FCC Research Guides: Land Acknowledgement @ FCC: Piscataway

Piscataway Geographic Sphere of Influence

Tribal Organization

On January 9, 2012, Maryland recognized two Piscataway tribes by executive order, approving their petition for Maryland Indian Status. These two tribes are the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe.
Chief Mark Tayac is the leader of the Piscataway Indian Nation and one of the elders consulted by FCC for the land acknowledgment project.
The Piscataway Conoy Tribe consists of three organizational entities: a tribal council of the Piscataway-Conoy Confederacy and Sub-Tribes chaired by Francis Gray, the Cedarville Band of the Piscataway chaired by Natalie Proctor, and the Choptico Band of the Piscataway with Barry Wilson as the appointed speaker.

Resources to Learn about Piscataway History & Culture

"We have been with the emperor of Piscataway, at his fort:" Archeological Investigation of the Heater's Island Site (Denis C. Curry)
In 1970, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland–College Park (UMCP) ran a 10-week “Summer Field School in Historic Sites Archaeology” (ANTH 194 and 294) under the general direction of Robert L. Schuyler, then an assistant professor at the university. The field school examined two Contact period Piscataway Indian sites simultaneously (see below), one of which was the Heater’s Island site (18FR72) in Frederick County, Maryland.
The Piscataway Indians of Southern Maryland (Alice Ferguson and Henry Ferguson)
The present publication . . . carries on the history of the Piscataway Indians (“Potomac Creek People," Stephenson pp. 26-34) from the time of first contact with Europeans to the final disappearance of the tribe, with particular attention to their relations with the early settlers and with other Indian tribes.
“...A place now known unto them:” The Search for Zekiah Fort (Alex J. Flick, et. al.)
From May 2010 until July 2011, St. Mary’s College of Maryland undertook Phase I and II archaeological investigations at four properties in Charles County, Maryland . . . The primary purpose of these investigations was to locate and identify archaeological resources associated with the Zekiah Fort, a
fortified Piscataway Indian settlement occupied from 1680 until c. 1695.
Incidents of Violence and the Annual Movements of the Piscataway Indians (Mary Kate Mansius)
When the English arrived in Maryland in 1634, they encountered one of the largest and most influential nations in the Potomac River drainage: the Piscataway. While the Piscataway and English closely and regularly interacted with one another, relatively little was recorded by the English detailing the Piscataway’s lifeways, including their seasonal round. While attempting to reconstruct the Piscataway “calendar” using ethnohistorical and archival
sources (Mansius 2013), it became apparent that recorded incidents of violence were influenced by the Piscataway Indians’ seasonal schedule. This paper details the interrelationships between seasonality and violence.
Chesapeake Prehistory: Old Traditions, New Directions (Richard J. Dent)
The first book in almost a century to synthesize the archaeological record of the region offering new interpretations of prehistoric lifeways. This up-to-date work presents a new type of regional archaeology that explores contemporary ideas about the nature of the past. In addition, the volume examines prehistoric culture and history of the entire region and includes supporting lists of radiocarbon assays. A unique feature is a reconstruction of the dramatic transformation of the regional landscape over the past 10-15,000 years.

Works Cited