Piscataway

Men, women and children of the Piscataway and other Mid-Atlantic Native American tribes danced and sang to the beat of heavy drums under a bright sun here Saturday, decked out in traditional headdresses, beadwork and stitching. They had much to celebrate, they said. The event was the Southern Maryland tribe's 30th annual Native American Festival and Pow Wow, but their first as a recognized, distinct people in the eyes of the state. That recognition of a centuries-old reality was only made official when Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an executive order recognizing the tribe's distinct history in January.

Men, women and children of the Piscataway and other Mid-Atlantic Native American tribes danced and sang to the beat of heavy drums under a bright sun here Saturday, decked out in traditional headdresses, beadwork and stitching. They had much to celebrate, they said. The event was the Southern Maryland tribe's 30th annual Native American Festival and Pow Wow, but their first as a recognized, distinct people in the eyes of the state. That recognition of a centuries-old reality was only made official when Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an executive order recognizing the tribe's distinct history in January.

Between 5,000 and 7,000 people in St. Mary's, Charles and Prince George's counties claim Piscataway Indian ancestry, according to Mervin A. Savoy, chairwoman of the Piscataway-Conoy Confederacy."

The official acknowledgment that the Piscataway Indians are Maryland's indigenous people is cause for celebration ("For Md. Piscataways, vindication at long last," Jan. 17). Recognition of this fact is long overdue. For 25 years I volunteered as an educator at the Maryland Historical Society, teaching Maryland school children about the history of our state. When we talked about the early colonial period, I stressed the debt the colonists owed to the native people. We studied Indian village life, their methods of felling trees and building dugout canoes, working flint, farming and fishing - and their willingness to share this knowledge with the colonists.

Piscataway Indians say it's time to rebury the bones of several dozen of their ancestors, which now lie in boxes in the locked steel cabinets of the state's archaeological collection in Annapolis.The Piscataway, descendants of those who met Maryland's first European settlers, may finally have won that right under legislation passed by the 1992 General Assembly.The law, when it is signed by Gov. William Donald Schaefer, will end the state's claim to human remains and burial objects in the collection and permit any group -- not just Indians -- to reclaim them by showing evidence of "cultural affiliation."

A CIVIL RIGHTS coalition is being criticized by conservatives for settling a lawsuit by a white Piscataway, N.J., teacher laid off instead of a black teacher who held a similar job. Affirmative-action foes should blame themselves for being outflanked. They should have known in a case where the plaintiff asked only for a money judgment that she might settle if offered enough.So consumed were conservatives with getting the Piscataway case before the Supreme Court that they apparently assumed )

A Maryland confederation of Piscataway Indians, hoping to take advantage of a federal law that allows commercial gambling on Indian property, wants to build a huge gambling casino and resort in the heart of populous Southern Maryland.The proposal, still in its earliest stages, could include one or more casinos and hotels, a theme park, a marina, thoroughbred and trotter horse racing, and an Indian history museum.The project could employ thousands of people and generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for the state, said Lewis A. Rivlin, a Rockville lawyer who is crafting the casino proposal on behalf of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes Inc.The group claims to represent 5,000 to 7,000 Marylanders of Piscataway ancestry.

After eight years of study, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development has completed a review of whether the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Sub-Tribes should be formally recognized as an Indian tribe by the state. The recommendation - not made public - was sent yesterday to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for the final decision. Yesterday's recommendation was a secret even to the Southern Maryland confederacy, which claims as many as 3,500 members. The group filed its request for recognition during former Gov. Parris N. Glendening's first year in office in 1995, but the issue never made it as far as his desk.

Almost four years after a Maryland Indian tribe asked the state for recognition, the tribe's petition appears close to reaching Gov. Parris N. Glendening for a decision -- stirring questions about the identity of its members and their intentions.Leaders of the Piscataway-Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes (PCCS) say state recognition is a long overdue matter of pride and would benefit members by allowing them to tap federal grants for educational, cultural and economic development programs.But a competing tribal group, the Piscataway Indian Nation, contends the PCCS is angling for casino gambling and is pursuing state recognition as a step toward that goal.

Their bid for state recognition as an Indian tribe has been rejected by two governors in a row. But with the possibility of legalized slot machines looming, the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes yesterday urged the General Assembly to pass legislation to circumvent the governor's office and secure their status as a recognized Indian tribe in Maryland. "We were the original people," said tribe member Rene Proctor. "We pay our taxes. We vote. But we're still invisible. ... This is a way to respect our ancestry."

For as long as she can remember, Mervin Savoy has pressed the world to see her as she sees herself. She refused to be bowed by the school officials who wouldn't let her write "American Indian" on forms identifying her race. She refused to be halted by governors who said her people's history was too thinly documented. Even a prolonged feud with fellow tribal leader Billy Tayac failed to dissuade her. Last week, at age 68, Savoy let a contented smile flood her face as Gov. Martin O'Malley said the words she had waited so long to hear.

There's a long back-story to Maryland's official recognition of the Piscataway as a distinct tribe of Native American people, and it's not pretty. Last week's announcement of the long-sought declaration in Annapolis marked an end to both the state's stubborn refusal to recognize any native tribe - largely to stop its members from opening a casino here - and to a dispute between Piscataway groups that got so bitter, they even bickered over bones. In the 1990s, Maryland and other states went through the process of removing native bones from museums and offering them for reburial.

For Mervin Savoy , recognition was sweet - even if it came more than two centuries too late. Savoy was one of hundreds of Piscataways who gathered beneath the State House dome in Annapolis Monday as Gov. Martin O'Malley issued executive orders formally recognizing the Native American tribe as a distinct people. It is the first time Maryland has given formal recognition to a tribe. "This is indeed a momentous occasion," said Savoy, chairwoman of the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe.

Archaeologists in Southern Maryland say they have solved a mystery that has baffled historians since at least the 1930s. They say they have found Zekiah Fort. The fort was established in 1680 by Gov. Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, for the protection of the Piscataway people and other Maryland Indian groups that were the targets of raids by "foreign" Susquehannock and Seneca warriors from the north. Five weeks of digging this spring and summer, led by St. Mary's College of Maryland anthropologist Julia King, have turned up Indian pottery mixed with glass trade beads, arrowheads fashioned from English brass, gun parts and a silver belt hanger for an English sword.

Good morning --BCS officials-- Do you know the way to Piscataway?

Their bid for state recognition as an Indian tribe has been rejected by two governors in a row. But with the possibility of legalized slot machines looming, the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes yesterday urged the General Assembly to pass legislation to circumvent the governor's office and secure their status as a recognized Indian tribe in Maryland. "We were the original people," said tribe member Rene Proctor. "We pay our taxes. We vote. But we're still invisible. ... This is a way to respect our ancestry."

Rival groups, each claiming to be descended from the same Maryland Indian tribe, renewed an old dispute yesterday over which, if either, should rightfully become the first Indian nation recognized by the state. "We only ask that you give us something you took from us - our identity as native people," Mervin Savoy, chairwoman of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes, said during a hearing in Annapolis before the House Health and Government Operations Committee. A petition filed by the confederacy, which claims as many as 3,500 members in Southern Maryland, is pending in the office of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Savoy said an approval would restore the stature of the descendants of a people whose history of farming, fishing and intermarriages spans more than 5,000 years, easily predating the arrival of the English in the 17th century.

Rival groups, each claiming to be descended from the same Maryland Indian tribe, renewed an old dispute yesterday over which, if either, should rightfully become the first Indian nation recognized by the state. "We only ask that you give us something you took from us - our identity as native people," Mervin Savoy, chairwoman of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes, said during a hearing in Annapolis before the House Health and Government Operations Committee. A petition filed by the confederacy, which claims as many as 3,500 members in Southern Maryland, is pending in the office of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Savoy said an approval would restore the stature of the descendants of a people whose history of farming, fishing and intermarriages spans more than 5,000 years, easily predating the arrival of the English in the 17th century.

Seven-year-old Michael Bengivengo has been researching the Piscataway Indians as part of a program at St. John's Parish Day School. Sierra Love, 8, has been learning about Seminoles. The costumes they wore on a recent morning this month showed what they had learned. Michael wore an outfit of tan felt, with long sleeves, colorful beaded fringe around the neck and a brown felt eagle on the front. "They called this a thunderbird," he said, adding that he liked learning about Piscataway Indians because "they usually came in peace, not war."