Nanticoke
, from Nentego, "Tidewater People," one of a group of similar Algonquian Indian tribes that also included the Choptank, Assateague, Pocomoke, Patuxent, Conoy, and Piscataway. See also
Location In the seventeenth century, Nanticokes lived on the peninsula between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. Today, most live in Canada, Oklahoma, and Delaware.
Population The Nanticoke and neighboring tribes numbered around 12,000 people in 1600, although the Nanticoke proper made up only slightly more than 10 percent of this number. In the 1990s there were about 1,000 Nanticokes in Delaware.
Language Nanticokes and their neighbors spoke Algonquian languages.
Historical Information
History The Nanticoke may have originated to the northeast, possibly in Labrador, with the Shawnee and the Lenape. They may also have passed through the eastern Great Lakes region and the Ohio Valley, where they met and possibly defeated Hopewell Mound Builder people.
Contact in 1608 with British Captain John Smith probably came a generation or two later than their neighbors’ encounters with earlier British and Spanish explorers. In any case, the people soon became involved in the local beaver trade. Some groups allied themselves with the British as protection against Iroquois raids. In eastern Maryland, some groups, including the Nanticoke, continued to have problems with the British, based on the presence of alcohol and disease, throughout most of seventeenth century.
British settlers granted the Nanticokes a reservation in 1684 between Chicacoan Creek and the Nanticoke River. The British also reserved the right to confirm Nanticoke leaders and to collect a formal tribute. Other groups signed similar treaties during the later seventeenth century. Nanticokes and other neighboring tribes also became subordinate to the Iroquois Confederacy during that time.
After non-natives usurped their original reservation, in 1707 the people obtained a 3,000-acre tract on Delaware’s Broad Creek, which was sold in 1768. In 1742, they were forced to eliminate the position of grand chief. In 1744, with Iroquois permission, they settled near Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and along the Juniata River, although ten years later they were living farther up the Susquehanna in a former Onondaga town. At about that time they merged with the Piscataway and became administratively linked with the Iroquois Confederacy.
Nanticokes (and many Conoys who had joined them in the 1740s) remained neutral in the French and Indian War, but they did side with the British during the American Revolution. In 1778, about 200 Nanticokes moved to Fort Niagara and subsequently to the Six Nations Reserve in Canada. Some Nanticokes also remained at Buffalo Creek, New York, while another group of Nanticokes and Conoys went west with the Lenape, ending up in Kansas and, after 1867, Oklahoma.
Throughout the later nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the Nanticoke remaining in Delaware gradually lost their official tribal status and were in danger of losing their Indian identity completely. In 1922, Delaware Nanticokes incorporated the Nanticoke Indian Association. They elected a chief and assistant chief and began to recapture interest in some of their former traditions. The annual powwow dates from that time.
Religion The people recognized good and evil deities. There may have been a formal priesthood. First fruits ceremonies were directed at a benevolent deity.
Government A great chief or sachem was the overall leader. Each village may also have been ruled by a lesser chief, who might be a woman. The office of chief was probably inherited. The people also recognized war captains.
Customs Descent was matrilineal. There may have been a social hierarchy, with the chiefs and their councilors having more material worth and respect and better clothing. The people poisoned their enemies and even other tribal members; poisoners were often considered witches. Shell bead money could be used to compensate for crimes and to purchase trade goods. The people may have observed a male puberty ceremony as well as polygyny.
Corpses were buried or placed on scaffolds. In the historical period, their bones were stored temporarily in log houses, whose shelves also held pipes and other personal belongings. Bones of up to several hundred people were later buried to the accompaniment of a spirit dance, which was meant to send them off to the afterlife. Chiefs’ bones were preserved in temples.
Dwellings There were at least five Nanticoke towns in the early seventeenth century. These were built along stream banks, and some were palisaded, especially those closest to the Iroquois. Houses may have been at least 20-foot rectangles with barrel roofs, covered with bark or mats. There was a smoke hole over the central fire and mat-covered shelves along the sides for beds.
Diet Women planted corn, beans, and pumpkins. They pounded corn in mortars to make meat, fish, or vegetable hominy. They also gathered nuts and other wild foods. Fishing and shellfishing took place in summer. The whole village removed to the woods for the fall hunt, which included deer, bear, turkey, squirrel, and other small game and fowl. Meat was roasted on a spit or stewed.
Key Technology Men glued bone, antler, or stone arrowheads to wooden shafts. They built springpole snares and set traps on trees felled across a river. Women used a hollowed log mortar and a wooden pestle. They made yucca and rush baskets as well as pottery. Bowls were made of wood.
Trade The Nanticoke were notable traders. Shell bead money could be used to purchase trade goods
Notable Arts Nanticoke art included pottery, woven baskets, and carved wood bowls. Baskets were decorated with spruce or porcupine quills. The people also made shell necklaces and similar items.
Transportation The people used mainly dugout canoes, although bark canoes were used for trips beyond the fall line.
Dress Skin clothing consisted of breechclouts and knee-length aprons fastened with a belt. Children generally remained naked. People wore fur cloaks in winter and cloaks without fur in summer. They painted their faces and bodies and covered themselves with bear grease. Various personal ornaments included bird claws, animal teeth, and shells.
War and Weapons Weapons included bow and arrow, wooden war clubs, and poisoned arrows.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Nanticoke in Delaware (Nanticoke Indian Association) live in a community near Millsboro. There may also be other small communities of Nanticoke descendants scattered around the region.
Economy Nanticokes participate fully in the non-native economy.
Legal Status The Nanticoke Tribe has requested federal recognition. Other organizations include the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians (recognized by the state of New Jersey) and the Eastern Lenape Nation.
Daily Life The Nanticoke Indian Heritage Project, dating from 1977, established a tribal museum and encourages continued exploration of Indian traditions. The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians maintain a museum and library, and they host an annual powwow.
