Indians of Southern Maryland


Book Description

New from the Maryland Historical Society, the story of Southern Maryland’s Native people. Here at last is the story of Southern Maryland’s Native people, from the end of the Ice Age to the present. Intended for a general audience, it explains how they have been adapting to changing conditions—both climatic and human—for all of that time in a way that is jargon-free and readable. The authors, cultural anthropologists with long experience of modern Indian people, convincingly demonstrate that all through their history, Native people have behaved like rational adults, contrary to the common stereotype of Indians. Moreover, in the very early Contact Period at least, some English settlers respected them accordingly. Unfortunately, although they never went to war against the English, they were driven nearly out of existence. Yet some of them refused to leave, and, adapting yet again to a changing world, their descendants are living successfully in Indian communities today.




Indians of Southern Maryland


Book Description













Wesort-Mulatto-Indians (An Ethnic Tri-Racial Isolate Group) of Port Tobacco and La Plata, Maryland


Book Description

I?n distinct contrast to “grandma-Bessie”, ??the “Geechee Lady”?, who was born in 1888, on a little South Carolina sea-island among the humble descendants of the Cherokee “Trail of Tears”- survivors, crammed together with the descendants of black-slaves into one little, down-trodden island-community?)?,....... grandmother-Sarah, a “?Wesort-Mulatto-Indian”,...(was born one year after Bessie in 1889, in the somewhat more up-to-date, southern city of La Plata). * * * * * * * * * * * Sarah Proctor came into the world among her people, ?the genteel, colored-elite; ...?an intermediate color-caste, who were the “free-people-of-color” of southeast Port Tobacco & La Plata, Maryland,... known as the proud, self-sufficient, well-educated, softly-spoken, well-mannered, very well-dressed, and always smoothly-coiffured, “good-haired” & ?light-skinned? “Wesorts” • It was during an era when ?RACISM was “KING”;? ?a stark-white, ruthless & headless monarch that ranted, ruled, and raged through America. • However, ironically on the other hand, there were those proponents of ?COLORISM? who were said to be found mostly among “lighter people”, who exhibited social airs which caused them to be perceived by most other “Coloureds” as “privileged” little princes & princesses” ?who,.......somehow ?always seemed, to their darker brothers & sisters (?who misunderstood them), to be loyally-emulating their eminent ruler, that metaphorical raging “KING”! • But, for the most part, they were NOT really as disloyal as they were perceived to be,...but, ?“stuck in the middle”? as they were,...they were ?simply ?a very ?misunderstood? group of very good American citizens.




Maryland Indians


Book Description

Provides definitions of terms dealing with the history and culture of Maryland Indians, and with Native American life in general, along with questions, puzzles, and activities.




Indians of Maryland


Book Description

There is a great deal of information on the native peoples of the United States, which exists largely in national publications. Since much of Native American history occurred before statehood, there is a need for information on Native Americans of the region to fully understand the history and culture of the native peoples that occupied Maryland and the surrounding areas. The first section is contains an overview of early history of the state and region. The second section contains an A to Z dictionary of tribal articles and biographies of noteworthy Native Americans that have contributed to the history of Maryland.




Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland


Book Description

Mixing chronological narrative with a full ecological portrait, anthropologists Helen C. Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson have reconstructed the culture and history of Virginia's and Maryland's Eastern Shore Indians from A.D. 800 until the last tribes disbanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, the reader learns not only the characteristics and traditions of each tribe but also the plants and animals that were native to each ecozone and were essential components of the Indians' habitat and diet. Rountree and Davidson convincingly demonstrate how these geographical and ecological differences translated into cultural differences among the tribes and shaped their everyday lives. Making use of exceptional primary documents, including county records dating as far back as 1632, Rountree and Davidson have produced a thorough and fascinating glimpse of the lives of Eastern Shore Indians that will enlighten general readers and scholars alike.