A Virtual Exhibit

Cultures In Contact I  
Native American people have lived along the Chesapeake Bay for at least 12,000 years. When the first English colonists arrived, the people living here were the Yaocomaco Indians. Their principal settlement was on both sides of the St. Mary's River and included the land that became St. Mary's City. They taught the new settlers how to prepare the land and make fields to grow corn and other crops. These basic skills provided the means for colonists' survival in the Chesapeake. The relationship between the Yaocomaco and the colonists was peaceful but the lives of the Native Americans would be changed forever.

Yaocomaco or Yeocomico? Actually, both are correct and both are pronounced Yuh-kahm’-muh-ko. The meaning of the word, based on our current knowledge of Algonquin languages, is a place with several dwellings. Yaocomaco was the name of the Native American village which occupied both sides of the St. Mary's River and was also used for the Native Americans who lived there. Yeocomico is the name of a river in Virginia near where archaeologists first described a type of Native American pottery used around the time when colonists arrived in the Chesapeake.

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Native American artifacts from St. Mary's City
A: Yeocomico pottery was the most common type of pottery being used by the Indians who lived in St. Mary's City. This pottery is characterized as being relatively thin and contains finely crushed oyster shell as a temper. The exterior of the pottery is smoothed.

B: This Native American effigy pipe was found in the moat fill at Popes Fort and had to be deposited around 1645. It was designed so the human effigy faced the smoker. This pipe may have come to St. Mary's City as part of the early fur trade.

C: These red clay or terra cotta tobacco pipe bowls were made by Native American groups in the Chesapeake Tidewater. They are often decorated with incised dentate filled with white clay depicting the outline forms of animals or geometric patterns. These specimens are all decorated with what we call the running deer motif.

D: Small, white quartz triangular projectile points of this type were affixed to arrows. The bow and arrow was introduced in this area about A.D. 800.