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The Pocomoke
Nation, an Eastern Woodland culture of the Algonquian language
group,
is historically identified as the First People of the rivers
of Pocomoke, Annemessex, and Manokin and the bay of
Chincoteague. The
Pocomokes were likely engaged by Europeans prior the Captain
John Smith’s 1608 exploration, however Smith’s 1612 Map of
Virginia provides the first known depiction of their King’s
House on the Wighco Flu, now called the Pocomoke River.
Pocomoke
villages or towns ideally situated along rivers, creeks, and
bays, provided a bounty of seafood and convenient access for
travel. Women and
children worked garden plots where they grew beans, squashes and
corn. Men and older
boys hunted and trapped animals upstream and in the hinterlands
for food and hides.
The Pocomoke’s
unique location, extending between the Chesapeake waters to the
Atlantic Ocean, provided resources to make wampum and peake.
Made in “belts”, wampum-peake was traded with northern
and western tribes for copper, stone, and other items.
Dugout canoes made from local cypress, cedar, and pine
trees also served as a Pocomoke trade item.
As noted by
Captain Smith, the Pocomoke spoke a dialect so different from
the Occohannocks and Accomacs to the south that an interpreter
was needed for communication.
Smith further noted the Nanticoke to the north also spoke
this strange dialect.
The Nanticoke are described by historians as associated
with the Lenape to the north and probably the Pocomoke were
also.
Villages were situated on both sides of a river or creek,
sometimes representing separate clans or family groups.
Hereditary leadership followed the mother’s clan or
family and the leadership could be a male or female.
Homes were rounded frame and mat or thatch construction,
called wigwams. The
leader’s home was sometimes larger, more oblong, and better
furnished. Other
structures and shelters were built as needed. The territory of the Pocomoke took in what is now Somerset and Worcester Counties of Maryland and extended into northern Accomack County, Virginia. Towns and villages took the name of adjacent rivers, creeks, and bays or vice-versa. Pocomoke lands were greatly consumed by the encroachment of European settlements during the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Except for surviving villages at river necks the Pocomoke were driven onto reservations including Askiminikansen, near Snow Hill, Maryland. It is through intermarriage of Europeans and Pocomoke People of the villages in these “necks” that the mantle of leadership has been perpetuated and survives. Read more history of the Pocomoke Indian Nation
Map of the
Pocomoke Paramountcy Somerset County records that indicate Daniel King of the Pocomoke Indians |
| © All Rights Reserved Pocomoke Indian Nation Inc. August 24, 2023 |