| We are a tribal group comprised mainly of local people with American Native blood in our heritage.
It is a fallacy to think that there were no Indians left after contact with the Colonials. Our numbers were
decimated by diseases that were new to us, and the need for land by those arriving from Europe forced our
larger family groups to flee. We hid along the swamps, marshes, bays and oceans of the Eastern Shores of
Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Historically, we were known also as the Kickotanks or the Great
Assateagues and we were considered the most warlike of all Shore Indians. Because we were willing to be
accommodating and thought that all people believed as we did, that only the Creator could own the earth,
we waited much too long to fight. When we finally fought back, we made Edmund Scarburgh fight bitterly
and pay dearly for the land that he wished to obtain.
As with any culture, numbers of our ancestors were soon acculturated with the new comers to our Shores. Soon, the histories, legends and ways of life were told only in the confines of quiet family circles. All was kept secret, later we were even altered in the census records. It became against the law for those having Indian blood to gather in groups larger then three at a time. Because it was all so secret, it quickly became a shame and a disgrace to be a Native. And Now....It has been our honored Ancestors and Elders who have kept our history alive, it flows now, not only in our DNA, but also, proudly, in our hearts.Today, many of us try to live as traditionally as possible in this modern world. We believe, as our Ancestors did, that we must honor The Great Spirit on a daily basis and even minute by minute. The Earth Mother and all our brothers and sisters, the two legged and the four legged, are our relations. No group of Indians or beliefs of Indians are so different that we are not related and made by The One Great Spirit. No one person is greater than another. From our Elders, we try to pass this knowledge on to the future generations. Today we have in our tribe many American Natives from other tribal cultures in the United States. We combine the teachings of our Elders and theirs to practice the old ways of life from bead work to running sweat lodges. |
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