We-Sorts
Encyclopedia
We-Sorts is a name (regarded as derogatory by some) for a group of Native Americans in Maryland who are from the Piscataway
tribe. Piscataways have always claimed to be Native American
people. The Piscataway were powerful at the time of European encounter. Individuals with the surnames Proctor, Newman, Savoy, Queen, Butler, Thompson, Swann, Gray and Harley, claim that Native heritage. Historian Frank Sweet lists "Wesorts" as among a group of "derogatory epithets given by mainstream society, not self-labels". Additionally, "Some members of the Piscataway Indian groups now consider the name Wesort derogatory."
In the early 1930s, weekend-farmer Alice Ferguson noticed that people were finding small artifacts in her fields and decided to do some digging around, according to newspaper reports. Between 1935 and 1939, she uncovered at least five mass-burial pits containing the 300-year-old remains of about 500 Piscataway Indians. Over the years, she gave most of the remains, the bones from about 467 individuals, to the Smithsonian. She called the trust to come pick up what was left -- the very partial remains of 36 individuals -- said Hughes. The trust has determined that the remains are of Piscataway Indians. State officials say that most of the about 25,000 American Indians who live in Maryland are Piscataway.
's novel The Wished For Country (2002) represents the origins and struggles of the Wesorts as a multicultural people in the early days of Maryland's first European settlement at St. Mary's City. The Los Angeles Times reviewed The Wished-For Country as a contribution to the history of "the common people," calling the book "an attempt in novel form to bring to life the original Wesorts and their turbulent world."
Piscataway (tribe)
The Piscataway are a subtribe of the Conoy Native American tribe of Maryland. At one time, they were one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke...
tribe. Piscataways have always claimed to be Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
people. The Piscataway were powerful at the time of European encounter. Individuals with the surnames Proctor, Newman, Savoy, Queen, Butler, Thompson, Swann, Gray and Harley, claim that Native heritage. Historian Frank Sweet lists "Wesorts" as among a group of "derogatory epithets given by mainstream society, not self-labels". Additionally, "Some members of the Piscataway Indian groups now consider the name Wesort derogatory."
In the early 1930s, weekend-farmer Alice Ferguson noticed that people were finding small artifacts in her fields and decided to do some digging around, according to newspaper reports. Between 1935 and 1939, she uncovered at least five mass-burial pits containing the 300-year-old remains of about 500 Piscataway Indians. Over the years, she gave most of the remains, the bones from about 467 individuals, to the Smithsonian. She called the trust to come pick up what was left -- the very partial remains of 36 individuals -- said Hughes. The trust has determined that the remains are of Piscataway Indians. State officials say that most of the about 25,000 American Indians who live in Maryland are Piscataway.
In literature
Wayne KarlinWayne Karlin
Wayne Karlin is an American author, editor, and teacher. His books include Marble Mountain, War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam, The Wished-For Country, Prisoners, Rumors and Stones, Crossover, Lost Armies, The Extras, and Us...
's novel The Wished For Country (2002) represents the origins and struggles of the Wesorts as a multicultural people in the early days of Maryland's first European settlement at St. Mary's City. The Los Angeles Times reviewed The Wished-For Country as a contribution to the history of "the common people," calling the book "an attempt in novel form to bring to life the original Wesorts and their turbulent world."
See also
- Maroon (people)#Florida
- MelungeonMelungeonMelungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
- Black Indians in the United States
- Brass AnklesBrass AnklesThe Brass Ankles of South Carolina were a "tri-racial isolate" group that lived in the area of Orangeburg County, Berkeley County, and Charleston County in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. They were a mixture of African, Native American, and European descent. Although they were of mixed...
- Turkey TayacTurkey TayacTurkey Tayac, legally Philip Sheridan Proctor , Piscataway Indian leader and herbal doctor; he was notable in Native American activism for tribal and cultural revival in the twentieth century...
External links
- Article by William Harlen Gilbert, Jr., of the Library of Congress, 1946 - see Section X, Wesorts of Southern Maryland
- The Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians
- Piscataway Indian Nation
- Piscataway Indians, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911
- Thomas Ford Brown, "Ethnic Identity Movements and the Legal Process: The Piscataway Revival", Lamar University host