About: Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory

The Piscataway Indian Nation /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ/, also called Piscatawa /pɪsˈkætəˌweɪ, ˌpɪskəˈtɑːwə/, is a state-recognized tribe in Maryland that is descended from the historic Piscataway people. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a territory on the north side of the Potomac River. By the early seventeenth century, the Piscataway had come to exercise hegemony over other Algonquian-speaking Native American groups on the north bank of the river. The Piscataway nation declined dramatically before the nineteenth century, under the influence of colonization, infectious disease, and intertribal and colonial warfare.