Description
The Assateague (meaning: "swifly moving water") were an Algonquian people speaking the Nanticoke language who historically lived on the Atlantic coast side of the Delmarva Peninsula (known during the colonial period as the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, and the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania). While there are living people who may have distant heritage from this tribe, the tribe itself no longer exists as a culturally intact tribal community. In 1662 Maryland made a treaty with the Assateagues (and the Nanticokes) whereby every white man that took land in Indian territory was to give the Indian emperor six matchcoats. Although many of the tribal members perished in the hundreds of years following the settlers’ arrival, some were able to survive by hiding along the swamps, marshes, bay and ocean of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Living on the Eastern Shore in what today are Wicomico and Worcester counties, Assateagues have settled and assimilated with tribes in Delaware. Today’s tribe is comprised of their descendants, as well as the descendants of other tribes.
Language
Nanticoke is an Algonquian language formerly spoken in Delaware and Maryland, United States. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount chiefdom; the Choptank, the Assateague, and probably also the Piscataway and the Doeg.
Culture
The Indigenous Assateague culture was based on the maritime and forest resources of the Chincoteague Bay watershed and, among other things, involved the manufacture and trade of shell beads. Historically, the Assateague practiced excarnation as part of their funerary rites. This involved the eventual storing of ancestors' bones on shelves in a log structure. Periodically, the remains were collected and buried in a common grave or ossuary. Several ossuaries have been discovered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.