Nanticoke

Cuscarawaoc Tribe

Cuscarawaoc Indians (place of making white beads – Tooker) . A division of the Nanticoke; mentioned by Capt. John Smith as a tribe or people living at the head of Nanticoke River, in Maryland and Delaware, and numbering perhaps 800 in 1608. Their language was different from that of the Powhatan, Conestoga, and Atquanachuke. Heckewelder believed them to be a division of the Nanticoke, the correctness of which Bozman has clearly demonstrated. Consult: For a discussion of the name see: Tooker, Algonquian Series, ix, 65, 1901. (J. M.)

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more

Nanticoke Tribe

Nanticoke Indians (from Nentego, var. of Delaware Unechtgo, Unalachtgo, ‘tidewater people’).  An important Algonquian tribe living on Nanticoke River of Maryland, on the east shore, where Smith in 1608 located their principal village, called Nanticoke. They were connected linguistically and ethnically with the Delaware and the Conoy, notwithstanding the idiomatic variance in the language of the latter. Their traditional history is brief and affords but little aid in tracing their movements in prehistoric times. The 10th verse of the fifth song of the Walam Olum is translated by Squier: “The Nentegos and the Shawani went to the south lands.” Although … Read more

Black Tribe

Black Indians. Mentioned by Bontemantel and Van Baerlein 1656 (Bontemantel and Van Baerlein, N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., I, 588, 1856). They and “the Southern Indians, called Minquas,” are spoken of as bringing furs to trade with the Dutch on Schuylkill River. Possibly the Nanticoke, who were said to be darker than their neighbors.