Mythologies f the Piscataway Conoy Tribe

The Piscataway /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ/ pih-SKAT-ə-WAY or Piscatawa /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ, ˌpɪskəˈtɑːwə/ pih-SKAT-ə-WAY, PIH-skə-TAH-wə, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a regional dialect similar to Nanticoke. The neighboring Haudenosaunee, called them the Conoy, with whom they partly merged with after a massive decline of population and rise in colonial violence following two centuries of interactions with European settlers. Two major groups that represent Piscataway descendants received state recognition as Native American tribes from Maryland in 2012: the Piscataway Indian Nation and Piscataway Conoy Tribe. Within the latter group was included the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Sub-Tribes and the Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians. All these groups descend from the Western Bank of the Chesapeake, spanning across Maryland, Virginia, D.C, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and are primarily located in Southern Maryland. None are federally recognized despite over a half-century tribal movement in being recognized as stewards to the United States Capitol Region. The Piscataway were recorded by the English (in days before uniform spelling) as the Pascatowies, Paschatoway, Pazaticans, Pascoticons, Paskattaway, Pascatacon, Piscattaway, and Puscattawy. They were also referred to by the names of their tributary villages: Moyaone, Accotick, or Accokicke, or Accokeek; Potapaco, or Portotoack; Sacayo, or Sachia; Zakiah, and Yaocomaco, or Youcomako, or Yeocomico, or Wicomicons. The name "Kanawha" is also used for the Piscataway. Related Algonquian-speaking tribes included the Anacostan, Chincopin, Choptico, Doeg, or Doge, or Taux; Tauxeneen, Mattawoman, and Pamunkey. More distantly related tribes included the Accomac, Assateague, Choptank, Nanticoke, Patuxent, Pocomoke, Tockwogh and Wicomoco.

For thousands of years, Indigenous people called Piscataway have lived on the lands that now comprise Southern Maryland. Modern Piscataway people have kept their culture alive, passing their history and tribal customs on to their children across generations. Fossil records and archeological traces, dating as far back as 10,000 B.C. provide evidence of the Paleo-Indian, the Early, Middle and Late Archaic periods of human occupation in Southern Maryland. The Piscataway tribes that occupied the region during European contact suffered displacement as colonization progressed throughout the 1600s. By the early 17th century, the Piscataway were the largest and most powerful Tribal nation in the lands between the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, with a population of 7,000 or more. Piscataway territory included present-day Southern Maryland, and it extended north into Baltimore County and west to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The first documented European contact with the Piscataway occurred in 1608 by explorers John Smith and William Claiborne. First contact with the colonists occurred in 1634 with the arrival of the Ark and Dove, including interactions by Leonard Calvert and Jesuit priest, Father Andrew White. Conflict began to grow when the English began encroaching on Piscataway villages. Colonial expansion led to the first established treaty in 1666 between Lord Baltimore, and the Tribal Leadership. A number of treaties followed, but all were eventually broken by the expansion of the settlers. The result was the loss of the Piscataway homeland. Yet through it all, the Piscataway persevered, and are here today. On January 9th, 2012, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe was officially recognized by the State of Maryland.

The Piscataway/Conoy people are an Algonquian tribe related to the Lenape/Delaware, from whose ancestral stem they sprang. However, their closest relations were with the Nanticoke, with whom they probably were united in late prehistoric times, the two forming a single tribe. Their language is supposed to have been somewhat closely allied to that spoken in Virginia by the Powhatan. Piscataway means “the people where the river bends.” Their lands spread from present day southern Maryland, including Baltimore, Montgomery, Anne Arundel Counties, and the Washington, D.C., areas. They were a sedentary hunter-farmer tribe that lived between the Potomac River and the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. They lived in permanent villages near waters navigable by canoes. The women planted various crops, including maize, several varieties of beans, melons, pumpkins, squash, and ceremonial tobacco, and gathered berries, nuts, and tubers to supplement their diets. They also made pottery, woven baskets, and beaded jewelry. Men used bows and arrows to hunt bears, elk, deer, wolves, and smaller game such as beaver, squirrels, partridges, and wild turkeys. The men made dugout canoes, fished, and harvested oysters and crabs. As with other tribes, smaller Piscataway bands — including the Chaptico, Moyaone, Nanjemoy, and Potapoco, allied themselves for purposes of defense and trade. They appointed leaders to the various villages and settlements. As was common among the Algonquian peoples, Piscataway villages comprised several individual houses protected by a defensive log palisade. Traditional houses were rectangular and typically 10 feet high and 20 feet long, a type of longhouse, with barrel-shaped roofs covered with bark or woven mats. A hearth occupied the center of the house with a smoke hole overhead.

The Piscataway Indian Nation is a group of indigenous people who have lived in the Chesapeake Bay region of what is now Maryland and Virginia in the United States for thousands of years. The Piscataway people were part of the larger Powhatan Confederacy, which also included the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes. They were skilled farmers and fishermen, and lived in small villages along the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. During the early colonial period, the Piscataway had contact with English settlers, but relations between the two groups were generally peaceful. However, as the number of English settlers in the region increased, the Piscataway began to lose control of their lands and resources. Many Piscataway people were forced to move west or assimilate into white society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Piscataway people faced a further loss of land and rights as the US government passed laws and implemented policies aimed at assimilating indigenous peoples. This included the forced removal of Native American children from their families and communities to attend boarding schools, where they were forced to adopt European-American customs and ways of life. Despite the significant challenges and losses they have faced, the Piscataway Indian Nation has not disappeared. The tribe continues to exist today and has been formally recognized by the State of Maryland. The Piscataway people are working to preserve their culture, language, and traditions and to gain federal recognition as a sovereign nation.