Wesorts (also We-Sorts) is a name for a group of Native Americans in Maryland who are from the Piscataway tribe. It is regarded as derogatory and a pejorative by some, and rarely used by the current younger generation.[ further explanation needed ] The Piscataway were powerful at the time of European encounter. Many individuals with the surnames Proctor, Newman, Savoy, Queen (name), Butler, Thompson, Swann, Gray, and Harley claim that Native heritage. Many are notably of a mixed-race between black, white, and Native American. "Some members of the Piscataway Indian groups now consider the name Wesort derogatory." [1] Historian Frank Sweet lists "Wesorts" as among a group of "derogatory epithets given by mainstream society, not self-labels". [2] However, "Wesort" is listed as a self-identified "Other race" on the 2000 United States Census. [3]
In the early 1930s, weekend-farmer Alice Ferguson noticed that people were finding small artifacts in her fields and decided to do some digging around, according to newspaper reports. Between 1935 and 1939, she uncovered at least five mass-burial pits containing the 300-year-old remains of about 500 Piscataway people. Over the years, she gave most of the remains, the bones from about 467 individuals, to the Smithsonian Institution. She called the trust to come pick up what was left—the very partial remains of 36 individuals—said Hughes. The trust has determined that the remains are of Piscataway people. Alice and Henry Ferguson wrote and the Alice Ferguson Foundation published The Piscataway Indians of Southern Maryland in 1960. State officials say that most of the about 25,000 Native Americans who live in Maryland are Piscataway. [4]
Wayne Karlin's novel The Wished For Country (2002) represents the origins and struggles of the Wesorts as a multicultural people in the early days of Maryland's first European settlement at St. Mary's City. The Los Angeles Times reviewed The Wished-For Country as a contribution to the history of "the common people," calling the book "an attempt in novel form to bring to life the original Wesorts and their turbulent world." [5]
Accokeek, "at the edge of the hill" in Algonquin, is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The CDP is located on the Potomac River, borders Charles County and is approximately 17 miles from Washington. It is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. The population of the CDP, as of the 2020 United States Census was 13,927.
Melungeon was a slur historically applied to individuals and families of mixed-race ancestry with roots in colonial Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina primarily descended from free people of color and white settlers. In modern times, the term has been reclaimed by descendants of these families, especially in southern Appalachia. Despite this mixed heritage, many modern Melungeons pass as white, as did many of their ancestors.
Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture. Among African Americans the term has been slang for fairer-skinned Black people, often for women specifically or for Black people with red undertones. In Louisiana, it also refers to a specific, geographically and ethnically distinct group.
Turkey Tayac, legally Philip Sheridan Proctor (1895–1978), was a Piscataway leader and herbal medicine practitioner; he was notable in Native American activism for tribal and cultural revival in the 20th century. He had some knowledge of the Piscataway language and was consulted by the Algonquian linguist, Ives Goddard, as well as Julian Granberry.
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.
Piscataway may refer to:
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.
Piscataway Park is a National Park Service-protected area located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of downtown Washington, D.C. in and around Accokeek, Maryland. It protects the National Colonial Farm, Marshall Hall, and the Accokeek Creek Site. The park is located across the Potomac River from George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings in United States dialect and slang. It generally refers to racial, ethnic or cultural roots. Its meaning varies and such differences are contingent upon time and place. Several varied groups of multiracial people have sometimes been referred to as or identified as Black Dutch, most often as a reference to their ancestors.
Accokeek Creek Site, also known as Moyaone, is an archaeological site in Prince George's County, Maryland, located along the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon in today's Piscataway Park, which was inhabited intermittently since 2000 BC. Accokeek Creek Site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
The Nacotchtank, also Anacostine, were an Algonquian Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands.
The Brass Ankles of South Carolina, also referred to as Croatan, lived in the swamp areas of Goose Creek, South Carolina and Holly Hill, South Carolina in order to escape the harshness of racism and the Indian Removal Act. African slaves and European indentured servants sought refuge amongst the Indians and collectively formed a successful community. Many of them are direct descendants of Robert Sweat and Margarate Cornish.
Around 1622, the Piscataway tribe, which led the Conoy Federation, built a town they soon called Kittamaqundi on Piscataway Creek near the modern day town of Piscataway, Prince George's County, Maryland. When English first visited the town, in 1634, they learned it was named after the relatively new Tayac (Emperor) Kittamaquund, who had assumed power the previous year after killing his brother Wannas.
The history of Native Americans in Baltimore and what is now Baltimore dates back at least 12,000 years. As of 2014, Baltimore is home to a small Native American population, centered in East Baltimore. The majority of Native Americans now living in Baltimore belong to the Lumbee, Piscataway, and Cherokee peoples. The Piscataway people live in Southern Maryland and are recognized by the state of Maryland. The Lumbee and Cherokee are Indigenous to North Carolina and neighboring states of the Southeastern United States. Many of the Lumbee and Cherokee migrated to Baltimore during the mid-20th century along with other migrants from the Southern United States, such as African-Americans and white Appalachians. The Lumbee are state recognized in North Carolina as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, but have no state recognition in Maryland. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina are a federally recognized tribe. There are three state recognized tribes in Maryland; the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe of Maryland, the Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory, and the Accohannock Indian Tribe. Maryland has no federally recognized tribes.
Gabrielle Tayac is a historian and curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She is a member of the Piscataway Indian Nation, a state-recognized tribe in southern Maryland. Tayac is active in matters of Indigenous land and water rights as well as U.S. government treaty compliance.
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.
The 1666 Articles of Peace and Amity was a treaty signed on 20 April 1666 between the English colony of Maryland and 12 Eastern Algonquian-speaking Indigenous nations, including the Piscataway, Anacostanck, Doegs, Mikikiwomans, Manasquesend, Mattawoman, Chingwawateick, Hangemaick, Portobackes, Sacayo, Panyayo, and Choptico. The treaty established the right of Native peoples to remain on their lands and preserved their inviolable right to continue fishing, crabbing, hunting, and fowling. The treaty also stated that "If an Indian kill an Englishman he shall dye for itt"; however execution is only prescribed for English colonists if an "English man shall kill any Indian that shall come vnpaynted". The treaty forbade Native peoples from entering any colonial settlements while being "painted", stating that "the English cannot easily distinguish one Indian from another." If a Native person and a colonist met accidentally in the forest, the "Indian shall be bound immediately to throwe downe his Armes vpon call, and in case any Indian soe meeting an English man shall refuse to throwe downe his armes vpon Call he shall be deemed as an Enemy."
The Piscataway Conoy Tribe of Maryland is a Native American tribe recognized by the state of Maryland. They identify as descendants of the Piscataway people.
The Moyaone Reserve is a neighborhood located within Piscataway Park in Accokeek. The neighborhood was given National Register of Historic Places status in 2020 and is within the historic viewshed of Mount Vernon. It is split between Prince George's County, Maryland and Charles County, Maryland. The name Moyaone is derived from name of the town Moyaone, the major town of the Piscataway Native American tribe. The archaeological remains of Moyaone are at the Accokeek Creek Site, within Piscataway Park.
Indian Spring is a mostly residential neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Located within the Silver Spring CDP, it is sometimes considered a southeastern neighborhood of Four Corners. It is one of the oldest established neighborhoods in Silver Spring.