For the past 110 years, March 25 has been celebrated as Maryland Day, a state holiday commemorating the arrival of the Ark and Dove.
“It is not a mixed-blessing or double-edged sword moment for us,” says Gabrielle Tayac, a public historian, George Mason University associate professor, and granddaughter of Turkey Tayac. “It’s a single-edge sword. But we’re still here.”
She is right, obviously. Somehow, small bands of Piscataway endured. One contingent, possibly 300 in number, fled Maryland and its colonial government, which had closed its reservations and revoked all its claims for land, for a site called Conejoholo in Pennsylvania. There, they became known as the Conoy and Piscataway Conoy. Others migrated farther north, joining the Six Nations of the Iroquois, where Piscataway descendants still live on the Grand River reserve in Ontario, Canada. A few eventually migrated back from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio Valley, alternately keeping their distance from white authorities and assimilating into Southern Maryland life.
And a handful of families stayed and persevered, intermarrying with the descendants of white indentured servants and free Blacks, becoming farmers and maintaining ties with St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco—one of the very oldest continuously operating Catholic parishes in the United States, founded by Andrew White. A stained-glass window inside the church commemorates the baptism of Piscataway “Indian King” Kittamaquund in 1640.
Ironically, centuries later, Catholic birth and baptismal records provided important genealogical information for contemporary Piscataway communities in their long effort for state recognition. In contrast to governmental documents that removed Indigenous identities—census records that categorized Piscataway under “mulatto” or “Negro”—St. Ignatius was among the Catholic parishes that consistently recorded their Native members as “Indian,” regardless of mixed heritage, in accordance with their tripartite, segregated pews.
In fact, after decades of expensive expert historical and genealogical research, it was not until 2012 that the state of Maryland formally recognized the Piscataway Indian Nation and the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, currently led by tribal chair Francis Gray. (The two Piscataway groups have had a fractious relationship since the death of Turkey Tayac, but it is improving.) The year 2012 was not arbitrary. Rejected by Gov. Parris Glendening in 2000 and Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2004, Maryland recognition of the Piscataway was withheld until after state casino gambling legislation had been signed into law and licensing rights had been granted to non-American Indian parties.
In the case of the Piscataway Conoy, the tribe was forced to renounce any plans to open casinos as a condition of receiving state recognition. And, notably, when then-Gov. Martin O’Malley issued his executive orders separately recognizing the Piscataway Indian Nation and Piscataway Conoy Tribe, the decree explicitly stated their new status did not grant any “special privileges” related to gaming—or land entitlements.