Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory

Piscataway Indian Nation

Billy Tayac, hereditary chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation And Tayac Territory in 2012
Total population
103
Regions with significant populations
Maryland
Languages
English, Piscataway (historically)
Religion
Christianity, Native American religion (historically)
Related ethnic groups
Nanticoke

The Piscataway Indian Nation /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ/, also called Piscatawa /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ, ˌpɪskəˈtɑːwə/,^[1] is a state-recognized tribe in Maryland^[2] who identify as descendants of the historic Piscataway people.^[3] At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a territory on the north side of the Potomac River. By the early seventeenth century, the Piscataway had come to exercise hegemony over other Algonquian-speaking Native American groups on the north bank of the river. The Piscataway nation declined dramatically before the nineteenth century, under the influence of colonization, infectious disease, and intertribal and colonial warfare.

The Piscataway Indian Nation organized out of a 20th-century revival of its people and culture. Its peoples are committed to Indigenous and human rights. It is one of three contemporary organized groups of self-identified Piscataway descendants.

On January 12, 2012, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley issued an Executive Order^[4] recognizing both the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe as Indian groups under a process established by the General Assembly.