My Visit Back To Nanticoke Country
The Land Of The Tidewater People
Click Here To See Map Of Nanticoke Country
This is the results of my recent visits back to the land of my father's people in Sussex County Delaware. The home of the Tidewater People, the Nanticoke Indians of Delaware. Our travels took us to the Indian Missions United Methodist Church founded in 1881 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The monument for Lydia E. Clark (Nau-Gwa-Ok-Wa) the last of the Nanticoke Indians in Delaware and Eastern Maryland to speak the Nanticoke Language. Lydia Clark died in 1859. The monument is located in Oak Orchard facing the Indian River. We then visited the Nanticoke Indian Museum, which was well worth the visit. The following Saturday we drove back and spent a full day at the
Nanticoke Powwow. I can assure you that not all the Nanticoke Indians were removed and sent North to live in Canada or West to live on existing reservations. Those that stayed, their families live today on the original home land of their ancestors where they are very successful and productive. Some parts of the landscape has changed in the name of progress or is it. Some of the places that my father and uncle told me about when I was younger do not exist today due to the housing developments along the Indian River, however this is still the land of the Tidewater People and the visits back made me very proud to be Nanticoke.
