How Did The Anacostia River Get Its Name?

 During a zoom presentation to the St Peter School in November, a student asked me about how the Anacostia got its name and made me realize I was unclear about that.

Much of what we see now is a neglect of our Native history, so how did the river get its name?

It turns out that when Thomas Jefferson was serving as the first Secretary of State in the early 1790s, he was interested in learning the Native name for the river, and Andrew Ellicott, who was mapping the land that would become the District of Columbia sent him word that that the name was "Anna Kostia." 

Jefferson directed Ellicott to include the name on future maps, and Ellicott's 1793 map was the 1st to include a version of the name, Anacostia.

References:

1. Hutchinson, Louise D. The Anacostia Story, 1608-1930. Washington: Published for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977. Print.

page xix (#27): (see para 2)

Pdf online: https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/anacostiastor1600hutc

2. loc.gov call number for Ellicott 1793 map - G3850 1793 .E42 1898)

Acknowledging the Origin of "Anacostia" in the name of the Anacostia Watershed Society

The email below was sent to the President of the Ancostia Watershed Society May 12, 2020. 

This link will show how they responded and modified what they said on their website!

https://www.anacostiaws.org/our-watershed.html

Dear James Foster,

The excellent work of the Anacostia Watershed Society has a strong relationship with the Native Americans who had lived in the watershed for thousands of years before European settlers displaced most of them and polluted the resources they found.

Yet your website's history section says only: "In 1608, Captain John Smith sailed up what we now know as the Anacostia River and marveled at its depth and clarity..."

Your 25th anniversary state of the river document says:

"In the old days, the Nacotchtank tribe called the Anacostia and its environs home, and when white explorers first sailed its clear, slow moving waters, they marveled at the river’s splendor, and the bounty of its flora and fauna..."

In the 2nd example, there is a mention of the tribe that was identified when John Smith explored the river in the early 1600s, but there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment of how the name of the Nacotchtank tribe got modified into the name "Anacostia," now used by the DC community, the river and your organization, among others. As you probably know, Jesuit scholars who accompanied Lord Baltimore in the 17^th century Latinized Nacochtank to “Anacostan” which then changed eventually to “Anacostia”. 

As you are also probably aware, currently, not much attention is given to the fascinating history of the Natives who lived in what is now Washington, DC for thousands of years before the city was built. Our group, the DC Native History Project, is trying to improve that situation, and in this case, we are calling on your organization to acknowledge publically the history of the Native Americans who first lived in the Anacostia Watershed that now carries their name.

Of course, the DCNHP will be happy to work with the AWS to make these changes happen!

Best wishes,

Armand

Armand Lione, Ph.D.

Director, DC Native History Project

http://onceasitwasdc.org/  

Washington, DC

202.487.7092

CC: Chief Jesse James Swann

Piscataway Conoy Tribe 

http://www.piscatawaytribe.org/