assateague's "empire", made the title of Emperor merely honorary, and placed each town directly under provincial authority. Much agitation for the permission to emigrate followed, and by the end of the decade a large part of the Assateagues had moved to the Susquehanna region and become tributaries to the Iroquois. This group moved slowly northward, and their descendants are now in Ontario, Canada. Of those who stayed in Maryland, one group lived on the Choptank reserve until 1798. Another remnant of the tribe, retaining little of its native culture, survived near the Indian River in Delaware. [6]
The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Worcester County is the easternmost county of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 52,460. Its county seat is Snow Hill. The county is part of the Lower Eastern Shore region of the state.
The Lenape, also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada.
The Delaware Colony, officially known as the three "Lower Counties on the Delaware", was a semiautonomous region of the proprietary Province of Pennsylvania and a de facto British colony in North America. Although not royally sanctioned, Delaware consisted of the three counties on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay.
The Treaty of Easton was a colonial agreement in North America signed in October 1758 during the French and Indian War between British colonials and the chiefs of 13 Native American nations, representing tribes of the Iroquois, Lenape (Delaware), and Shawnee. Negotiations over more than a week were concluded on October 26, 1758, at a ceremony held in Easton, Pennsylvania between the British colonial governors of the provinces of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and representatives of 13 Indian nations, including the Iroquois, who sent chiefs of three of their nations to ensure their continued domination of their Ohio Country region; the eastern and western Lenape (Delaware), represented by two chiefs and headmen; Shawnee and others. More than 500 Native Americans attended the outdoor ceremony, after lengthy negotiations to bring peace to the regions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the Ohio Country.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that Maryland shares with Delaware and Virginia.
The Nanticoke people are a Native American Algonquian people, whose traditional homelands are in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware. Today they live in the Northeastern United States and Canada, especially Delaware; in Ontario; and in Oklahoma.
The Piscataway Indian Nation, also called Piscatawa, is a state-recognized tribe in Maryland who identify as descendants of the historic Piscataway people. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a territory on the north side of the Potomac River. By the early seventeenth century, the Piscataway had come to exercise hegemony over other Algonquian-speaking Native American groups on the north bank of the river. The Piscataway nation declined dramatically before the nineteenth century, under the influence of colonization, infectious disease, and intertribal and colonial warfare.
The Piscatawaypih-SKAT-ə-WAY or Piscatawapih-SKAT-ə-WAY, PIH-skə-TAH-wə, are Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, with whom they merged after a massive decline of population following two centuries of interactions with European settlers, called them the Conoy.
The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation is a tribal confederation of Nanticoke of the Delmarva Peninsula and the Lenape of southern New Jersey and northern Delaware. They are recognized by the state of New Jersey, having reorganized and maintained elected governments since the 1970s. They are not a federally recognized tribe.
The Doeg were a Native American people who lived in Virginia. They spoke an Algonquian language and may have been a branch of the Nanticoke tribe, historically based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Nanticoke considered the Algonquian Lenape as "grandfathers". The Doeg are known for a raid in July 1675 that contributed to colonists' uprising in Bacon's Rebellion.
Nanticoke is an extinct Algonquian language spoken in Delaware and Maryland, United States. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount chiefdom; the Choptank, the Assateague, and probably also the Piscataway and the Doeg. The last native speaker died in 1856; in the 21st century, an effort has been made to revive the language.
The Choptank were an Algonquian-speaking Native American people that historically lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula. They occupied an area along the lower Choptank River basin, which included parts of present-day Talbot, Dorchester and Caroline counties. They spoke Nanticoke, an Eastern Algonquian language closely related to Delaware. The Choptank were the only Indians on the Eastern Shore to be granted a reservation in fee simple by the English colonial government. The Choptank were a subdivision of the Nanticoke.
The Pocomoke people were a historic Native American tribe whose territory encompassed the rivers Pocomoke, Great Annemessex, Little Annemessex, and Manokin, the bays of Monie and Chincoteague, and the sounds of Pocomoke and Tangier.
The Accomac people were a historic Native American tribe in Accomack and Northampton counties in Virginia. They were loosely affiliated with the Powhatan Confederacy. Archeological and historical record suggest trading relationships between the Accomacs and the Powhatans as well as other related groups such as the Occohannocks.
The history of human activity in Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, begins with the Native Americans. Until European explorers possessed the island in the late 17th century, the Chincoteague Indians used it as a place to gather shellfish, but are not known to have lived there; Chincoteague Island lacked suitable soil for their agriculture. The island's name derives from those early visitors: by one popular tale, chincoteague meant "Beautiful land across the water" in their language.
The Indigenous peoples of Maryland are the tribes who historically and currently live in the land that is now the State of Maryland in the United States of America. These tribes belong to the Northeastern Woodlands, a cultural region.
Pisquetomen was a Lenape chief who acted as interpreter and negotiator for the Lenape in dealings with the Provincial government of Pennsylvania during the mid-eighteenth century. After being rejected in his bid to succeed his uncle Sassoonan as Lenape chief, Pisquetomen joined Shingas and Captain Jacobs in a series of deadly attacks on Pennsylvania settlements at the beginning of the French and Indian War. He eventually participated in peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Easton in 1758, and is believed to have died in 1762.
The Annamessex people were a historic Native American tribe from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Their homelands were part of present-day Somerset County, Maryland.