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Today, Montgomery County comprises a palimpsest of cultures that includes a long and diverse American Indian history, predating the arrivals of European explorers, colonists, indentured servants and convicts, African and Caribbean immigrants, and enslaved peoples.
Today, Montgomery County comprises a palimpsest of cultures that includes a long and diverse American Indian history, predating the arrivals of European explorers, colonists, indentured servants and convicts, African and Caribbean immigrants, and enslaved peoples.
For thousands of years, people have lived in, relied on, and traveled through the land of today’s Montgomery County. The first migrations into the area originated in faraway lands across vast spaces including land bridges and oceans. The ancestral people migrated from various homelands arriving in the future Montgomery County approximately 12,000 years ago. Archaeology highlights the lives of culturally diverse American Indian peoples. Through time, they left a rich and complex archaeological record, a record revealing clever adaptations to climate, ecology, and dominant cultures. They relied on the area’s abundance of game, fertile soils, quarries, springs, and waterways including the Potomac River and Patuxent River watersheds and over 1,500 miles of streams. The relics, mostly evidence of daily life, peek through time on ancient sites in Bethesda, Olney, Sandy Spring, along the Potomac and its tributaries, and other places.
For thousands of years, people have lived in, relied on, and traveled through the land of today’s Montgomery County. The first migrations into the area originated in faraway lands across vast spaces including land bridges and oceans. The ancestral people migrated from various homelands arriving in the future Montgomery County approximately 12,000 years ago. Archaeology highlights the lives of culturally diverse American Indian peoples. Through time, they left a rich and complex archaeological record, a record revealing clever adaptations to climate, ecology, and dominant cultures. They relied on the area’s abundance of game, fertile soils, quarries, springs, and waterways including the Potomac River and Patuxent River watersheds and over 1,500 miles of streams. The relics, mostly evidence of daily life, peek through time on ancient sites in Bethesda, Olney, Sandy Spring, along the Potomac and its tributaries, and other places.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Maryland was home to the Piscataway, Nanticoke, Assateagues, Pocomoke Indians, Seneca, Susquehannocks, and others who witnessed the arrivals of people from Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. The native concept of land was different from the Europeans. Rather than seeing land as something to be owned, controlled, and clearly demarcated, Native peoples considered land communal, in some places sacred, and always reciprocally tied to mother earth. In less than 75 years of colonial contact, traditional Native American life ended. Encroachment of English settlers, the breakdown of political systems, and, particularly, Old World diseases contributed to the dispersal of Native peoples.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Maryland was home to the Piscataway, Nanticoke, Assateagues, Pocomoke Indians, Seneca, Susquehannocks, and others who witnessed the arrivals of people from Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. The native concept of land was different from the Europeans. Rather than seeing land as something to be owned, controlled, and clearly demarcated, Native peoples considered land communal, in some places sacred, and always reciprocally tied to mother earth. In less than 75 years of colonial contact, traditional Native American life ended. Encroachment of English settlers, the breakdown of political systems, and, particularly, Old World diseases contributed to the dispersal of Native peoples.
However, they did not disappear. In order to survive, they adapted and learned the customs, languages, and religions of the English and other colonists while also maintaining and changing their own cultures and passing indigenous knowledge on to future generations.
However, they did not disappear. In order to survive, they adapted and learned the customs, languages, and religions of the English and other colonists while also maintaining and changing their own cultures and passing indigenous knowledge on to future generations.
Gladys Proctor, Wild Turkey Clan Mother and departed leader who steered her community through dark times
Billy Redwing Tayac, departed Leader of the Piscataway Indian Nation and son of the previous leader Turkey Tayac. He led his community through the turbulent era leading to official recognition by the State of Maryland in 2012.
Photos taken on January 9, 2012, when the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe were officially recognized by Governor Martin O’Malley (Jay Baker, Annapolis)
The myth that Native peoples in Maryland disappeared stems from ethnocentric histories and the destructive labels and categories imposed on them. Montgomery County’s land is most closely associated with Piscataway peoples. Piscataway means “place where the waters blend.” Here we acknowledge their persistence and survival.
The myth that Native peoples in Maryland disappeared stems from ethnocentric histories and the destructive labels and categories imposed on them. Montgomery County’s land is most closely associated with Piscataway peoples. Piscataway means “place where the waters blend.” Here we acknowledge their persistence and survival.
Piscataway drummers at the Native American Trail dedication by Sugarloaf Regional Trails in 2016 (Photo by Lynne Bulhack)
We acknowledge that the Piscataway Indian Nation continues to maintain a relationship with the lands of Maryland. Along with the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, the Piscataway Indian Nation received recognition by the State of Maryland in 2012.
We acknowledge that the Piscataway Indian Nation continues to maintain a relationship with the lands of Maryland. Along with the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, the Piscataway Indian Nation received recognition by the State of Maryland in 2012.
We acknowledge their long-standing kinship with these lands and waters and acknowledge that we are uninvited visitors on Indigenous lands.
We acknowledge their long-standing kinship with these lands and waters and acknowledge that we are uninvited visitors on Indigenous lands.
To make this statement more meaningful, we invite you to learn more about the Piscataway Indian Nation and about land acknowledgement statements via resources available at msac.org and elsewhere, to consider donating or making institutional resources available to tribal peoples, and to reconsider in what ways you can improve your relationship with the lands you steward.
To make this statement more meaningful, we invite you to learn more about the Piscataway Indian Nation and about land acknowledgement statements via resources available at msac.org and elsewhere, to consider donating or making institutional resources available to tribal peoples, and to reconsider in what ways you can improve your relationship with the lands you steward.
~Adapted from the Maryland State Arts Council Land Acknowledgment Project Overview and Resource Guide based on information shared by Piscataway Indian Nation tribal consultants.
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