This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Assateague people" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

TheAssateague (meaning: "swifly moving water")^[1] were anAlgonquian people speaking theNanticoke language who historically lived on theAtlantic coast side of theDelmarva Peninsula (known during the colonial period as theEastern Shores of Maryland andVirginia, and theLower Counties ofPennsylvania).

While there are living people who may have distant heritage from this tribe, including some citizens of theSix Nations of the Grand River, the tribe itself no longer exists as a culturally intact tribal community.

TheIndigenous Assateague culture was based on the maritime and forest resources of theChincoteague Bay watershed and, among other things, involved the manufacture and trade of shell beads.^[2]

Historically, the Assateague practicedexcarnation as part of theirfunerary 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 orossuary. Several ossuaries have been discovered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.^[3]

In 1662, the Englishcolony of Maryland made a treaty with the Assateagues (and theNanticokes) whereby eachcolonist given land in the territory of the Assateagues would give the Assateaguetribal chief (or "emperor", as he was inaccurately referred to by the colonists) sixmatchcoats (garments made of a rough blanket or frieze, heavy rough cloth with uncut nap on one side), and one matchcoat for everyrunaway 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 withDutch colonists inDelaware, 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 fivereservations along thePocomoke 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 andPocomoke tribes. Sessions of theMaryland 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); andCharles Calvert, thegovernor 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:

• Any Indian who killed a colonist was to be brought to the governor as a prisoner.
• Because the colonists claimed to be unable to distinguish one Indian from another, no Indian was to enter a colonial settlement with his face painted or carrying a weapon, or even to approach a settlement without laying down his weapons or calling out to identify himself.
• The punishment for a colonist killing an Indian that came un-painted, called out, and laid down his arms was death.
• If an Indian and a colonists met accidentally in the woods, the former had to immediately lay down his weapons: if he did not, he would considered hostile.
• The privilege of crabbing, fowling, hunting and fishing would be granted to each Indian individually by the colonial government.
• Any Indian that killed or stole a hog, calf or other domestic animal, or stole any other goods would be punished the same way that a colonist would.
• Slaves andindentured servants who ran away from their masters and took shelter in Assateague territory were to be returned to the nearest colonial settlement for a reward.
• The Indians were not to sign any new peace treaties with an enemy of the governor, nor make war without his consent.
• If the Assateagues and Pocomokes killed any Indian subject to the governor's protection, it would be considered as great an offense as killing a colonist.
• Foreign Indians coming into the area were to be reported immediately to a prominent colonist or colonial official.

For the expected protection the Indians were to receive from the governor, the Assateagues and Pocomokes were to deliver unto theProprietor 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 theChesapeake Bay side, and the Nassawaddox from further south), were gathered at a single settlement, referred to Indian Town (or Indiantown) by the colonists andAskiminokonson by the Indians. By 1671, it was the largest Indian settlement in Maryland, and was made part of areservation in 1686. Askiminokonson was located on the north side of the Pocomoke River near present-daySnow 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 aShawnee 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 theSusquehanna region and become tributaries to theIroquois. This group moved slowly northward, and their descendants are now inOntario, Canada. Of those who stayed in Maryland, one group lived on theChoptank reserve until 1798. Another remnant of the tribe, retaining little of its native culture, survived near theIndian River in Delaware.^[6]

• Assateague People of Delmarva website
• Ocean City, Maryland, Lifesaving Museum website

• Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands
• Eastern Algonquian peoples
• Extinct Native American tribes
• Nanticoke
• Native American history of Delaware
• Native American history of Maryland
• Native American history of Pennsylvania
• Native American history of Virginia
• Native American tribes in Delaware
• Native American tribes in Maryland
• Native American tribes in Virginia
• Algonquian ethnonyms

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from October 2016
• All articles needing additional references
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation
• Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2022