The First People

Before European contact, the peoples of the Chesapeake lived in complex societies with political, religious, and territorial systems, and in the 1500s some Algonquian-speaking peoples in what is now central Virginia organized neighbors into a centralized confederation that was in conflict with groups speaking other languages to the north, west, and south. Exploring the Chesapeake Bay in 1608, John Smith recorded encounters with the people living along the Patawmeck River, noting that they spoke Algonquian, lived in a land rich in natural resources, and treated the English generously while seeming to hope for allies against local enemies. The people in this area are recognized as the Piscataway, who relied on the river for resources, transportation, and trade, lived in towns often placed on defensible bluffs or well-drained terraces, and practiced fishing, hunting, farming, and gathering, with some smaller seasonal settlements in warmer months but most people wintering in towns by the time of contact. Their homes were likely large rectangular or oval wooden frame structures covered with fiber mats, and archaeological finds such as pottery and stone tools show foodways, technology, and participation in trade networks linked by river travel on foot and in large dugout canowes; John Smith also noted a valued silver powder, possibly a zinc compound, that they used to decorate bodies, faces, and idols and traded widely. The Piscataway at first welcomed the English during the early years of colonization in hopes of protection from enemies to the north, but as Maryland prospered the English fought them for land and resources; some Piscataway joined Algonquian-speaking neighbors in the Anglo-Powhatan Wars from 1610 to 1677, and after native defeat the Piscataway moved westward, with most absorbed into other groups by the 19th century, while some remained in Maryland and formed the basis of the modern Piscataway Indian Nation. Mary Kittamaquund Brent, daughter of Piscataway chief Kittamaquund, was placed in the care of Governor Leonard Calvert and Margaret Brent in 1641; among many Chesapeake peoples women often served as diplomats and peaceful facilitators, and Mary later married Giles Brent in 1644, moved to Virginia in 1648, and had former Piscataway land in Virginia claimed on her behalf.

National Harbor, Maryland · United States