Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-318) and index.
Contents
1. The Native People's World -- 2. The First Century with Virginia -- 3. The First Century with Maryland -- 4. The Maryland Reservations after 1700 -- 5. Virginia's Gingaskin Reservation after 1700 -- 6. Geography, Ecology, and the Eastern Shore Tribes -- App. A. Indian Personal Names on the Virginia Eastern Shore -- App. B. Indian Personal Names on the Maryland Eastern Shore -- App. C. Major Useful Wild Plants of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia -- App. D. Fish and Shellfish Usable by the Indians of the Chesapeake Bay.
Summary
Mixing chronological narrative with a full ecological portrait, anthropologists Helen C. Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson have reconstructed the culture and history of Virginia's and Maryland's Eastern Shore Indians from A.D. 800 until the last tribes disbanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, the reader learns not only the characteristics and traditions of each tribe but also the plants and animals that were native to each ecozone and were essential components of the Indians' habitat and diet. Rountree and Davidson convincingly demonstrate how these geographical and ecological differences translated into cultural differences among the tribes and shaped their everyday lives.
Making use of exceptional primary documents, including county records dating as far back as 1632, Rountree and Davidson have produced a thorough and fascinating glimpse of the lives of Eastern Shore Indians that will enlighten general readers and scholars alike.
