Lunch & Learn: Exploring Pocomoke Country: The History of the Indigenous People of the Lower Eastern Shore

Registration is not required, but encouraged. Please register for the event here.

Hear Norris Howard, Jr., Pocomoke Council Member, and Tradition Bearer, speak on the history of the Pocomoke Indian Nation. This talk will touch on European contact as well as the paramount relationships among sub-tribes or bands in the Pocomoke Homelands, including the Annemessee, Quindocqua, Morumsco, Gingoteague, and Mananoakin tribes. He will also describe interactions between the Pocomoke and the colonial governments of Maryland and Virginia, and the subsequent treaties which they signed. Shown here is a 1722 treaty between the Pocomoke and the colony of Maryland.

Norris “Buddy” Howard, Jr., lineal descendant of a Pocomoke Person, is a Council Member and Tradition Bearer for the Pocomoke Indian Nation, Inc. An alumnus of Wor-Wic Technical Community College and Salisbury University, he is a retired investigator for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, where he served from 1983 to 2023. 

He has presented on the Indigenous history of the Pocomoke Nation at numerous events, including the National Folk Festival, the Maryland Folk Festival, McDaniel College, Frostburg University, Salisbury University, Delmarva Discovery Museum, Pocomoke River State Park, Janes Island State Park, as well as schools and other local events on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.

He has collaborated on several statewide projects including Indigenous Maryland and the Maryland State Arts Council’s Land Acknowledgement Project. He currently serves as a commissioner on the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs. At this event, he is speaking on behalf of his Tribal Community, the Pocomoke Indian Nation. 

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.