Assateague people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Scattered, no formal recognition | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|
Eastern Shore of Maryland Eastern Shore of Virginia Delaware |
|
| Languages | |
| Nanticoke | |
| Religion | |
| Native | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Chincoteague, Pocomoke |
The Assateague or Assateague Indian Tribe were an Algonquian tribe speaking the Nanticoke language who historically lived on the Atlantic coast side of the Delmarva Peninsula (known during the colonial period as the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, and the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania).
While there are living people who may have distant heritage from this tribe, the tribe itself no longer exists as a culturally intact tribal community.
The Indigenous Assateague culture was based on the maritime and forest resources of the Chincoteague Bay watershed and, among other things, involved the manufacture and trade of shell beads.
Historically, the Assateague practiced excarnation as part of their funerary rites. This involved the eventual storing of ancestors' bones on shelves in a log structure. Periodically, the remains were collected and buried in a common grave or ossuary. Several ossuaries have been discovered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
In 1662, the colony of Maryland made a treaty with the Assateagues (and the Nanticokes) whereby each English settler given land in the territory of the Assateagues would give the Assateague Tribal chief (or "emperor", as he was inaccurately referred to by the English) six matchcoats (garments made of a rough blanket or frieze, heavy rough cloth with uncut nap on one side), and one matchcoat for every runaway slave he had returned to the English. The treaty further stated that no murders were to be committed by either side, that no settler was to enter Assateague territory without a pass, and that the Assateagues were not to trade with the Dutch in Delaware, as long as the English could supply their necessities.
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Wikipedia