The Algonquian-speaking Indians of theChesapeake Bay region have left a lasting legacy in Maryland. The Algonquian family of languages was widespread throughout the eastern United States, extending along the Atlantic shore from North Carolina to Maine. Studies of different Algonquian languages suggest that the Algonquian-speaking Indians began migrating to Maryland from the Great Lakes region 2000 to 1000 years ago. Discovery of corn from archaeological sites dating from 1000 to 1700 document the increased importance of corn farming. English colonists noted that the Algonquian Indians lived during the summer and fall at their farming villages, in houses surrounded by cornfields along tidal rivers. Some of the villages consisted of houses concentrated inside a circular fort with cornfields planted outside the fort. Individual families traveled inland to winter hunting camps and returned in spring and early summer to fishing camps.

The most powerful Algonquian Indian political organization on the Western Shore of Maryland was the Piscataway chiefdom located along the Potomac River. The name Piscataway Creek reflects the location of the principal territory of the Tayac, the supreme chief of the Piscataway nation. Other smaller chiefdoms along the Potomac River that were part of the Piscataway nation were the Anacostians (Anacostia River), the Mattawomen (Mattawomen Creek), the Nanjemoy (Nanjemoy River) and the Potapoco (Port Tobacco River). The last two chiefdoms on the lower Potomac River (who were independent of the Piscataway) were called the Choptico (Choptico Creek) and the Yeocomico (St. Mary's River). The Yeocomico welcomed the new Maryland English settlers in 1634. The English lived with the Indians that first spring and were taught farming methods. The Yecomico village became St. Mary's City, the first capital of English Maryland.

Estimates of the Indian population along the Maryland shore of the Potomac vary. Current figures suggest between 7,000 and 8,000 people in 1608. Illnesses introduced by the English, Indian internal warfare, and loss of land and resources to the English reduced Indian populations. Many of the Piscataway and associated Indians migrated out of Maryland between 1690 and 1710 as the result of pressure from both the English and the Iroquois. Some families stayed behind. Their descendents live in Southern Maryland today and make up three different communities claiming ancestry to the Algonquian Indians.

Four smaller chiefdoms of Algonquian-speaking people lived along the Patuxent River. John Smith in 1608 recorded 17 villages along the tidewater part of the river. Archaeological research reveals evidence of spring oyster and fishing camps, summer and fall villages along the rivers, and winter hunting camps in the interior forest. The most powerful of the four chiefdoms was the Patuxent chiefdom of today's Calvert County. The word "Pawtuxant" in Algonquian means "at the falls in the stream," a geographic reference to the location of the chief village on Battle Creek. The Patuxent and allied chiefdoms had a greater dependence on oysters, crabs, and other saltwater marine resources. Indians along the Patuxent River made shell-tempered pottery, called Townsend, Rappahannock, and Sullivan Cove wares by archaeologists.

The Algonquian Indians of the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers spoke the same language. English explorers of the Eastern Shore noted that the Nanticoke and the Toghwogh people spoke different Algonquian languages. The Indians on the lower Eastern Shore who left geographical names include the Assateagues along the Atlantic shore. They ruled over the Pocomoke chiefdom along the Pocomoke River. Other smaller chiefdoms for which rivers are named in Maryland included the Annemessex, Monie, Manokin, Nanticoke, and Choptank. Moving up the Eastern Shore, additional chiefdoms included the Mattapeake and Monoposon on Kent Island, Ozine/Wicomiss on the Chester River and the Toghwogh on the Sassafras River. The Indians of the Eastern Shore stayed in Maryland for a longer time because the English did not settle the lower Eastern Shore until the 1660s. Indian reservations were created on the lower Eastern Shore. The Nanticoke began migrating out of Maryland in large numbers by the 1740s. The last reservation lands of the Choptank Indians were finally sold by Maryland in 1822. Nanticoke, Assateaque, and Pocomoke descendents today reside in Delaware. Our foods, place names, history, and culture reflect the rich heritage of the Algonquian Indians of Maryland.

Oral Interviews. Transcribed oral interviews conducted by University of Maryland students, 1987.

Late Woodland Pottery of Algonquians. Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum. www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/index.htm