In the 1666 Treaty, "Anacostanck" Was Used As the Tribe Name, Nacotchtank Was Not Mentioned.

 This previous post from Feb 2022 discusses how the prominent error made on Captain John Smith's 1612 map still confuses many modern investigators about the name of the tribe of Native Americans who once lived in and around Washington, DC. 

The map makers misheard the words used for the name of the tribe and wrote the name of "Nacotchtanck" on the 1612 map. The name for the tribe was derived from the Native words for "a town of traders." As was pointed out about 20 years later, by Father Andrew White, the Jesuit who studied the Piscataway language for his preaching, the word for trading was "anaquash" and town was "tanik," so Anaquashtanik was what the mapmakers recorded as "Nacotchtanck."

 Native names, like many foreign names, went through a lot of changes as they were used by English settlers. But as evidence of how quickly the tribe name moved away from the Nacotchtanck form, the name used for the tribe in the Peace and Amity treaty of 1666 was "Anacostanck." (In a previous version of this post, a reading of the name as "Anacostaub" was included. Searching the transciption given in the Maryland Achives link that follows, it seems that the apparent "ub" ending is an old script for "ck.")

 Here's a link for the full text of the treaty. The name "Nacotchtank" or it's derivations isn't in the treaty.

Currently, Wikipedia still has an entry for "Nacotchtank." Their entry on the 1666 treaty says the name of the tribe was "Anacostanck," which is an active link to their Nacotchtank entry. Despite previous attempts, getting the cabal that controls the content of the entry to change the discussion of the name and several other confusions in the text, little or no progress has been made. Maybe pointing out the absence of Nacotchtank in this 17th century legal document will move an editor to correct the explanation of the Anacostan tribe's name.

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

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/

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/ )

The History of the Anacostan/Nacotchtank Indians in Washington, DC

Here's an article I put together that retells some of the major archaeological finds regarding the American Indians, the Anacostans, sometimes called the Nacotchtank, who lived in DC when the European settlers arrived in America. Click the link below to see the pdf:*

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

                                Drawing from 1590s showing a Dog in a Virginia Native Village
The article discusses the roles dogs played in Native life.

*Note: the first pdf has been replaced with an updated version, including more information about the various names that have been used for the Anacostan/Nacotchtank natives of Washington, DC.

How to Pronounce "Nacotchtank"

Here's one site that offers a pronunciation of "Nacotchtank" - the tribe of Indians that lived on Capitol Hill in the centuries before European explorers arrived.

The tribe name got an A inserted in front and got applied to what we know as the "Anacostia" River. 

Please post any links that may offer a pronunciation that may be more authentic than this.

Update, May 2023

This post from 2016 shows that I was misled by the name on the 1612 John Smith map, like many others who find the mistaken name there.

For details on the mistaken name and why "Anacostan" is the more suitable name, see these more recent posts on this blog:

http://nativevillagemarker.blogspot.com/2023/04/in-1666-treaty-anacostaub-was-used-as.html

http://nativevillagemarker.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-name-of-dcs-native-tribe-how.html

Letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser

Dear Mayor Bowser,

Have you had an opportunity to attend a public meeting in Melbourne, Australia?  As you may know, in Melbourne, each public meeting begins with mention of the indigenous people who originally occupied the land around the city.

In Washington, DC, historic maps (see above) suggest that the dominant tribe that gave a derivative form of it's name to the Anacostia River, the Nacotchtank, had villages not far from the Capitol Building.

To the best of my knowledge, currently there is no public display that acknowledges the past existence of those villages.

Michelle Obama recently called attention to the forgotten history of black Americans in the building to this city. We would also do well to acknowledge the first peoples who lived here. The placement of a Native Village marker on Capitol Hill would be educational for local residents and visitors as well as provide evidence that we, as a city, acknowledge the Native people who enjoyed this land before us.

I have set up a blog to offer information this topic. My recent email to Kevin Gover, the Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, is also posted there. I also plan to send Congresswoman Norton information on this matter.

Please contact me if you or your staff would like more documentation - the Library of Congress has been a rich and readily available resource - and if you would like to discuss this matter in more detail.

Sincerely yours,
Armand

The Nacotchtanck tribe in DC - Wikipedia

The presence of the Nacotchtanck in DC is clearly discussed in their wikipedia entry.
This is no secret.
We just don't talk about it or acknowledge it publicly in DC.

(For an update on the mistaken name, Nacotchtanck, being a misspelling of the Algonquin word "anaquashtanik," see this newer blog entry: 

http://nativevillagemarker.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-name-of-dcs-native-tribe-how.html)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacotchtank