"Native American History of Washington, DC" Book Release, Sept. 4, 2023!

 This book is the cullmination of what started with my earliest efforts to get a Native Village Marker for Capitol Hill!

Hopefully, telling the whole story of my collection of details on the Garfield Park/Carroll Estate site, and the many others around the city, will significantly increase awareness of the many missing stories in the Native history of DC!

Proudfit's 2nd Native Village - On the grounds of the US National Arboretum (Details!)

 This is the portion of the 1973 application of the US National Arboretum for status as a National Historic Place:

In 1934 a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was built at what was 28th & M Sts, which sat between what is now the lower Arboretum and the top of the Langston Golf Course. It was during their work that the artifacts mentioned above were found. Contacting DC Historic Preservation to locate those artifacts is an upcoming project!

 This DC Historic sites page for the USNA also mentions the Piscataway, which would be the Anacostans:

https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/407

“Most of the original, centuries-old forested landscape of the arboretum remains preserved, and evidence indicates that in past centuries the land housed Piscataway Native American habitations and, later, 19th century spring houses.”

The site in the Arboretum is about 1 mile from the Benning area on the east side of the Anacostia, where Proudfit did a lot of his collecting. It's reasonable to speculate that he did some searching on the west side of the Anacostia and found an assortment of artifacts that indicated a Native village on what is now Hickey Hill in the US National Arboretum.

 

So this is another piece of DC Native History that has been available to the public for more than 50 years, but just not discussed.

I'll be contacting the US National Arboretum to see if we can get a public showing for the artifacts and the story of the Anacostans who once lived there.

To be continued...

NAHD 2021 Video: Where in Washington, DC Can You Learn about the History of its Native People, the Anacostans?

 As a status report on the Native history of the Anacostans in DC, here is a 6 min. video that summarizes sites that exist in 2021. If any readers know of others, please be in touch!

Video link: https://youtu.be/WMA-fpiWUIo

Sorry to say, Maggie, but 100 years later, this is still true!

Garfield Park Native History Day 2021

Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021, we will host our second Garfield Park Native History Day! This year will include the documented archaeology of the Carroll Estate that adjoins the park, and the finds made when the park was built - we will also describe the new finds that have been made nearby since our last event in Garfield Park in 2019. Here are the flyer (excellently designed by Ben Aronson) and a press release for the day.

Garfield Park History Poster - Nov. 1, 2020

     To mark the beginning of Native American Heritage Month, this poster was put on the Garfield Park bulletin board on Nov. 1, 2020!

It's only a start, but it is the 1st version of a Native Village Marker on Capitol Hill!

Native Land Acknowledgment for the NMAI in DC?

Dear Kevin Gover,

As you know, there is a growing interest in Native land acknowledgments in the US. 

Here in Washington, members of the DC City Council have begun using them during Council meetings. 

My experience in Melbourne, AU over the last 12 years has sensitized me to the public acknowledgment of Indigenous people, since in Melbourne (as I have heard is also being done in Canada), public parks and many public buildings have permanent land acknowledgments at their entrances.

My question here is whether the NMAI in DC has a land acknowledgment for the Anacostans who once walked the land under the museum? Perhaps this already exists and I wasn't thorough enough in my search of online information about the NMAI. 

If not, Indigenous Peoples' Day will be Oct 12, 2020, perhaps placing this acknowledgment could be part of the museum events for that day?

As you might recall, I have emailed you previously starting in 2016, when I learned there is a documented Anacostan Native site less than a mile from the NMAI, asking why visitors to the museum aren't being told about it. In 2018, I emailed again to ask about a possible real or online exhibit to tell the history of the Anacostans in Washington, DC. In other emails with your staff I have offered the contents of the Once As It Was Map of DC for use on the NMAI website at no charge.

As you know, there is great concern in the Native American and African American communities about the erasure of their history. A Native land acknowledgment in the NMAI would be a giant step in focusing attention on the Native Americans who once occupied the land that is now Washington, DC.

Sincerely yours,

Armand Lione, Ph.D.

Director, DC Native History Project

202.487.7092

DC Water Awareness of DC Native History

May 27, 2020

To: David Gadis, President/CEO DC Water

From: Armand Lione, Director DC Native History Project

Dear David Gadis,

DC Water is doing an excellent job providing clean water for Washington, DC. In the hope of improving what you do, this email will describe a perspective on the Native history of DC which seems to be missing from your important work.

DC Water has facilities at several sites that are very important in the Native history of Washington. For example, Blue Plains is part of the site where the chief of the Nacotchtank Indians lived before being displaced by settlers in the late 1600s. The Clean Water initiative aims to make swimmable the Anacostia, a river named for our Native people. Soon, DC Water will undertake work in Soapstone Valley, which amounts to what is left of one of 2 major DC quarries once worked by the Anacostans and other Native Americans for hundreds or thousands of years before the English settlers arrived.

Before going into any details, allow me to explain that I am working with the DC Native History Project to promote a recognition of the Native people who once lived, farmed and quarried in what is now Washington, DC. Among those involved in this group, we are honored to include Chief Jesse James Swann of the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe, based in nearby southern Maryland. The Nacotchtank, who later got their name Anglicized to the “Anacostans,” lived on both sides of the Anacostia River and southern Maryland when John Smith first visited in 1608.

Blue Plains

Let's first consider aspects of the construction that was planned over a decade ago and completed in 2019 at Blue Plains. As mentioned, the site where the Blue Plain treatment facility and Bolling Air Force Base now sits was identified on John Smith's earliest map as the location occupied by the Chief of the Nacotchtanks:

Here's a map of the area currently:

And a 2018 Google map image of the Blue Plains construction site which was almost completed: 

Out of interest to learn if any mention was made of the archaeological history of the site, I inspected the final version of the Combined Sewer System Long Term Control Plan. The description given in that document states only that the the site was "an athletic field."

Any archaeological information from an earlier Environmental Assessment was not included in the final report.

Although it is likely that the construction site had been examined and designated not to be of archaeological interest because of all the preceding disruption that had been done in the area, the Blue Plains digging did go deeper than any previous construction. The final document certainly does not include mention of the more than 100 Native skeletons that were foundnearby in 1937 during the construction of Bolling AFB.

(Here are the citations for the 1936 news stories on the burial site that were run in the Washington Post and Washington Evening Star:

“Ancient Cemetery in Anacostia Yields Bones Held Prehistoric,” Washington Post, September 11, 1936.

“Skeletons Unearthed at Bolling Field,” Washington Evening Star, September 11, 1936.)  

Nor does it mention the much older ceramic Native bowl that had been found in 2009, in Bellevue, less than a mile from the Blue Plains site.

DC Water Bill Insert: Restoring the Anacostia River

I was excited when I found an article on restoring the Anacostia River in the August 2018 edition of “What's on Tap.” It opened with a brief review of the Nacotchtanks who had lived along the river. Yet the article never informed readers of how the name of the river had been derived from the name of the tribe. One is left to wonder how many staff at DC Water, who had seen and reviewed the contents prior to publication, missed the glaring omission of this basic fact about the river they are so painstakingly working to restore. It does not speak well of the corporate awareness of the Native history of the Anacostia.

Soapstone Valley Park

Finally, there are the documents on the upcoming Rehabilitation of Sewer Infrastructure in Soapstone Valley Park. As noted in the environmental assessment, “No archaeological sites have been identified within the APE; [area of potential effect].” There is no clear reason to challenge that conclusion, but what is not mentioned in any of the DC Water documents, what is not publicly explained in or around Soapstone Valley, is the history of quarrying by the Native Americans who lived in the area for several thousand years, and who produced and traded bowls, pipes and various other useful items from the soft stone that still sits in the stream bed of the valley.

The soapstone quarry itself has been eliminated by urban development. To neglect mentioning its previous existence is one more step in erasing the long history of the Natives who lived here before us.

Clean and plentiful water is a powerful symbol of the District’s bountiful past, historical legacy, and exciting renewal. Contacting you on these matters is not intended to suggest that DC Water is uniquely at fault in neglecting the Native history of Washington. However, the connection between DC Water and the city’s waterways offers a unique and powerful opportunity to inform the public of the historical bounty from which its residents’ continually benefit.

Those of us involved in the DC Native History Project will be happy to work with DC Water to improve what the public learns as you improve our public life through your ongoing water and sewer projects.

Please contact us to open a dialogue about our concerns and to learn more about the enhanced role DC Water may play in honoring the Native history of DC, while protecting the city’s natural resources.

Best wishes,

Armand

Armand Lione, Ph.D.
Director, DC Native History Project
202.487.7092

CC: Chief Jesse James Swann
Piscataway Conoy Tribehttp://www.piscatawaytribe.org/

CC:Tommy Wells
Chair, Board of Directors DC Watertommy.wells@dc.gov

Video to Direct Viewers to the Once As It Was DC Map

This 1.5 minute video gives a brief summary of what will be found on the interactive Once As It Was Map of DC.

Also available on youtube:

https://youtu.be/ui7G4-adD50

The DC Acknowledgement of the Anacostan People

Here is the text of a basic Acknowledgement of the Anacostan People of Washington, DC that was composed with the guidance of Chief Jesse James Swann Jr, of the local Piscataway Conoy Tribe. Please pass it on to organizations who may like to use it to open their meetings.

We acknowledge that this meeting is taking place on the traditional land of the Anacostan People of the Piscataway Tribe.

And here it is when it was first used on Oct 8, 2019 by City Councliman, David Grosso

https://youtu.be/YwscPkrR3dE

Garfield Park Native History Day, Aug 24!

There's a new Facebook page to help promote Garfield Park Native History Day:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498983764237328/?ref=bookmarks

Here's the flyer to help spread the word -

Request Meeting at Bolling to Discuss Marking Anacostan History

To address the issues raised by the Cost of Forgetting video on the Once As It Was map, I've requested a meeting with the Commander of Bolling Airforce Base to discuss markers for the Anacostan history of the site.

Check the comments for this entry to see the reply that was sent in mid June!

May 15, 2019

533 4^th St. SE

Washington, DC

20003-4222

Captain Jose L. Rodriguez, Commanding Officer

Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling

20 MacDill Blvd SW

Washington, DC 20032

Dear Captain Rodriquez,

As you may know, the documented history of the land which Bolling now covers began in 1608 when Captain John Smith identified it as the tribal land of the Chief of the Nacotchtank/Anacostan Natives (see link below to article with the detailed references and telling of the Anacostan story). The remains of over 100 Natives that were found on the Base in 1937, when it was being expanded, are also a significant part of that history (T. D. Stewart & W. R. Wedel, 1937).

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any acknowledgement of this Native American history on the Base (see The Cost of Forgetting video, link below).

I would like to meet with you or your representative and the base historian to discuss what might be done to acknowledge these important parts of the history of Bolling.

Best wishes,

Armand Lione, Ph.D., Director

DC Native History Project

Washington, DC

202.487.7092

Links:

“Why Did the Anacostan Indians Choose to Live on Capitol Hill?”

by Armand Lione, Ph.D. (online at: http://onceasitwasdc.org/)

T. D. Stewart and W. R. Wedel, "The Finding of Two Ossuaries on the Site of the Indian Village of

Nacotchtanke (Anacostia)." Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 27, no. 5 (1937): 213-19.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/24530043.

See also:

The Cost of Forgetting https://youtu.be/zZtG7HtGQFc (online at: http://onceasitwasdc.org/ )

Thomas Jefferson asked the name of the DC Natives & No one knew

The opening chapter of "Chocolate City (2017)" reviews what happened to the Natives of DC very well! (Although I've heard the Fleete story differently.)
There was no citation on page 15 for this item
Around 1800, Thomas Jefferson asked about "the name of the Native Americans who lived along the Eastern Branch, no one could answer him."

About 100 years later, in 1918, Margaret Brent Downing wrote:
The Earliest Proprietors of Capitol Hill 

Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.

Vol. 21 (1918), pp. 1-23 (23 pages) (availble through JSTOR)

She complains on page 3. “Few cities of the larger and more cultured class have displayed a greater indifference towards the original owners of the land on which it has been built than the National Capital.”

Ms Downing was consistent with this complaint and never mentioned the Natives again in her article.


In 2018, you can visit the American Indian Museum and see this tradition upheld.

Skeleton of a Native Girl was found in 1883 when Garfield Park was being built

After the Washington Post article was published, Mark Herlong was kind enough to email me the news links from 1883 about the Anacostan relics that were found during the construction of Garfield Park. They included skeletal remains and hair from a young Native girl.  Here are the citations from the two original articles, from The Evening Star and the Washington Post.  Copies can be viewed online by searching through the DC Public Library (and other public libraries) using the digital newspaper links:

Washington Post, Aug. 12, 1883 p. 8 

"Some Curious Discoveries. An Indian Girl’s Skeleton and Other Relics of the Past."

Evening Star, Aug. 22, 1883 p. 1 

"Indian Remains, Etc., Found. What the Workmen Grading a Public Reservation Have Dug Up."

Washington Post article on Anacostan History

Here's a link to an article the Washington Post ran on Nov. 23, 2018.
It would be better if the article talked less about me and more about the artifacts and Anacostan history, but getting word out is the important part.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/11/22/native-american-tribe-once-called-dc-home-its-had-no-living-members-centuries/?utm_term=.22eff80d0812