Tonkawa Massacre

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The Ozinie, also known as the Wicomiss,[1] were a group of Native Americans living near modern-day Rock Hall, in Kent County, Maryland.[2] They were hunter-gatherers and fished.[1]

Territory

They lived in a village near Chester River that flowed in the Chesapeake Bay.[1] They used Eastern Neck Island for shellfishing.[1]

Population

They had an estimated population of 255 people.[2]

Language

The Ozinie spoke an Algonquian language and were related to the Nanticoke,[3] another Algonquian-speaking tribe,

17th-century history

Captain John Smith encountered the Ozinie in 1608.[3] By 1631, William Claiborne, a British colonist in Virginia, maintained a lucrative fur trade with the local tribes. The Ozinies and the Nanticokes fought against the English colonists who encroached upon their lands.[4] By the mid-17th century, the Ozinie, Matapeakes, and Mononposons disappeared from the historical record.[1] The Ozinie assimilated with the neighboring Nanticokes by the 1660s.[3][2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e William B. Cronin, The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake, p. 41.
  2. ^ a b c "Maryland at a Glance: Native Americans". Maryland Manual On-Line. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge". U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  4. ^ William B. Cronin, The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake, p. 42.

References