Jean Norwood
Nanticoke Tribe
In the 1700s they had a reservation closer to Cambridge, Md., but when [they did] away with that...a lot of people started moving to the Nanticoke River and the Indian River. The two rivers connect. We¡¯ve been able to maintain our identity through these years.
The state recognized us in 1881 and¡¦again in 1922 -- that¡¯s when they came up with the name Nanticoke Indian Association. They still didn¡¯t give us tribal status, but it enabled our people to have our separate schools. Prior to that, our people had their own schools on various ¡¦ family properties. They did the same thing with the church.
Up until probably the mid-1940s, it was all the Nanticoke people. ¡¦. Cousins married cousins. When they got to know other people, of course, they married other people. A lot of people had to go away for education, and they chose who they wanted to marry. We have quite an influx with African Americans, but we have just as much with Caucasians, so it¡¯s a mixture. ¡¦
Sometimes we say if we were something other than Nanticoke we¡¯d really have it made, and we wouldn¡¯t have to spend so much time...getting the same kind of prejudice we¡¯ve had for years! ¡¦[During the days of segregation] we had to obey all the signs. Even though we were Native, our status was the same as the African American. ¡¦ When we go back to look at our tax records or birth certificates or anything that was kept by the state, in the same family you¡¯ll see one child was born white and one was born black and maybe later on one was born Indian. You¡¯re forever correcting records. The tax record was made according to who in the family went to pay taxes. How you looked was how they labeled you.
I can give you an example in my family. My grandmother and grandfather were very active in the church. My mother married a fellow who went to the opposite school and the opposite church. They were third cousins, so they all basically came out of the same family. But one family member said he was not going to have his kids held up to ridicule by being called Indian. The other was a die-hard Indian, and he wasn¡¯t going to have his kids associate with anyone who was black or white. It was a family of America, some married Italians from New York. ¡¦
Here in Delaware, it¡¯s still how you look: ¡°You don¡¯t look like an Indian. How come you have long hair, blue eyes? ...¡± We still can¡¯t get rid of the stereotype. ...Most of the education people have about Native Americans comes from television and movies. Perhaps we need to do more to get into the schools to educate people. Many people only consider as Indians the bigger tribes in the west; the smaller eastern tribes are not real Indians to them.
Our church was founded in 1881 after a split from another Methodist church over an appointment, I believe, of a minister. The minister appointed was going to be an African American. And our people just could not have that. So the two churches split. Our Indian mission church was built, and from that time to this we¡¯ve only had Caucasian ministers. We¡¯ve never had a Native American pastor. All this time we¡¯ve been a brown-skin people going to a white church in terms of the way sermons, the rituals and traditions were done. Since the 1970s we¡¯ve been trying to incorporate more of our Native heritage into our church worship. Many feel that your spiritual life and your Indian life should be separate. My theory is how can you know who you are if you don¡¯t know where you came from?