Nentego

Nentego, meaning “Tidewater People,” is the name the Nanticoke use for themselves. Their homeland lay along the rivers and estuaries east of Chesapeake Bay, where communities maintained extensive trading relationships with other peoples of the region. Their leaders and settlements gave their names to several rivers flowing through the low coastal country.

The Nanticoke encountered John Smith in 1608 and later traded beaver pelts with the English. In 1668 their leader Unnacokasimon made a peace treaty with Maryland's government. As colonists encroached on their lands, some Nanticoke moved north in the eighteenth century, settling along the Susquehanna while continuing to return to the Delmarva Peninsula to fish and gather seasonal foods. Others went farther north and joined communities associated with the Haudenosaunee.

The later city of Annapolis lies here.