History of Native Americans in Baltimore facts for kids
The history of Native Americans in Baltimore goes back at least 12,000 years. This means people lived in the area long before Baltimore became a city. Today, Baltimore has a small but important Native American population. Most of them live in East Baltimore.
Many Native Americans in Baltimore are from the Lumbee, Piscataway, and Cherokee nations. The Piscataway people are originally from Southern Maryland. They lived there for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived. Maryland officially recognizes them as a tribe. The Lumbee and Cherokee people come from North Carolina and other states in the southeastern U.S. Many Lumbee and Cherokee families moved to Baltimore in the mid-1900s. They came during a time when many people from the Southern United States, including African Americans and Appalachian people, moved north for new opportunities.
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Native Americans in Baltimore Today
In 2000, about 7,000 Native Americans lived in the Baltimore metropolitan area. This was a small part of the total population. By 2013, a few hundred Cherokee and Navajo people lived in Baltimore city.
Today, Native American languages are spoken by a small group in Baltimore. They are the twenty-seventh largest language group in the city.
Ancient History of Native Americans in Baltimore
Native Americans have lived in the Baltimore area for a very long time. The first people, called Paleo-Indians, settled here around 12,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found ancient sites in Baltimore from different time periods. These include sites from the Archaic and Woodland period eras.
During the Late Woodland period, a group called the "Potomac Creek complex" lived in the area. They lived from Baltimore down to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. They mostly lived along the Potomac River.
Early European Contact
In the early 1600s, few Native Americans lived right in the Baltimore area. The northern part of Baltimore County was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock people. They lived in the lower Susquehanna River valley. The Susquehannock controlled the northern parts of the Chesapeake Bay.
The Piscataway tribe lived south of Baltimore. They were an Algonquian group. They mostly lived on the north bank of the Potomac River. This is in what is now Charles and southern Prince George's counties. John Smith's map from 1608 showed no settlements in the Baltimore area. But it did show many settlements along the Patuxent River that were linked to the Piscataway.
John Smith's Exploration
In 1608, Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay. He traveled from Jamestown to the very top of the bay. He was the first European to explore the Patapsco River. The name "Patapsco" comes from an Algonquian word. It means "backwater" or "tide covered with froth."
The Chesapeake Bay was named after the Chesapeake tribe. "Chesapeake" comes from an Algonquian word, Chesepiooc. This word referred to a village "at a big river." It is one of the oldest English place-names still used in the U.S.
In 2005, a language expert named Blair A. Rudes studied the word "Chesapeake." He said it probably does not mean "Great Shellfish Bay." Instead, it might mean "Great Water." Or it could have been the name of a village at the bay's mouth.
English Settlers and Trade
Soon after John Smith's trip, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The English were at first scared of the Piscataway. This was because of their body paint and war clothes. But the Piscataway were a peaceful tribe. Their chief quickly allowed the English to settle in their territory. Good relations were formed between them.
Starting in the 1620s, English settlers from Colony of Virginia began trading with the Algonquians. They especially traded with the Piscataway tribe in Southern Maryland. The northern Chesapeake Bay area had many trees, which meant more beavers. The English traded cloth and metal tools for beaver furs.
Lord Baltimore supported this trade. He thought he could make more money from taxing fur trade than from tobacco. Lord Baltimore also wanted to stay friends with the Algonquians. This was to create a barrier against the Susquehannock tribe. The Susquehannock were an Iroquoian-speaking tribe to the north. They were not friendly to the English.
In exchange for working with the English, tribes on the Eastern Shore received land grants. These grants protected their lands. The tribes paid for the grants with beaver furs.
Land Disputes and Treaties
Some English fur traders helped Native Americans pay their rents. They wanted to stop tobacco farmers from taking Native American lands. But English tobacco farmers slowly took more and more land. This made it hard for Native Americans to move freely to find food.
The English made treaties with Native Americans. These treaties protected their rights to "hunting, fowling, crabbing, and fishing." But in reality, the English did not always respect these treaties. Native Americans were eventually moved to reservations.
In 1642, the Province of Maryland declared war on several Native American groups. This included the Susquehannocks. The Susquehannocks had guns from Swedish colonists in New Sweden. The Swedes were friends with the Susquehannock. They wanted to trade and stop the English from expanding into Delaware. With Swedish help, the Susquehannock defeated the English in 1644.
In 1652, the Susquehannock made peace with the colonists. They gave large areas of land to the colony. The tribe had recently lost a war with the Iroquois. They could not fight two wars at once. Both the Susquehannock and the English saw the Iroquois as enemies. So, they decided to work together against Iroquois expansion. This alliance lasted for 20 years. However, the English treated their Susquehannock allies poorly. In 1674, the English forced the Susquehannock to move to the Potomac River.
Native Americans in Modern Baltimore
The Lumbee people are originally from North Carolina. Most of them live in Robeson County. North Carolina recognizes the Lumbee as a tribe. However, the U.S. federal government does not officially recognize them.
In the early and mid-1900s, many Lumbee people moved to Baltimore. This was part of the same migration that brought many African Americans and poor white people from Appalachia north.
Baltimore American Indian Center
The Baltimore American Indian Center was started in 1968. It helps the Lumbee and other Native American communities in Baltimore. In 2011, the center opened a Native American heritage museum. It has exhibits on Lumbee art and culture.
The Lumbee and other Native Americans in Baltimore mostly live in a six-block area. This area is around Baltimore Street in East Baltimore. This community is the largest Lumbee group outside of their home territory. In 1993, about 4,300 Lumbee lived in Maryland. About 2,500 of them were in Baltimore.
Native Americans in Baltimore, mostly Lumbee, often face challenges. They have the lowest income levels of any ethnic group in the city. High unemployment and domestic violence are problems in the community. More than a third of them live below the poverty line. The average Lumbee person often has less education.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
In 2017, Native American activists in Baltimore asked the city council to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day. The Baltimore American Indian Center helps host an Indigenous Peoples' Day event. So far, bills to make this change have not passed the Baltimore City Council.
In August 2017, a monument to Christopher Columbus was damaged. The people who did it said the monument was racist. They spoke out against "European capitalism." They claimed Christopher Columbus stands for "terrorism, genocide, slavery, ecological degradation and capitalist exploitation" against Native Americans and African Americans.
Johns Hopkins University Land Acknowledgment
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has a special statement. It says the institution is on "unceded lands of the Piscataway and Susquehannock peoples." It also recognizes that "more than 7,000 indigenous peoples" live in Baltimore City. This includes members of the Piscataway, Lumbee, and Eastern Band of Cherokee communities.
The statement also says the institution knows about "the history of genocide and ongoing systemic inequities." It promises to respect treaties made on this land. This helps the university community be "accountable to tribal nations."
Notable Native Americans from Baltimore
- Shan Goshorn, an Eastern Band Cherokee artist.
