NANTICOKE

The Nanticoke were an Algonquian-speaking tribe of the Northeast Culture Area (see NORTHEAST INDIANS), located near the Chesapeake Bay of present-day Maryland and southern Delaware. Nanticoke, pronounced NAN-tuh-coke, is derived from Nentego, meaning “tidewater people” in Algonquian. The Nanticoke were among those tribes, along with the neighboring Conoy, who called the LENNI LENAPE (DELAWARE) “Grandfather” and claimed descent from them. The name Unalachtigo, a division of the Lenni Lenape, also means “tidewater people” in Algonquian. As indicated by their related names and linguistic affinities, the Nanticoke as well as the Conoy may have in fact been one with the more populous Lenni Lenape or in a confederacy with them in ancient times.

Algonquian groups, although typically allied in confederacies, had a great deal of autonomy. The name Nanticoke can be applied to those ALGONQUIANS living along the Nanticoke River feeding Chesapeake Bay from the east. Other scholars apply the name to all those groups living on the east shore of the bay, such as the Choptank on the Choptank River. Others include tribes on the west shore as well, such as the Pautuxent. As was the case with other Algonquians, a grand sachem ruled over a number of villages, with each village ruled by a lesser chief. Nanticoke villages of wigwams were typically located along rivers and streams and were sometimes palisaded. In warm weather, tribal members farmed and fished; after the fall harvest, hunting became the primary subsistence activity. The Nanticoke were known by other tribes for the production of wampum made out of clams and oyster shells harvested from coastal waters.

Captain John Smith of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia visited the Nanticoke in 1608. Relations were originally peaceful, but they deteriorated because of outbreaks of European diseases among the Indians and disputes over trade abuses by non-Indian traders. Nan-ticoke leaders also objected to the peddling of liquor on their lands by the traders. In 1642, after some violent incidents, the Marylanders declared the Nanti-coke hostile, leading to some actions against them by settlers. The Nanticoke were indirectly involved in the conflict among the SUSQUEHANNOCK and rebels in colonial Virginia and Maryland known as Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, when a dispute over stolen hogs led Nathaniel Bacon and his followers to attack various Indian villages in the region. Peace was declared with the Nanticoke in 1678. In the following decades, the Nanticoke were granted a series of reservation parcels cut out from their ancestral lands. In 1742, the colonists accused them of plotting a rebellion and took away their right to choose their grand sachem. In 1747, the Nanticoke, by agreement with the IRO QUOIS (haudenosaunee), migrated northward up the Susquehanna River, living at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, for a time. In 1753, they settled among the ONONDAGA and became part of the Iroquois League. In the 1780s, during the American Revolution, some relocated to Canada with the Iroquois. Others merged with the Lenni Lenape in Ohio and Indiana. Some among them ended up in Oklahoma.

People in both Canada and Oklahoma still claim Nanticoke ancestry. Others live closer to their ancestral homeland. One group, the Nanticoke Indian Association, operates out of Millsboro, Delaware. Another group, in conjunction with the Lenni Lenape, known as the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians, is based in Bridgeton, New Jersey. No Nanticoke dialect of Algon-quian is still spoken.