CAMBRIDGE — Members of the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians gathered with state officials to unveil a historical sign honoring the Choptank Indian Reservation and the indigenous ancestors who lived along the Choptank River.
The sign was placed through the Maryland Roadside Historical Markers program, which is managed, in part, by the Maryland Department of Transportation. Chief Donna Abbott of the Nause-Waiwash Band thanked the state for partnering with the nonprofit group — which includes around 300 people who are descendants of the Choptank, Nanticoke and Pocomoke tribes — and led a prayer during the ceremony.
“This sign is more than just words printed on its face,” Abbott said. “It is one of the first steps in telling our own story (and) preserving our history.”
The reservation was occupied by Choptank people throughout the late 1700s and was the “last colonial-era reservation where the Choptank people lived together,” MDOT secretary Paul Wiedefeld told attendees.
Following the unveiling of the sign, a smudging was performed around the sign. It involved the burning of herbs and the guidance of a feather meant to cleanse the surrounding area.
Julie Schablitsky, the cultural resources director for MDOT, and Mike Detmer, a Dorchester County Council member, each spoke at the ceremony.
“This is their home,” Schablitsky said at the podium. “The Maryland Department of Transportation acknowledges the painful history of forced removal of native people from their territory. We honor the diverse, indigenous cultures still connected to this land.”
Tom Bradshaw, a Nause-Waiwash member and the vice chair of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, provided a background of the Choptank Reservation and its indigenous occupants.
In cold months, he said, their ancestors moved to the forest, and in warmer months, they would live near the river or the bay.
When English explorer John Smith came in the early 1600s, “things changed forever,” Bradshaw said. Native people were pushed out of their lands and converged upon by settlers.
Bradshaw said a “remnant” of native ancestors stayed and “hid in the forests,” often marrying into English or Irish families and quietly telling the history of their tribes.
Erin Kennedy, a member of the Nause-Waiwash Band who grew up on Taylor’s Island, is a historian working to preserve this history. She has combed through land deeds and records to understand the history of the Choptank people and their relationships with English settlers.
She emphasized that since the Choptank people moved as the seasons changed, they helped “minimize the burdens on the environment.” Kennedy said it’s important to “become intentional” and take lessons from that environmentally-conscious way of life.
Transparency about land use and monitoring invasive species are two areas in which Kennedy would like to see improvement.
“Is there any consultation that we can have that can bring back the richness of biodiversity in our ecosystems?” Kennedy said in an interview with The Star Democrat. “ … Any education surrounding the environment and basically how we got to this point is important.”
Decades of work by historians like Kennedy and descendants of indigenous people has preserved the history of the land and its original inhabitants, Bradshaw said.
“We know we’re here,” he said. “We never left.”
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