The Piscataway People and their Homeland

Dedication of Piscataway Park in 1968

Welcome to Piscataway Park — the heart of the Piscataway world. With its ample natural resources, this land has been home to Native American people for more than 400 generations. Today it remains the cherished homeland of the Piscataway people of Southern Maryland.Today it remains the cherished homeland of the Piscataway people of Southern Maryland.

The Piscataway people are alive and well. Like other modern Americans, many Piscataways have moved to far-flung places, but the heaviest concentration is still in Charles, Prince George's, and St. Mary's counties, particularly in La Plata and Brandywine.

Currently the Piscataway people have no federal or state recognition and no formal reservation. Reservations were created during the seventeenth century, then liquidated by the early eighteenth century through a combination of violence, unfavorable court decisions, and encroachment by English farmers. The Piscataway community persisted, however, and has been growing in size since the nineteenth century. It is tied together by a common culture, by neighborhood connections in Southern Maryland, through lines of kinship extending to all Piscataway people, and by several tribal organizations.

Above all, today's Piscataways have in common their homeland, which centers on Piscataway Park.

The Piscataway value system is forward-looking. Among the most important of these values are generosity, sharing, and reciprocity in all relationships; respect for all living things; and careful stewardship of the natural environment.

Piscataway Park is to this day the spiritual center of the Piscataway world, and will remain so in the future. The Piscataway people are vitally interested in what happens to their homeland.

Engraving depicting Indian life in the region in the mid-1580s

The Native American presence here dates back a minimum of 11,000 years — more than twenty-five times as long as the European presence in Maryland!

The Piscataway homeland was first mapped by Captain John Smith in 1608. The Piscataway chiefdom encompassed most of what is now Southern Maryland, including under the Piscataway umbrella semi-independent nations ranging from Yeocomico near the mouth of the Potomac River to the Tauxenents near modern-day Washington, D.C.

By the fourteenth century, the Piscataways were governed by a hereditary chief, or Tayac, who collected and redistributed tribute, mediated between humans and the spiritual world, and coordinated war and diplomacy.

For Piscataways, this land is the burying place of countless ancestors, the place where the fundamentals of Piscataway society and culture were forged. It is the heart of the largest of the colonial-era reservations and the location of Moyaone, a substantial town that was the political center of the Piscataway chiefdom.

Modern day Piscataways participating in ceremonies and gatherings

The Piscataway value system, while the product of history, is forward-looking. Among the most important of these values are generosity, sharing, and reciprocity in all relationships; respect for all living things; and careful stewardship of the natural environment.

These values emerged out of the experience of living for so long in this place, and they all point toward the importance of paving the way for future generations. Thus, Piscataway Park is to this day the spiritual center of the Piscataway world, and it will remain so in the future.

The Piscataway people are vitally interested in what happens to the lands and waters of their homeland.

The Accokeek Foundation is committed to working in partnership with the Piscataway people and the National Park Service to fully integrate the Native American past, present, and future into its exhibits and programs. It is also committed to drawing upon Piscataway values in its stewardship of the land and in its community relations.

Watch as this initiative unfolds.

New Publications about Piscataway Indians!

The Accokeek Foundation expands interpretation of Native American history and culture with several new publications about the Piscataway Indians. As steward of this unique, historically-significant site, the Accokeek Foundation seeks to deepen the public's appreciation of the ancestral presence of Piscataway Indians in the area that now includes Piscataway Park, as well as the contemporary Piscataways' commitment to preserve and share its culture. A brochure, a poster for children, a poster for general audiences, a bookmark, and a web page have been developed with guidance from Native American scholars and support from the National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network.

Limited quantities of these publications are available for free to the public. If you'd like copies, you can pick them up at the Accokeek Foundation Visitors Center. For quantities greater than 25, please call ahead to 301.283.2113 so that we can have them ready for pickup.