Native American Heritage
The history of the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland begins far before Captain John Smith's exploration of the Delmarva Peninsula in 1608. It begins with the arrival of the first natives during the late Paleo period (8500 B.C.). As technology and food resources changed, their numbers expanded leading into the Archaic period (1500 B.C.). They lived in semi-nomadic groups, periodically migrating to follow large wild game. The final phase, known as the Woodland period (1500 A.D.), led up to colonial contact. The Woodland period of Indian life was characterized by sedentary living in permanent camps taking advantage of abundant wild game and shellfish found throughout the region. In this phase, tribes established distinct cultural context and dialects.
The native groups of this region held firm to the concept of extended family and respected their elders. Tribal clans seasonally located villages on high ground near river mouths, bays or freshwater creeks along both sides of the peninsula. They successfully cultivated corn, squash and other field crops, and gathered forest nuts and berries. Eventually disease and aggressive colonial settlement patters decimated the indigenous population. Remaining groups moved to the north and west. Others stayed and married local freed black slaves or whites. Today there are descendants of Native Americans living in this area, including those of the Occohonnock and Pocomoke groups.
Maryland Currently Recognizes Three tribes: Tribes served by the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs include:
Beach to Bay Indian Trail & Future Plans
Local Native American names are evident in this region. The various tribes frequently moved from upland permanent villages to seasonal camps each year. Following natural and land contours to facilitate walking or canoeing, they would move to coastal sites from the Atlantic Ocean to the Chesapeake Bay area each Spring. They traveled well-used trails to attend regional clan or tribal meetings, ceremonies or big game hunts.
Find where Askiminokonson once stood, the old Native American Indian Reservation and village straddling the Pocomoke River along Route 12 near Snow Hill. Established for several clans and tribes of Eastern Shore Indians in the late 1600s, it is one of the oldest Indian reservations in the United States. While in the area, visit historic Furnace Town to learn about early settlement patterns. Walk or bike Snow Hill's historic streets. Compare various Georgian, Federal, and Colonial Revival architecture.
The Beach to Bay Indian Trail was designated a National Recreation Trail by the Department of the Interior in 1993. While it was intended to recreate the native pathways and migration patterns from the beach to the bay by Native Americans, it lacked accuracy due to insufficient consultation with the area’s Indigenous People. The trail contains stops at museums and parks throughout Worcester and Somerset counties. We are planning to re-image the trail, not just in name, but with expanded content and interpretation. We will be consulting with the Pocomoke Indian Nation to redevelop the Beach to Bay Indian Trail.
The native groups of this region held firm to the concept of extended family and respected their elders. Tribal clans seasonally located villages on high ground near river mouths, bays or freshwater creeks along both sides of the peninsula. They successfully cultivated corn, squash and other field crops, and gathered forest nuts and berries. Eventually disease and aggressive colonial settlement patters decimated the indigenous population. Remaining groups moved to the north and west. Others stayed and married local freed black slaves or whites. Today there are descendants of Native Americans living in this area, including those of the Occohonnock and Pocomoke groups.
Maryland Currently Recognizes Three tribes: Tribes served by the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs include:
- Accohannock Indian Tribe
- Assateague Peoples Tribe
- Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians
- Piscataway Conoy Confederacy
- Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians
- Piscataway Indian Nation
- Pocomoke Indian Nation
- Youghiogheny River Band of Shawnee Indian
Beach to Bay Indian Trail & Future Plans
Local Native American names are evident in this region. The various tribes frequently moved from upland permanent villages to seasonal camps each year. Following natural and land contours to facilitate walking or canoeing, they would move to coastal sites from the Atlantic Ocean to the Chesapeake Bay area each Spring. They traveled well-used trails to attend regional clan or tribal meetings, ceremonies or big game hunts.
Find where Askiminokonson once stood, the old Native American Indian Reservation and village straddling the Pocomoke River along Route 12 near Snow Hill. Established for several clans and tribes of Eastern Shore Indians in the late 1600s, it is one of the oldest Indian reservations in the United States. While in the area, visit historic Furnace Town to learn about early settlement patterns. Walk or bike Snow Hill's historic streets. Compare various Georgian, Federal, and Colonial Revival architecture.
The Beach to Bay Indian Trail was designated a National Recreation Trail by the Department of the Interior in 1993. While it was intended to recreate the native pathways and migration patterns from the beach to the bay by Native Americans, it lacked accuracy due to insufficient consultation with the area’s Indigenous People. The trail contains stops at museums and parks throughout Worcester and Somerset counties. We are planning to re-image the trail, not just in name, but with expanded content and interpretation. We will be consulting with the Pocomoke Indian Nation to redevelop the Beach to Bay Indian Trail.
For a more extensive guide and maps about the indigenous groups of Maryland, check out some of the links below:
- Indigenous Peoples of the Chesapeake
- Indigenous Maryland
- National Park Service: American Indian Tribes Today
- Salisbury University's "Lower Eastern Shore Native American History" library guide.
Also check out the article "Understanding Thanksgiving from Our Side of the Table" from the First Nations Development Institute which gives insight into the origins of Thanksgiving.
Other educational resources:
Pocomoke Indian Nation Pop-Up Museum
Pocomoke Indian Nation Pop-Up Museum at Bennett Middle School. Photo Credit: Paul Butler
The Pocomoke Indian Nation’s history predates colonization. Historically it was a paramount tribe, with multiple subtribes that lived and thrived upon their homelands, including all of present-day Somerset County, parts of Wicomico and Worcester Counties, part of Accomack County, VA and part of Sussex County, DE. Today, descendants of this tribal nation continue to live locally; and with a nonprofit arm, make it their mission to preserve and protect the cultural traditions and lifeways. The effects of colonization and discrimination have made it difficult to piece together indigenous history, but the Pocomoke Indian Nation remain undeterred. To share this history in an authentic way, the Pocomoke Indian Nation have dedicated and enormous amount of time and effort into researching their history and crafting replicas to display in a mobile exhibit.
The Pocomoke Indian Nation's mobile pop-up museum, officially called Pocomoke Indian Nation Spheres of Influence, is a program hosted by the Pocomoke Indian Nation aimed at teaching students in the Beach to Bay Heritage Area about our local indigenous heritage. First unveiled at the 2024 Maryland Folk Festival, over 2000 students have been exposed to indigenous heritage and culture. This programming has been instrumental in filling the void and demand for accurate and authentic information about our Native American history in school curriculums.
Local schools have been eager to invite the Pocomoke Indian Nation to bring their exhibit to their schools. As of March 2025, the Pocomoke Indian Nation has collaborated with six schools in the area and are booked out through the Spring semester, showcasing the overwhelming support that has been shown by our local school systems.
The Pocomoke Indian Nation's mobile pop-up museum, officially called Pocomoke Indian Nation Spheres of Influence, is a program hosted by the Pocomoke Indian Nation aimed at teaching students in the Beach to Bay Heritage Area about our local indigenous heritage. First unveiled at the 2024 Maryland Folk Festival, over 2000 students have been exposed to indigenous heritage and culture. This programming has been instrumental in filling the void and demand for accurate and authentic information about our Native American history in school curriculums.
Local schools have been eager to invite the Pocomoke Indian Nation to bring their exhibit to their schools. As of March 2025, the Pocomoke Indian Nation has collaborated with six schools in the area and are booked out through the Spring semester, showcasing the overwhelming support that has been shown by our local school systems.
Cheryl Doughty of the Pocomoke Indian Nation Introducing Herself to a Class at Bennett Middle School. Photo Credit: Paul Butler
Students Work on an Activity Together. Photo Credit: Paul Butler
Students Examine Pocomoke Indian Nation Exhibit. Photo Credit: Paul Butler
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Students Work on an Activity Together. Photo Credit: Paul Butler
Photo Credit: Paul Butler
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The programs success has been a result of great community collaboration:
However, this ultimately would not have been possible without the efforts of the Pocomoke Indian Nation that has spent the last fifty years researching, understanding, and reclaiming their deep heritage and their willingness to share it with the world.
Check out Tierra Williams' coverage of the pop-up museum over at 47abc WMDT!
- Wicomico County Public Schools’ Social Studies Supervisor K-12, Lori Bock, and Chief Finance and Operations Officer, Brian Raygor
- Worcester County Public Schools’ Social Studies, JROTC, and Service-Learning Coordinator, Jess McInerney
- Somerset County Public Schools’ Supervisor of Social Studies & Media, Jill Holland
- Maryland State Archives’ Senior Director of Special Collections, Conservation, & Library Services, and Co-Director, Indigenous Peoples' Program, Maria A. Day
- Maryland State Archives’ Director, Special Collections & Library Services, Co-Director, Indigenous Peoples' Program, Megan Craynon
- Grant funding from:
- Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore to purchase videography equipment to enhance the availability of media products that can preserve heritage and additional curricular resources.
- Maryland Heritage Areas Authority / Beach to Bay Heritage Area to purchase an enclosed tow behind trailer, and design and create a display that could be delivered to local schools. The purpose is to provide educators and students with a program that is aligned with social studies standards and accurately represents the history and culture of the First Peoples of this region in general, and the Pocomoke Tribal Paramountcy in particular.
- An invitation from Maryland State Archives to provide training to educators in August of 2023, held at the Edward H. Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.
- Present at the training were Bennett Middle School’s Julia Berg and Sarah Mason, who also followed through on the opportunity to create a thematic lesson plan and submit it to the Maryland Humanities’ Think Port program. Mason and Berg’s lesson was selected, and Mason was filmed in the Fall of 2024 featuring their lesson plan.
- Collaborations with Raye Gillette, currently Curator & Folklife Specialist for the Museum of Eastern Shore Culture (MESC) to help guide decisions with the display itself
However, this ultimately would not have been possible without the efforts of the Pocomoke Indian Nation that has spent the last fifty years researching, understanding, and reclaiming their deep heritage and their willingness to share it with the world.
Check out Tierra Williams' coverage of the pop-up museum over at 47abc WMDT!
Maryland State Archives Indigenous Oral Histories Project
Mayis
Group photo of Pocomoke Indian Nation presenters at National Folk Festival taken by John Brinton in 2021. Presenters include (left-to-right): Philip L. Goldsborough, Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Black Corn/Pekatawas MaKaTaWai’U), Chief Norris Howard, Sr., Norris (Buddy) Howard, Jr., Sam Doughty, Brenda Howard (sitting on left) and Cheryl Doughty (sitting on right).
Maryland State Archives sc6396-1-23
Photo Credits: sc6396-1-23, John Brinton, 2021
Maryland State Archives sc6396-1-23
Photo Credits: sc6396-1-23, John Brinton, 2021
You can now listen online to several Tribal Council members of the Pocomoke Indian Nation sharing about their traditions, perspectives, and personal stories. These recordings are part of a series of oral history interviews organized by a team from the Maryland State Archives who are interested in preserving Native American community cultures. In the summer 2023, archivists began work on a project to build Indigenous Archive Project for the Eastern Shore of Maryland with support from a generous grant from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. The team hired Drew Shuptar-Rayvis, a cultural anthropologist, living historian, and Northern Cultural Ambassador of the Pocomoke Indian Nation, to be the principal researcher and project consultant. Mr. Shuptar-Rayvis recently completed his field work, recording 20 oral history interviews from not only the Pocomoke Indian Nation, but other Native communities on the Delmarva Peninsula including the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, the Accohannock Tribe, and the Nanticoke Indians.
Project research staff transcribed the audio files. All transcriptions were created using AI and then corrected by archival staff, in cooperation with each of the interviewees. Archivists MSA recently debuted the first group of interviews on a new “oral histories” tab on their Indigenous Records website, Mayis. (“Mayis” is a word meaning “path” in Renape, an Algonquian dialect once spoken by some tribes on the Eastern Shore.) Currently seven of the interviews are available as audio files to stream and transcriptions to read on our Mayis Indigenous records website. [https://mayis.msa.maryland.gov/Pages/oralhists.html]
Meanwhile, archives staff are working with the remaining interviewees to review their transcripts. Project Director, Maria Day, remarks, “We are sensitive to community members’ input, offering interviewees an opportunity to correct any misinterpretation in our transcripts or to edit segments that they prefer to keep private.” The Archives anticipates another release of oral histories will go live for public access in November 2024, which is also Native American Heritage Month.
Finally, there is great news for K-12 teachers and educators: On October 1, 2024 there is a release of an Indigenous Inquiry Kit focusing on cultures of the Chesapeake region. https://thinkport.org/tps/inquiry-kits.html These new resources are available, thanks to a grant from the Library of Congress to Maryland Humanities, who has partnered with the Maryland State Archives’ team and teachers to create lesson plans, videos, and packets of classroom-ready information. Look for the link on the Mayis resources page for details.
Project research staff transcribed the audio files. All transcriptions were created using AI and then corrected by archival staff, in cooperation with each of the interviewees. Archivists MSA recently debuted the first group of interviews on a new “oral histories” tab on their Indigenous Records website, Mayis. (“Mayis” is a word meaning “path” in Renape, an Algonquian dialect once spoken by some tribes on the Eastern Shore.) Currently seven of the interviews are available as audio files to stream and transcriptions to read on our Mayis Indigenous records website. [https://mayis.msa.maryland.gov/Pages/oralhists.html]
Meanwhile, archives staff are working with the remaining interviewees to review their transcripts. Project Director, Maria Day, remarks, “We are sensitive to community members’ input, offering interviewees an opportunity to correct any misinterpretation in our transcripts or to edit segments that they prefer to keep private.” The Archives anticipates another release of oral histories will go live for public access in November 2024, which is also Native American Heritage Month.
Finally, there is great news for K-12 teachers and educators: On October 1, 2024 there is a release of an Indigenous Inquiry Kit focusing on cultures of the Chesapeake region. https://thinkport.org/tps/inquiry-kits.html These new resources are available, thanks to a grant from the Library of Congress to Maryland Humanities, who has partnered with the Maryland State Archives’ team and teachers to create lesson plans, videos, and packets of classroom-ready information. Look for the link on the Mayis resources page for details.
Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Pocomoke Indian Nation) showing children a duck made from the weaving of cattail plants.
Maryland State Archives sc6396-1-2
Maryland State Archives sc6396-1-2
