Existing comment:
The First Anacostians:
People settled on the shores of the Potomac River's Eastern Branch (or Anacostia River) as early as 9500-1200 BCE. Native Americans established several large villages and fortified towns or "forts" south of the Eastern Branch, with the river providing a convenient means of food and transportation for goods and people. By the 1600s, at the time of their first encounters with Europeans, there were three major political groups vying for power in the region: the Susquehannock in Pennsylvania; the Piscataway Confederation in southern Maryland; and the Powhatan Confederation in Virginia and areas farther south. Most of these tribes spoke some variant of the Algonquian language. Localized wars were frequent, and major towns were heavily fortified and protected by sturdy wooden palisades.
The Nacotchtank (from whom Anacostia got its name) were generally part of the Piscataway Confederation. Their settlements stretched along the river from Giesborough Point (now Congress Heights, southeast Washington DC) almost to the town of Bladensburg, Maryland, at the mouth of the river. Their largest town, also called Nacotchtank, was located near the neighborhood of Good Hope. This fort was the home of the most important werowance, or leader, of the Nacotchtank, and the site of a good storage facility, an ossuary (burial ground), and other important buildings. The Nacotchtank were expert traders, often introducing goods to tribes throughout the region.
Nacotchtank raised crops on the land surrounding their towns. Where warfare was intense, palisades also enclosed the fields. Families burned or cut down trees in the forests to form fields, and then they cultivated the land by hand with wooden and stone implements. Towns and villages controlled large areas of land, not only for farming, but also for forage and hunting. Large and small animals made up a major part of the diet; hunters often ranged far from their village in search of game. |