The Nanticoke tribe, also Algonquian speakers, originally occupied the area between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays in what is today Maryland and Delaware.

The original inhabitants of what is now Pennsylvania included the Lenape, or Delaware, tribe and the Susquehannock tribe. Other tribes, particularly the Nanticoke and the Shawnee, migrated into Pennsylvania and New Jersey after the Europeans arrived.

Today, the cultures of Virginia’s tribes and descendent communities are vibrant and thriving, testimony to the fortitude of their ancestors and their peoples’ continuing determination to retain and reclaim their heritage

The Lenape continue to have a modern presence and are working to preserve the heritage of the native Algonquian-speaking tribes of eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In the early 1600s, there were an estimated 5,000-7,000 Susquehannock, but by 1700, their numbers had dwindled to 300, probably due to disease

American Indian communities have supported the creation of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.

In the last census, more than 40,000 individuals in Maryland identified themselves as being American Indian or part American Indian

Today, there are no federally recognized Indian tribes in Pennsylvania, although the most recent census reports an American Indian population in Pennsylvania of more than 12,000