Nanticoke - from Nentego, a variant of Delaware Unechtgo, or
Unalachtigo, "Tidewater people," "Those who ply the tidal stream, "Sea Shore Settlers " the neighboring division of
Delaware being known by the same name.
Other names:
Doegs, Toags, or Taux, by some early writers, probably
shortened from Tawachguans.
Canniataratich-rone, Mohawk name.
Otayachgo, Tawachguans, Mahican and Delaware name,
meaning "Bridge people."
Skaniadaradighroonas, "Beyond-the-sea people," Iroquois
name.
Although the Nanticoke are frequently more narrowly
delimited, it will be convenient to group under this head all
of the Indians of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and southern
Delaware.
Annamessicks, Choptank, Cuscarawaoc, Manokin, Nanticoke proper, Nause, Ozinies,
(they may have been part of or identical with the Wicomese), Tocwogh, Wicocomoco,
Wicomese.
1600 - Mooney estimated a total Indian population on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1600 of 2,700, including 700 Toewogh and Ozinies, 400 Wicocomoco, and 1,600 Nanticoke and their more immediate neighbors.
1642-1678 -They were at war with the Maryland colonists.
1698 - Reservations were set aside for them.
after 1722 - Greater part of them began to move north, stopping for a time on the Susquehanna at its junction with the Juniata.
They are said to have numbered about 500
1748 - Greater part of the tribe went farther up, and, after camping temporarily at a number of places, settled under Iroquois protection at Chenango, Chugnut, and Oswego.
1753 - part of these joined the Iroquois in western New York, and they were still living with them in 1840, but the majority, in company with the remnants of the Mahican and Wappinger, emigrated west about 1784 and joined the Delaware in Ohio and Indiana, with whom they soon became incorporated, disappearing as a distinct tribe.
1765 - Those who had emigrated to New York were supposed to count about 500 more.
1792 - Some were living in Maryland under the name of Wiwash, and some mixed-bloods still occupy a small territory on Indian River, Delaware.
Nanticoke proper left in Maryland were said to comprise only 30 persons.
1837 - The Choptank, or a part of them, also remained in their old country on the south of Choptank River, Dorchester County, where a few of their descendants, their blood much mixed with that of Negroes, were to be found in 1837.
1911 - Speck (1915) estimated their descendants in southern Maryland at 700.
