Detail of Capt. John Smith and Pokahontas from Ould Virginia, Maryland State Archives
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Maryland was home to several different Indian tribes when English settlers arrived in the seventeenth century. The Algonquian-speaking Indians of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal areas included the Nanticoke, Piscataway, Assateagues and Pocomoke Indians. Iroquois-speaking groups such as the Susquehannocks lived in the Piedmont and mountains.
Captain John Smith's voyages in the Chesapeake Bay in 1608 included visits to to what is now the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His journals and maps document the life of the native Americans living there.
