| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 1,200 in 1600 1,000 (1990)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| United States (Delaware,New Jersey,Maryland,Oklahoma),Canada (Ontario)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| English, formerlyNanticoke language | |
| Religion | |
| Native American religion,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Assateague,Choptank,Conoy,Patuxent,Piscataway,Pocomoke[1],Wicocomico |
TheNanticoke people are aNative AmericanAlgonquian-speaking people, whose traditional homelands are inChesapeake Bay area, includingDelaware. Today their descendants continue to live inOklahoma among theDelaware Nation and theDelaware Tribe of Indians, as well as on theSix Nations of the Grand River reserve inOntario, Canada, where some ancestors resettled with the Iroquois after the Revolutionary War.[1] Other descendants live in theNortheastern United States, especiallyDelaware.
The Nanticoke people consisted of several tribes: The Nanticoke proper (the subject of this article), theChoptank, theAssateague, thePiscataway, and theDoeg.
The Nanticoke people may have originated inLabrador,Canada, and migrated through theGreat Lakes region and theOhio Valley to the east, along with theShawnee andLenape peoples.[1]
In 1608, the Nanticoke came into known European contact, when British captainJohn Smith encountered them. Through their trade of beaver pelts with the British, they made certain alliances.[1] The Nanticoke were located primarily in what are today'sDorchester,Somerset andWicomico counties.[2]
In 1668, the Nanticoke emperor Unnacokasimon signed a peace treaty with the proprietary government of theProvince of Maryland. In 1684, the Nanticoke and English governments defined a reservation for the Indigenous people's use, situated between Chicacoan Creek and theNanticoke River in Maryland (seeVienna).[1] Confronting encroachment on their land by Europeans, in 1707 the tribe purchased a 3,000-acre tract on Broad Creek inSomerset County, Maryland (nowSussex County, Delaware).[citation needed]
In 1742, the tribe met with neighboring tribes in nearby Wimbesoccom Neck to discuss aShawnee plot to attack the local English settlers. When the gathering was discovered, the British arrested the leaders of the plot.[citation needed]
Some Nanticoke moved up to Pennsylvania in 1744, where they gained permission from theIroquois Confederacy to settle nearWyoming, Pennsylvania, and along theJuniata River, territory of theSeneca people. The city ofNanticoke is named after one of their settlements. While settled along theSusquehanna River, the Nanticoke regularly used a path that they had established during their migration to return to theDelmarva Peninsula for seasonal gathering of fruits, nuts and roots, and fishing.[3]
The Nanticoke moved upriver a decade later again away from European Americans. They joined thePiscataway tribe; both were under the jurisdiction of the League of the Iroquois.[1] They sold the reservation on Broad Creek in 1768. Some Nanticoke migrated slightly north into New York, where they established a settlement in what became the town ofNanticoke there.[citation needed]
Members of the Conoy people joined the Nanticoke in the 1740s. Together they were neutral in theFrench and Indian War, although other Native American peoples allied with the French or British.[citation needed]
During theAmerican Revolution, they allied with the British. In 1778, two hundred Nanticoke moved north toFort Niagara in present-day Canada because of their alliance. Later the British resettled them at theSix Nations Reserve with Iroquois peoples, nearBrantford,Ontario,Canada. The British gave them land in compensation for what they had lost to the American rebels.[1]
Other Nanticoke stayed atBuffalo River,New York. Another group of Nanticoke joined theLenape of the mid-Atlantic and migrated toKansas. Decades later, in 1867 after the Civil War, they were forced to move with the Lenape toIndian Territory (what became the state of Oklahoma in the early 20th century after Native American land rights were extinguished).[1]
Several towns and places are named for this tribe. These include Nanticoke, Pennsylvania and Nanticoke, New York, as well asNanticoke andNanticoke Acres, Maryland; andNanticoke, Ontario.[citation needed]
In the early summer of 1742, members of the Nanticoke,Shawnee, andChoptank tribes, wanted to avenge themselves against theEnglish colonists.[4] The tribes decided to meet on Winnesoccum Island in the middle of thePocomoke Swamp located inMaryland. Chiefs Robin Hood, Hopping Sam, Simon Alsechqueck, and Messowan gathered their people to meet in the swamp for six days where they discussed plans of attack, and related their adverse encounters with the English. As all members of the tribes, including women and children, had left their villages to gather in the swamp, colonists had become suspicious of the disappearance of the natives from their local villages.[citation needed]
Soldiers were sent to round up the tribal peoples in the swamp. Leaders of each of the tribes were questioned by the English. Each was said to give a different account as to why they had gathered in the swamp. Some said they gathered solely to hunt, while others said they were there to elect a new chief. The English decided that since no Indian attacks had been executed, no retaliation should be taken against the local tribes. Following the United States gaining independence, the federal government made an official treaty of peace with the tribes that was signed on July 24, 1792.[5]
The Nanticoke name for themselves, their autonym, isNentego, which means, "Tidewater People."[1] The Nanticoke chiefdoms are now known as theWicomoco,Monie andManokin. They occupied areas along the rivers that were named after them.[2]
The Nanticoke had an extensive trading network with tribes throughout the Chesapeake Bay area. Early 20th-century accounts referred to some of the Nanticoke tribes as the Arseek, Cuscarawoc, and Nause.[6]
TheNanticoke language was distinct from theAlgonquian languages spoken by tribes on the Western Shore of Maryland and along the Potomac River.[2] According to the Nanticoke Indian Association, the last fluent speaker wasLydia E. Clark, who died in 1856.[7][8] Efforts to revive the language have been undertaken since the late 20th century by Nanticoke Indian Association members and linguists fromGeorgetown University.[9]
Today, some Nanticoke people are part of the federally recognizedSix Nations of the Grand River First Nation inOntario, Canada. They are descendants of those who traveled north after the Revolutionary War.[1]
Descendants of those who later traveled west with theLenape are part of thefederally recognizedDelaware Tribe of Indians inOklahoma.[10]
TheNanticoke Indian Association ofMillsboro has been astate-recognized tribe inDelaware since 1922.[11] TheNanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians are a state-recognized tribe inNew Jersey. Neither is federally recognized by the US.
In 1744 some Nanticoke settled near theIndian River in Delaware. They reorganized as theNanticoke Indian Association, with 31 official members, and were recognized in 1881 as a legal entity by the state. This group was known as the "Incorporated Body".[12] They have their headquarters inMillsboro.
In 1922 they were chartered as a non-profit organization. They organized annualpowwows, carrying them on until the mid-1930s, during theGreat Depression. In 1977 the tribe revived the annual event. Later they built a museum in Millsboro in honor of their heritage, to teach their children and other Americans.[12]
Today all persons seeking membership in the Nanticoke Indian Association must prove descent from the original 31 members of the Incorporated Body, who shared a total of eight surnames. Those eight surnames were: Clark, Harmon, Norwood, Wright, Johnson, Street, Kimmey, and Drain. Today there are more than 700 members.[13]
After having long been forced off most of their lands, like other East Coast tribes, the Nanticoke have taken steps to regain ancestral lands. They acquired 30 acres in Millsboro in the fall of 2021.[14]
Sites listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1979, and associated with the Indian River Community, include: theRobert Davis Farmhouse,Harmon School,Isaac Harmon Farmhouse,Harmony Church,Ames Hitchens Chicken Farm,Indian Mission Church,Indian Mission School,Johnson School, Coursey and Daisey Indian Burial Ground andWarren T. Wright Farmhouse Site.[15][16]
In 2002 Kenneth S. "Red Deer" Clark Sr., the head chief of the association, and Assistant Chief, his son "Little Owl" Clark, resigned.[17]
"Tee" Norwood was elected chief and served until 2008. That year Larry Jackson was elected as chief. Chief William H. "Thunder Eagle" Daisey led the organization until 2016.[18] Natosha Carmine was elected as chief in 2016 and served until 2023.[19] As of 2023, Lavery "Leaving Tracks" Johnson is chief of the association.[20]
Some Nanticoke settled across the Delaware Bay in southernNew Jersey, where they joined the Lenape and intermarried with them, forming what is known as the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation.[21] They had long been without any of their historic lands. In August 2023, the Native American Advancement Corporation, affiliated with the state-recognized tribe, acquired 63 acres inSalem County, New Jersey, which had been ancestral territory of the Cohanzick Lenape.[citation needed]
Officially known as theNanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation ofNew Jersey, they are recognized by that state. They are based inBridgeton.[12] After years of intermarriage, numerous members have mixed Nanticoke andLenape ancestry. Both tribes were historicallyAlgonquian speaking.[citation needed]
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