Washington, past and present : a history by Anonymous New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1930-1932

Chapter III.

     "In an open boat, Captain John Smith and fourteen champions left Jamestown in June, 1608, to explore Chesapeake waters. At the entrance of the Bay, they encountered Indians on the eastern shore. These, the first aborigines they had seen in the Chesapeake region, were, wrote, Smith, "two grim and stout savages, upon Cape Charles, with long poles like javelings headed with bone."

     Assuring the Indians that their intentions were not hostile, the explores continued up the Bay along the eastern shore, for some distance, and, in descending, followed the western shore. Ascending the Potomac River, the explorers "found themselves received with a show of hostility at several places" but, writes Smith, " at Moyaones, Nacotchtant, and Toags the people did their best to content us." Ascending farther they reached, it is thought, the vicinity of Little Falls, or about five miles above Washington Captain Smith's map indicates that they went farther up the river, but his narrative supports the belief that Little Falls was the limited of the exploration. There Captain Smith "found the navigation obstructed by immense rocks spangled with mica, which glistened like gold in the sunlight as the water trickled down their sides." So the little band of white men turned the prow of their boat seaward, and eventually reached Jamestown. In the "American Anthropologist," vol. II, pp. 259-66, (1899), James Mooney's article on the "Indian Tribes of the District of Columbia" appears. From his paper, and also from others in the same volume, the information used in this chapter is taken. Mr. Mooney includes in his term "The Indian Tribes of the District of Columbia" appears. From his paper, and also from others in the same volume, the information used in this chapter is taken. Mr. Mooney includes in his term "The Indian Tribes of District of Columbia" not only the tribes that were within the original are of ten miles square taken to form the Federal District of Columbia, but also the tribes of the adjacent territory on both sides of the Potomac. The tribes were all more or less nomadic but it is assumed that the markings on Smith's map were of the head quarters villages of the tribes refers to in Smith's narrative. The three friendly settlements written of by Smith are located by Mooney as follows: "Toags, which appears on Smith's map as Tauxenent, was at or near Mount Vernon about seventeen miles below Washington, on the Virginia side of the river. Moyaons appears on Smith's map, to have been directly opposite, on the Maryland side, just below the mouth of the Piscataway, while Macotchtant, or Nacochtank, was on the same side, just below the Eastern Branch, and within the present limits of the District.(1) On either side of Naccochtank was a smaller settlement, marked but not named on the map, the three forming a continuous line of fields and cabins along the east bank of the Eastern Branch from its entrance into the District to some distance below Giesboro point."

     On the Virginia side, directly across the Long bridge, opposite Washington, was another small settlement, called Nameroughquena, and between it and Tauxenant (Mount Vernon) were two others, known respectively as Assomeck (about Alexandria) and Namasingakue (below Alexander). Several other small settlements are indicated on the map, on the Maryland side, about the mouth of the Piscataway, but none are marked on either side of the river above Washington, although archaeologists researchers tend to show the former existence of a considerable settlement about two miles above Georgetown and within the present limits of the Captain Smith gives a description of the villages of the Lower Potomac Indians. He writes: "Their houses are in the midst of their fields of gardens, which are small plots on the ground, some 20 (acres) some 40, some 100, some more, some less; sometimes from 2 to 100 of these houses togither, or but little separated by groves of trees. Neare their habitations is but little small wood or old trees on the ground by reason of their burning of them fire." Proudft says : "A community of this character occupied the eastern bank of the Anacostia, from Giesboro' Point on the south to within a short distance of Bladensburg on the north; not a continuous line of houses, but a succession of them at short intervals and at points convenient to the river." This was the settlement, or neighborhood, of Nacotchtant, with 80 able men. The river, 10 miles above this place, maketh his passage down a low pleasant valley, overshadowed in many places with high rocky mountains, from whence distil innumerable sweet and pleasant springs,"

     Proudfit locates the "princiole part of the Nacotch" as "about due east of the Capitol," with the dwellings "in most cases close to the bank of the stream." He adds : "A line drawn parallel with the shore and three hundred feet distant would include the greater part of the houses."

Mooney gives us a descriptive picture of the houses. He writes: "Their houses were from thirty-five to fifty feet long and half as wide, and were made of poles bent over and fastened together at the top and covered with bark or mats. A small opening at one end served both as door and window, while another small hole in the roof answered for a chimney. The fire, produced by twirling a pointed stick in a hole in a block of wood, was in the center of the cabin, around the sides of which was a low platform covered with mats or skins, on which inmates sat or lay with their feet to the fire. The furniture consisted chiefly of baskets of various sizes, mats and skins for bedding, a few pots of clay or soapstone, and a stone hatchet or two for hollowing out canoes and for other like purposes. Outside the door was a huge mortar, made from a lot of wood, with a heavy stick for a pestle."

     Of the inhabitants, he writes : "Children went entirely naked up to about the age of twelve years, while the ordinary summer dress of adults consisted mainly of the breech-cloth or a short apron. To this was added in winter a mantle of deer skin or of turkey feathers, neatly interwoven. These were ornamented with shells of wampum or bits of copper in the usual savage fashion. The men shaved their hair on the right side, and allowed it to hang down on the breast in a long lock on the left. From holes in the ears depended birds' claws, pieces of copper wire, or even a dead rat tied by the tail, or a small snake, which twined about the neck of the wearer, and at times kiss his lips. Their bodies were painted in various patterns. About their necks were strings of pearls taken from mussels, and on their heads were feathers, snake rattles, or the hand of a dead enemy, and, in short, according to smith, he is the most gallant that is the most monstrous to behold'. The women tattooed their bodies, limbs, and faces, and the girls were distinguished from the married women by having their hair cut short in front and at the sides.

     Almost all the prosaic occupations of peacetime were undertaken by the women. The men devoted themselves to hunting man or beast. Smith write:

     The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres and such man-like exercise, scorning to be seen in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the woman be very painful and the men often idle. The women and children doe the rest of the worke. They make mats, baskets, pots, morters, pound their corne, make their bread, prepare their victuals, plant their corne, gather their corne, bear all kinds of burdens, and such like.

     The Indians were, by nature, an improvident race. At most times they has an abundance of food, the wild growths, animal and vegetable, of the region being supplemented by their corn crops, which they knew so well bow to grow-"the goodliest corne fields he found on the Rappahannock. In addition, the "tidal estuaries swarmed with fish, the numerous shell-heaps along the lower Potomac bear witness to the abundance of oysters," writes Mooney. Yet, the average thought not of the morrow; "his body altered with his diet in the different seasons, and he grew fat or lean, strong or weak,' even as the deere and wilde beast,;" writes Smith.

     The aborigines lived almost perpetual state of war, and the life of a warrior depended largely upon his skill with the primitive weapons that were at his hand. These included "a bow and a quiver full of long arrows headed with stone, the spur of a turkey, or the bill of a bird. He carried a knife made from a reed, and a club or tomahawk headed with a deer's horn or with long stone sharpened at both ends. For defense, he has a round target of bark." The enemy dead were scalped, and the captives tortured. The bodies of the dead, of the tribe, "were wither wrapt in skins and deposited in the ground, or exposed on scaffolds until the bones fell apart, when they were gathered up and preserved in the houses."

     The Indians of the Potomac region were of Algonquian stock, and belonged to the Powhatan confederacy which was dominant in tide-water Virginia, "from the waters of Albemarle sound to the Potomac, and probably also the basin of the Patuxent," writes Mooney. As a whole, the Powhatan tribes were more peaceful than the tribes farther inland, and so may have been able to develop a higher culture, evidences by their pottery and fabric arts, than was possible among the more restless tribes beyond the falls. Broadly, the region of the Powhatan Confederacy was limited to the lower reaches of the tide-waters, extending inland to the falls of the principal rivers. At the headwaters of the James and Rappahannock were the Monacans and Mannahoacs, warlike nomadic tribes that have become extinct or have merged with the Siouan nation of the West. Southeastward of the Powhatans, on Albermarle Sound, was a kindred people of Algonquian stock, the Weapemeocs. Adjoining the Powhatans on the west were the Chowanocs, Meherrins, and Mangoacs or Nottoways, of Iroquoian stock, though perhaps not effectively linked with the Iroquois Confederacy, which centered in New York, and became the dominant aboriginal power of the Atlantic Coast tribes On the northeast of the Powhatans between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, were the Cuscarawaocs ( to all intents the Nanticokes, Atquanachukes, and other tribes of Algonquian stock, and closely allied with the Delaware's farther north. The tribes at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, and along the lower Susquehanna, were the Susquesahanocs, or Conestogas, and their allies, the Tocwoghs, both of Iroquois lineage or connection, but not swayed by the Iroquois Confederacy. Of these tribes, the Susquesahanocs troubled the Powhatans most, but most of them were potential enemies, speaking different languages. The Piscataways (Conoys) are not mentioned by Smith, and Mooney thinks it likely that the names Piscataway was "a collective term for several small tribes west of Patuxent, including, probably, the Moyaones" referred to by Captain Smith.

     The history of the Nacochtanks and Tauxenents is lost in that of their more powerful neighbors, writes Mooney. "After Smith's voyage up the Potomac, in 1608 we hear no more of them until 1622 when a party from Jamestown ascending the river in quest of supplies, stopped at a settlement on the south bank, at the mouth of the Potomac creek. The chief here had no corn to spare, but said that 'his mortal enemies,' the Nocochtanks and Moyaones, on the other side of the river had plenty, and offered the services of fifty warriors to go and help the Nacochtank, and after a stubborn fight eighteen of the Nadochtanks were killed and the remainder driven from their cabins, which were then plundered and burned. This battle was probably fought on the slopes just across the navy yard bridge," says Mooney.

     After the death of Powhatan, the Algonquian tribes of the Maryland side of the Potomac had little connection with the Powhatan tribes of Virginia. They suffered in consequence, having to bear the brunt of the inroads of the Susquesahanocs into theain. When the English of Lord Baltimore's colony arrived in 1634, "they found tribes along the whole Lower Potomac and Patuxent living in constant dread of the Susquesahanocs at the head of the Bay, whose excursions has become frequent and destructive that the weaker tribes had already begun to abandon their settlements for a more secure position farther up the Potomac," writes Mooney. Footnote (2) In an Indian village on the Piscataway Creek, the Maryland pioneers in 1634 found the English trader Henry Fleet. He had ascended the Potomac in 1632, exploring even beyond the Falls. His adventures are referred to in a later chapter. Captain Fleet, in his narrative, writes of an Indian town "Tohagae," and Taggert, in his "Old Georgetown" states hat "Georgetown evidently arose upon the ashes of Tohogae."

     In 1652, the Indians and whites of the Potomac concluded a treaty with the Susquesahanocs, and for the next twenty-four years there was peace; but then, the Iroquois Confederacy of the North, were forced to struggle to wrest a new home for themselves within the frontiers of Maryland and Virginia. They brooked opposition by neither white nor red man. The Susquesahanocs ravaged the country "from the Patuxent to the James, until defeated and almost exterminated by Nathaniel Bacon in a decisive battle at the present site of Richmond. The result was a treaty of peace in 1677, by which all the Indians as far as the head of Chesapeake bay were brought under tribute to the whites."

     Ere ling, very few of the Virginia Powhatans remained in their tide-water domain. The all-conquering Iroquois nations were extending their sway in all waters, exterminating some nations and absorbing others. The Tauxenents "joined the few survivors of the Virginia Powhatan, who retired to the Pamunkey river, where about fifty mixed-bloods still (1889) remain, about twenty miles east of Richmond," writes Mooney. The Maryland tribes," he finds, "gradually consolidated under the name of Piscataways, and removed, about twenty miles east of Richmond." writes Mooney. "The Maryland tribes," he finds "gradually consolidated under the name of Piscataways, and removed, about the year 1700, to a new settlement on the lower Susquehanna, near Bainbridge, Pa." Later, they ascended the Susquehanna to Chenango, and in 1740 came under the protection of the Iroquois. Drifting westward, the Conoys last appear, as a separate tribe, at a council held in Detroit in 1793. As to the Powhatans of Virginia, one record traces them to Utah. The Pamunkey River remnant of the once "lordly Powhatan" seem to have been removed to a reservation in South Carolina. There they had contact with the Catawbas; and the association was distasteful to them. About forty years ago, the "Pamunks," therefore, eagerly took the opportunity opened to them by Mormon missionaries, "and followed their delivers to the far-distant land of Utah."

     To close this brief survey of the aboriginal occupation of the District of Columbia and the lower Potomac, a clipping might be made from a recent newspaper article on the subject by John Clagett Proctor. In it, Mr. Proctor refers, as follows, to the writings of  Professor W. H. Holmes:

     Though - out the District of Columbia and vicinity there are various Indian sites and quarries. An extended review of these will not be attempted in this article, especially since only a few of the Indian tribes of this locality have been mentioned. One site, however, to which I shall refer, is that described by Prof. W. H. Holmes in his chapter on "Quartzite Boulder, District of Columbia," in Bulletin 60 of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

     These quarries are mainly just west of Sixteenth street, where that street crosses Piney Branch, or rather what is left of it. The cement bridge crosses the valley at this point and the ancient quarries even extended slightly to "he east of the bridge. Every argument was made to preserve this valley, now disfigured beyond recovery, not only for preservation of the Indian workshops, but for its scenic beauty as well. Maybe it could not be avoided, but the large cement sewer which runs trough the valley-even though that part to the west of the bridge will be preserved-does surely not lend enchantment to the view.

     Prof. Holmes expresses a tone of regret when he says in his chapter on this quarry: "It is cause for lament that this beautiful valley, the resort for generations of the landscape painters of Washington, is fast being reduced (1910) by deep cutting and filling to the monotonous condition of the ordinary suburb, and the charming rock-bordered stream is becoming a deeply buried sewer. In the future it will be known only through incidental references in literature, as here made; and the interesting traces of aboriginal occupation and enterprise will be forever obliterated. In 1892, when the quarries were investigated by the writer, on two dwellings were located within the area of the map; there was but one bridge, and the stream itself had not been molested in any way."

     Here the Indians found bolwders of a superior quality for the purpose of manufacturing all classes of implements which they desired. These cretaceous bowlders were mainly of quartzite and quartz, and their outcropping along this former stream indicates what once the shore line of the ancient cretaceous sea.

     Fortunately, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which is handling the reservation and park situation in the District of Columbia, is aware of the irreparable damage done along this line in the past, and is keenly alert toward being of public service in the future, and much beautiful scenery, still existing, will unquestionably be saved to posterity. It is easier to save the trees, and the valleys, and the scenery than it is to reproduce them, once they are destroyed. It is hard to duplicate nature and any attempt to do so is only satisfactory where the real thing cannot be had."

 Piscataway Migrates to Lancaster, Pennsylvania   

     The Piscataway  removal  began around 1699, with a move to Conoy Island, on the upper Potomac, whence they moved up the Susquehanna, deep into the Pennsylvania frontier. From then on they were recognized with the displaced Nanticoke people. The Piscataway seeking new lands migrated to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. For a better understanding of the Indians who occupied Pennsylvania, go to this web site : Map

A History of Pennsylvania

     The Nanticokes entered Pennsylvania from eastern Maryland about 1698, and located on the East Branch of the Susquehanna in present Luzerne County. Inasmuch as their number was small and they soon removed to New York, their influence on Pennsylvania affairs was negligible. The Conoys, sometimes called the Gawanese or the Piscataway, were another Algonquian tribe that lived for a time in Pennsylvania. Coming from the Kanawha River region in West Virginia, they settled in Lancaster County about 1700, but drifted slowly to the Wyoming Valley and thence, by 1765, to New York. 
 

A brief history of Lancaster County,: With special reference to the growth and development of ist institutions, designed for the school and home.: by Israel Smith Clare, Argus Publishing Company, 1892

Chapter I.

The Indian.

Tribes in the Locality, and Chiefs and Sachems.

     Lancaster County is rich in Indian traditions. This fertile and well-wooded country, with its abundance of wild animals in the forests and fish in the streams, attracted the Indians to this locality. The Susquehannocks, afterwards called Mingoes or Conestogas, whose chief seat was in the present Manor township, were the most important tribe within the limits of the present Lancaster county, and their best-known chief was Captain Civility. The place where the Conestogas had their last home is still called Indiantown. The next important tribe were the Shawanese, who came here from the South in William Penn's time, lived here half a century, and then moved to the West. While in this locality their chief seat was Pequehan, where the Peque creek creek empties into the Susquehanna river. They also had two towns on the Octoraro, one a few miles above the present village of Christinia, and the other several miles below the site of that village. The greatest sachem of the Shawanese while at Pequehan was Opessah. The Conoys were a small tribe located at the mouth of Conoy creek. The Delawares, from the Delaware river, and the Nanticokes, from the eastern shore of Chesapeake bay, roamed over these parts to hunt and fish, but had no towns here.

Indian Landmarks, And Indian Geographical Names.

     There were Indian burying-grounds in many places throughout what is now Lancaster County. There are Indian hieroglyphics, or picture-writings, on the rocks in the Susquehanna river, a little below Safe Harbor. The influence of the Indians upon the geographical nomenclature of our county is seen in the names of the streams here, large and small. The Susquehanna river derives its name from the Susquehannock Indians. The Conestoga and Little Conestoga creeks are named after the Conestoga Indians, and the Conoy creek after the Conoy Indians. The Pequea creek derived its name from the Shawanese town of Pequehan, at the mouth of that stream. The Big Chickies and Little Chickies creeks are names contracted from the Indian word Chickesalunga, the name which the Indians gave those streams. Octoraro, Conowingo, Conewago and Cocalico are also Indian names.

The Gawanese or Conoys

 

     The Gawanese migrated from Piscataway to an island in the Potomac river, whence their sachem and chiefs went to Philadelphia in 1698 to see William Penn and get his permission to settle in Pennsylvania. Penn allowed them to do so, and they returned and brought their entire tribe with them to Conejohala, the site of the present borough of Washington, where they built a town on the land now owned by John Haldeman, a little below the mouth of Conoy creek. This tribe was also known as Canoise, or Conoys, whence the creek took its name. They were also called Nanticokes, and were probably an offshoot on the Nanticokes proper, as they came from the eastern part of Maryland. This tribe was small, and was under the control of the Six Nations. They were generally peaceful , and were wholly surrounded by Indian traders, who found it profitable to trade with them. Like the Shawanese, they were nomadic; but becoming dissatisfied when game became scarce and white settlers in Donegal township encroached upon their hunting-ground, they asked and obtained permission to move farther up the river. In 1743 they removed to Shamokin, now Sunbury, and asked the proprietors of Pennsylvania to pay them for the land which they had given up in Conoy. Treaties with the whites were made in their town, and their chiefs took part in treaties made with the whites at Conestoga, Lancaster and Philadelphia ; but their tribe had little influence, and before many years they were heard of no more.

West Virginia Guineas, Wesorts and Melungeons

    My father's ancestor were Moravians. Michael Probsts (Propsts), was living in Philadelphia County:, Philadelphia Township, Pennsylvania, in the year1733. These days they are known as the West Virginia Guineas, Guineas being a corrupt word from Gawanese. After the American Revolutionary War, the family settled in what is now Calhoun County, West Virginia. the Propsts took part in the Battle of Brandywine. After this famous battle they made another settlement south of Brandywine, and they named the village, Propstburg, located in Pendleton County, West Virginia. The Propst family sold the property for the building of the first Lutheran Church in West Virginia. Today, this area of Pendleton County, West Virginia, is still called "Germany Valley", and is located between the north and south forks of the South Branch of the "Potowmack" (headwaters of the Potomac River).

PROPST, PROBST, PROPES, BROBST FAMILY ( the West Virginia Propsts).

"The family arrived in America on Aug 17, 1733 in Philadelphia on the ship "Samuel", Hugh Percy, Master, coming out of Rotterdam. There is evidence they passed through Bethlehem, PA, enroute to Lancaster. And it appears that they were inclined toward the Moravian form of religion."

 

"After ten or sixteen years in Lancaster, they migrated southwestward through Maryland down into the Shenandoah River Valley of northern Virginia into what was originally Rockingham and Augusta Counties, Virginia, and which later became Pendleton County, West Virginia. Whether Hans Michael and Barbara stayed in Lancaster or moved into Virginia with Johan Michael is not known."  

   My mother's Melungeon ancestors came to America in the late six-teen hundreds to Virginia. They migrated to Kanawha County, West Virginia in 1832. You can read more about these ancestors at :  The Multiracial Activist - In the Shadows of the Blue Ridges: Portrait of a Melungeon, by Helen Campbell.

     Some of the Piscataways of Maryland were known by the name Wesorts because many were a mixture of Indian, African and Caucasian.. The term "Tri-racial-isolates was coined in the early nineteen hundreds to describe the Melungeons, Wesorts and West Virginia Guineas. During the American Eugenics Movement, during these turbulent times, it became a crime to marry outside of one's "race" that would be Indian, African, or White. The laws in some states stated that any person of colour could not vote, own property or attend the same schools as the Caucasians. The so called "races" were to be separated.  

Other Maryland Remnants

 

"South of Washington, D.C., in the Maryland countryside, is a community formerly known as "Wesorts" or the Brandywine community, who may descend from the indigenous Piscataway, Accokeek, Wisoes, Wannys, or Moyaone (Segal 1976:15, 16). They claim mostly Native American ancestry and carefully avoid social relationships with blacks, as do most remnant groups."

 

"Unlike most isolates, Wesorts are traditionally Roman Catholic. Among the first white settlers of the area were Jesuit priests whose mission was devoted largely to converting the natives. English communicants of St. Ignatius Church during the seventeenth century bore surnames, such as Proctor and Harlan, found today among the "Wesorts" The history of this community repeats, in remarkable detail, patterns observed among the Cheswold group and others."

The Word "We-sorts" reference.com

 

We-Sorts is an archaic nickname for people of "mixed-race" origins who currently claim descent from the Piscataway Native American population in Charles County, Maryland. Today, one can find many people, particularly with the surnames Proctor, Savoy, Queen, Butler, Thompson, Swann (and others) who have that heritage, with appearance suggesting a mixture of European, Native American and Black American ancestry in the minds of many. A local joke by some members of the present day Piscataway nation is that the proper name of the tribe is "Wesorts" - as in "we sorts of Black, we sorts of Indian." Wayne Carlin's novel The Wished For Country fictionalizes the origins of the We-Sorts.

Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center Annual Pow Wows

     My parents moved away from their Appalachian homelands in the 1950's. After the birth of their first child, they migrated from West Virginia to Tennessee, to work in the tobacco fields. While there, they had two more children. My grandfather and my parents moved from West Virginia to where I was born, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When I was a child, I didn't knew very little about my ancestors, this wasn't right, I deserve to know my multicultural heritage.

     For the past decade, my grandchildren and I, have been attending the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center Annual Fall Pow Wows, to celebrate our Native American heritage, with The Tayac Territory Singers and Drummers. The grandchildren love getting out there to dance with Tayac Territory Dancers and the other participants. I want to thank Mark Tayac and his troupes, again, for the outstanding works in educating the public on the Native American peoples. Mark Tayac is a true treasure to our country, some things you can't learn from a book, you have to experience them, to get the true meaning.     

The Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers Photos

coming soon, please check back in a few days!