Offered at Paint Branch UU Church, Adelphi, MD
November 4, 2018
Acknowledgment
We begin by acknowledging, with respect, that the land where we meet today is the ancestral homeland of the Piscataway peoples, who trace their history in the Chesapeake region to more than 10,000 years ago. They were farmers, hunters and fishers, and they harvested oysters and crabs along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River.
The Piscataway first met Europeans in 1608 when John Smith and William Claiborne arrived. Colonists followed about 25 years later on the Ark and Dove.
A 1666 treaty between the Piscataway and Lord Baltimore reserved specific lands in Maryland for the Piscataway people, but that treaty and others were soon broken. Under pressure from European settlers and attacks by neighboring tribes, many of the Piscataway moved north into the territory of the Haudenausaunee or Six Nations peoples.
Those who remained in Maryland established communities in Prince Georges, Calvert, and Charles counties. Piscataway people continue to live throughout Southern Maryland, their ancestral lands.
Early in the 20th century, Chief Turkey Tayac led a movement to revitalize Indian culture, to secure recognition of the Piscataway tribe in Maryland, and to preserve their sacred sites. His descendants carried the effort forward until January 2012, when the state of Maryland officially recognized the Piscataway Conoy Tribe and the Piscataway Indian Nation. The federal government still declines to recognize the Piscataway as an Indian nation. But we can be aware that we occupy their homeland, that their presence is imbued in this land, these rivers, islands, and coastal plains.
Those who remained in Maryland established communities in Prince Georges, Calvert, and Charles counties. Piscataway people continue to live throughout Southern Maryland, their ancestral lands.