Piscataway-Conoy Tribe of Maryland

Prior to European contact, the Piscataway tribe was a part of a confederacy of tribes occupying the areas between the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River watershed.^{[2][self-published source?]} The tribe's traditional territory included present-day Charles, Prince George's, St. Mary's, and Baltimore counties, as well as the foothills of the Appalachians.^{[3][independent source needed]} The Piscataway were some of the first Native Americans to make contact with European settlers. Colonial expansion led to a 1666 treaty between tribal leadership and Lord Baltimore, resulting in the establishment of a reservation called the Piscataway Manor.^{[4][self-published source?]} During this time many Piscataway people converted to Catholicism.^[5] To escape persecution by settler society, some of the Piscataway migrated to settlements along the Susquehanna River into Virginia and Pennsylvania,^[6] where the Iroquois gave them the name 'Conoy'.^{[4][independent source needed]}

In 1995, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe began petitioning for formal state recognition as a tribe. The Piscataway Conoy tribe, along with the Piscataway Indian Nation, were recognized by the Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley on January 9, 2012.^[7] The Executive Order granted Maryland Indian status but did not affect rights to land or gaming rights.^[8] As part of the negotiation for state recognition, the Piscataway Conoy tribe renounced any plans to open casinos.^[9] In 2021, St. Mary's College of Maryland launched an initiative to acknowledge the land on which the College sits as the ancestral home of the Yacocomico and Piscataway Peoples.^[10] In November 2021, the University of Maryland announced the name of its new dining hall would be Yahentamitsi in honor of the state’s Piscataway Conoy Tribe.^[11]