Organized during the pandemic, the NNV Racial Equity Book Club began meeting on zoom and gradually transitioned to members’ houses. For our most recent meeting, we found a special and unique site: a picnic table at Piscataway Park in Accokeek, Maryland.

Our chosen book was The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer (Ojibwe). The title references the 1970 best seller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Treuer counters Brown’s story of the destruction and erasure of Native Americans by affirming their resistance and resilience. He maintains that many Native Americans were critical of Brown, who was not American Indian, for promoting an image of victimhood and passivity. Treuer details the United States’ many aggressions, broken treaties, and attempts to stamp out Native culture, but also recounts the continued resistance, negotiation, and organization of Native peoples to preserve and maintain their core values.

Gretchen Jennings, one of our members, had visited Piscataway Park several times with longtime museum consultant Randi Korn, who is also on the Accokeek Foundation Board which administers the site. We arranged a day-long visit with Randi as our guide, beginning with a walk to a dock built on the Potomac River, so important to the traditions and sustenance of the Piscataway. As we watched local fishermen, Randi called our attention to the back porch of Mt. Vernon, directly across the river. Ironically, the long stretch of coastal preserve that is Piscataway Park owes its existence to the successful campaign of Frances Payne Bolton, a leader of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Bolton was horrified to discover that developers were planning an oil tank farm or sewage plant across the river, blighting the view from Mount Vernon. A Representative from Ohio, Bolton purchased a 500-acre farm at the site. With nearby property owners, conservationists and Congressional support, the Mt. Vernon Ladies and their Piscataway allies preserved six miles of shoreline. Eventually this land became the Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park and a partner with the National Park Service. 

Randi explained that in recent years the Accokeek Foundation has worked to incorporate the Piscataway perspective into all aspects of the Park. The current Board chair is a member of the tribe, as are several Board members as well as interpretive staff. The Foundation has installed new interpretive signage that was written together with tribal members, providing a different perspective from older signs that follow familiar National Park Service interpretation.

We next visited the grave of Turkey Tayac, known as the last full-blooded chief of the Piscataway Indians who once lived on these shores. The Tayac’s modest grave, marked by rocks, mementos, and a color photo of the leader in a plastic sleeve, has contested significance. There are divisions regarding leadership among the Piscataway, and nearby diggings remind us of bones and artefacts extracted by federal and state authorities and as yet not able to be claimed by the tribe. Tayac was active in AIM, the American Indian Movement, in the 1960’s and 1970s, and lobbied unsuccessfully for the return of their sacred materials.

Over lunch we talked more about Treuer’s book. As summarized in an email from Morgan "We all agreed that we learned a lot of important, overlooked history from the book. Two criticisms (because we always have criticisms!) were that the individual narratives were not well integrated into the text (unclear why he interviewed those particular people or how their stories illustrated the larger themes) and we felt the author could have used a tougher editor." The role of women in resisting White oppression, maintaining social ties, and preserving traditions was almost completely absent.

From Treuer’s book we learned of the almost constant resistance to government incursion by many tribes over the centuries, from violent battles to negotiated treaties (mostly broken) to sale of land. As far as is known the early Piscataway moved further inland as settlers took over property along the river. We know that in the 20^th century, as Native Americans were leading their own civil rights movement, Turkey Tayac spoke up for the lost land, graves, and material culture of the Piscataway. In recent years the state of Maryland recognized them as a registered tribe and eligible for repatriation of state-held materials. The tribe has not yet received federal recognition.

We ended the day by visiting the gift shop as well as some of the colonial buildings that have been transported to the Park from other locations: a small cabin with kitchen garden and a tobacco barn. Members of the tribe grow tobacco and dry it in this barn. The sheaves are presented as a valued gift to important visitors such as Maryland state officials or heads of other tribes.

Our group agreed that the power of place added a new level of understanding as we learned of the struggles of our Piscataway neighbors to restore their heritage. The message was clear: We are still here!

If you are interested in visiting the site, especially if you have visiting children or grandchildren, go to https://home.nps.gov/pisc/index.htm for more information. Piscataway Park is free and open to the public. It’s a beautiful place for a walk along the Potomac or for enjoying programs for families and children, especially when the new lambs are born in the spring.