Tayac Fraud (original) (raw)

Unraveling a Deceptive Oral History

The Indian Ancestry Claims of Philip S. Proctor and His Descendants

by Leah C. Sims

Abstract

This paper examines the oral history and genealogy of the Proctor/Tayac family, who claim hereditary leadership within the "Piscataway Indian Nation." The paper compares four different versions of this family's oral history, and finds radical contradictions between the various versions. The paper also compares the family's genealogy as documented in historical records against the family's shifting oral history. The Proctor/Tayac family has put forth different versions of their genealogy, all of which are disconfirmed by the paper trail their ancestors left in the historical record.

The findings indicate that the Proctor/Tayac family has engaged in deliberate deception about their family history. The family's claims about hereditary leadership and migration in and out of Maryland are shown to be false. The family's land claims to Piscataway Park are also shown to be fraudulent.

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"You have many, many non-Indian people trying to take advantage of Indian programs at the state, county and federal levels, . . . jumping on the Indian bandwagon trying to take advantage of situations economically." (1) Mark "Wild Turkey" Tayac.

"Turkey worked with anthropologists like Speck and Gilbert. People don't like to work with anthros. Turkey told them 60 percent truth and 40 percent lies!" (2) Billy "Red Wing" Tayac

In 1979, Philip S. Proctor (aka "Chief Turkey Tayac") was buried in Piscataway National Park in southern Maryland. (3) His funeral was attended by a number of Maryland public officials, his family, and members of competing "Piscataway Indian" factions. Proctor, who claimed to be the 27th hereditary tayac (chief) of the Piscataway Indian tribe, had died a year prior to his burial. (4) During that year, Proctor's family lobbied Congress for the right to bury him on the ancient Piscataway site of Moyaone, a prehistoric ossuary located in the national park. (5)

Congress finally provided for the burial of Chief Turkey Tayac in Piscataway Park, in an amendment attached as a rider to an unrelated bill.(6) According to Maryland Senator Mathias:

"When the Piscataway Indian Tribe in Maryland granted the land on which Piscataway Park is now located, its chief, Turkey Tayac, understood from his conversation with officials of the Interior Department that he could be buried in the Piscataway's ancestral burial ground. Chief Turkey Tayac died in December of 1978 but his wish has yet to be honored. To this day, Chief Turkey Tayac's family has been unable to arrange his burial in the park." (7)

The Congressional Record contains several fraudulent claims perpetuated by Philip Proctor and his descendants against the US Government. The first fraud was the claim that Philip had given land to the Park Service. The second fraud was the Proctor/Tayac family's claims to the hereditary Piscataway chiefdom. (8)

Most genealogists are familiar with family traditions of Indian ancestry that prove groundless after extensive research. As a growing number of groups claiming Indian ancestry begin to petition state and federal government for legal recognition, genealogical research becomes vital in assessing their claims. This is especially highlighted in cases where the petitioners base their claim of Indian ancestry entirely on family oral history. This paper will examine the oral history and genealogical claims of the Proctor/Tayac family's Piscataway Indian Nation (PIN) in their bid for state recognition as a Maryland Indian tribe.

While oral traditions can be a valuable source of data, their reliability cannot be taken for granted:

"Family traditions are surrealistic images of the past, blurred by time, colored by emotion . . . Family traditions are not definite, intrinsically authentic roadmaps to one's heritage . . . The careful researcher must decode them through dogged exploration of the actual documents." (9)

This is not to argue that documentary evidence should necessarily supersede orally-transmitted evidence. Rather, all types of evidence must be examined for reliability and potential bias. When the preponderance of all evidence supports a particular interpretation, then contradictory data should be regarded as potentially spurious, regardless of its mode of transmission. An oral history that changes in significant ways with each retelling has proven itself to be unreliable. It should be viewed with suspicion, and carefully tested against the documentary evidence.

The tradition of Piscataway ancestry that Philip Proctor passed on to his descendants is the central basis of PIN's petition for state recognition. (10) If numerous aspects of this oral history are proven incorrect, then this seriously weakens the Indian ancestry claims of PIN. In this case, researching the oral history on which the PIN petition is founded reveals that the Proctor/Tayac family has put forth several mutually contradictory versions (see Table One). Further, comparing the PIN version with written records and with interviews left by Philip Proctor, who was the source cited for most of the petition's evidentiary basis, reveals numerous inconsistencies, errors, and manipulations of data on the part of Philip's descendants. These discrepancies cast significant doubt on the authenticity of the claims made by Philip Proctor and PIN.

The Proctor/Tayac family's claim to descent from a Piscataway line of chiefs is founded on three central myths, holding that:

1. Many Piscataways left Maryland circa 1700, with some tribal members staying in Maryland. Descendants of the Piscataways who had left then "walked back" to Maryland about a century later after the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers. Among these returnees were the Proctor/Tayac family's ancestors. The "returnee" Piscataways intermarried with the "remnant" Piscataways. Their descendants are today the only legitimate Piscataways. (11)

2. The Tayac family can trace its claim to inherited leadership back 28 generations, through the paternal line.

3. Philip Proctor donated "sacred ancestral Piscataway land" to the National Park Service in return for burial rights.

The following family history of Philip Proctor will prove that all three of these claims are false, and demonstrate how oral traditions of questionable legitimacy can be assessed by employing genealogical research methods.

Philip S. Proctor (aka "Chief Turkey Tayac")

Philip Sheridan Proctor was born in August 1895 in the small community of Faulkner in Charles County, Maryland. (12) In all of the Charles County records, Philip's parents, Louis Proctor and Jennie (Virginia) Ann Collins, and their children were always described as black, mulatto, or "colored", never Indian. (13)

A fundamental challenge in assessing ethnic heritage is to transcend essentialist conceptions of race that view cultural characteristics as something transmitted by "blood". Such notions have been exploded by the discipline of anthropology, and researchers must be wary of taking 19th century conceptions of race and ethnicity at face value.(14) On the other hand, racial identity has been a social fact of life throughout US history. While racial designations in historical documents may well be inaccurate in some cases, not to mention oppressive and unfair, one can be certain that historical individuals did have a racial identity, and that racial identity was a central feature of their life experience.

Therefore, it is important and valid to try to assess the racial identity of ancestors, however mutable it may have been, building a careful case founded on reason, logic, and the preponderance of evidence. The racial identities through which ancestors were integrated into their communities and the ways they were treated in their communities accordingly are crucial to understanding these people's social location and social experience.

Analyzing the specific historical context in which a person creates an Indian ancestry fraud is vital to understanding the fraud's motivation and development. It is clear that the racial climate surrounding Philip S. Proctor was a major influence on the construction of his Indian identity claims. Philip was born and raised in a place that was organized in an unusual, trichotomous system of racial classification. Charles County, Maryland, was home to the "Wesort" community, which has been described as a "tri-racial isolate" by anthropologists and historians. According to Brewton Berry, the members of this community were called Wesorts because "one of their number, Aunt Sallie Thompson, who, around 1880, began using the expression we sort of people in order to set her group off from the recently freed Negroes." (15) The Wesorts formed a third racial group in Charles County and surrounding counties from colonial times to present. At St. Ignatius Catholic Church, the congregants were segregated by race within the church: whites in the front pews, Wesorts in the rear pews, and African-Americans in the balcony. (16) The church cemetery was also geographically segregated by race.

A significant aspect of Wesort culture is their opposition to being classified with African-Americans. (17) Tri-racial ancestry, including American Indian, was attributed to the Wesorts by early anthropologists. At that time, the extinct Piscataway tribe appeared to be the most plausible source of Indian ancestry. (18)

Like the "Wesort" community, the Proctor/Tayac family has also focused on "Indian blood" as a means of distancing themselves from possible African ancestry. The family has made inconsistent and contradictory claims about Philip Proctor's own degree of Indian ancestry, that vary from "75 percent Indian" claimed by Philip himself, to "full blood" claimed for him by his descendants. (19) However, two of Philip's grandparents were "white" by any definition of the term. Thus in terms of "blood quantum", a scientifically dubious measure, to be sure, although possibly useful as a rough estimator of an ancestor's social location, Philip was at least "half-white".

The "blood quantum" language used by Philip and his descendants demonstrates their essentialist concerns with purity of blood as a marker of racial identity. (20) Philip dismissed other multiracial families in the region because they had intermarried with blacks: (21)

"The black blood got in through intermarriage. You let a bad apple get into a pile of good apples, everyone of them would be spoiled, so that's the way it got into them." (22)

Philip also demonstrated a willingness to dissemble about racial identity in order to achieve instrumental goals:

"I had a case come to me about thirty years ago where there was a white family -- offsprings turned out to be Black. They denied the Black blood and wanted to put it as Indian blood. He wanted to get this child in school. . . . I said . . ."I'll see what I can do." So I took him to the principal of schools. No, can't do it. I didn't give it up. Went back and tried another school and got him in. He had to put his blood down as Indian." (23)

Although Philip attributes this story to another family rather than his own, he does admit agency in the deception. The story is telling in that it reveals the situational manipulation of Indian racial identity on Philip's part.

Philip attempted to bolster his Indian claims by presenting himself as a specifically Piscataway Indian, and thereby distinguishing himself from multiracial individuals with "black blood", the Wesorts. (24) The Wesort community had first attracted attention from scholars in the early 1900s. (25) Scholars began to seriously study the community in the 1940s, often focusing on the population's genetic maladies. (26) Philip Proctor served as an informant on the Wesort community from the 1940s to the 1970s. (27) Following Philip's example, many contemporary descendants of the "Wesort" community now also claim Piscataway Indian ancestry. Two competing groups, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe (PCT) and the Piscataway Indian Nation (PIN), have petitioned to be recognized by the state of Maryland. (28) The PCCS/PCT have also petitioned for federal recognition. (29)

The Wesort community was never considered an Indian tribe by local authorities until the 1970s, given that the aboriginal Piscataway tribe had left Maryland for good by 1700. (30) However, a significant number of free people of color did live in Charles County during the colonial and antebellum period. A 1755 Charles County census counted 252 free non-white individuals, of which 239 were categorized as mulatto. (31) Many of these families originated in illicit sexual relationships between white women and black men during the colonial era. (32) For example, the Butler family of Charles and neighboring counties, claimed by the PCCS/PCT as a core name, is an extremely well-documented case of the relationship between a white woman and an African slave man. (33) The union of Eleanor "Irish Nell" Butler and Charles, her "salt-water Negro" husband, eventually resulted in a large number of free Butlers. (34) Eleanor, a white servant of Lord Calvert, married Charles, a slave, in 1681. Maryland had passed a law in 1664 stating that if a white woman married a slave, then she and her offspring would also be enslaved. Many enslaved Butlers began to sue for and received their freedom in the Revolutionary era.(35) Many newly freed Butlers joined the existing free mulatto population of Charles County, and there are indications of marriages between enslaved Butlers and free Wesorts prior the Butler family becoming free. (36)

Analyzing the broader historical, cultural, and legal-political context is important to understanding multiracial people's motivations to fabricate an Indian heritage. Examining Philip Proctor's early life also reveals more specifically the possible motivation for his own genealogical fraud. Both of his parents were the product of interracial non-marital relationships, and Philip grew up when Jim Crow was at its peak in Southern Maryland. Philip's birth family seems to have been somewhat dysfunctional. According to Philip, his father Louis Proctor was often away from home traveling.(37) It also appears that Philip's mother Jennie had an extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of Philip's half-sister Nellie. (38) Philip left his family at an early age because of the family's poverty, and his formal education ended at the 7th grade. (39)

Philip's father Louis died in 1915, when Philip was 20.(40) Philip's mother Jennie married James A. Linkins shortly after Louis's death. (41) Philip had already left home as a young teenager, living hand-to-mouth and sleeping in abandoned shacks, but he returned home shortly before his father's death. (42) When he was twenty-three, Philip entered the military and served during the last months of WWI and its aftermath. (43) When Philip returned from the service, he spent most of his adult life living and working in the Washington, D. C. area as a laborer and messenger for the Internal Revenue Service. (44) As an adult, Philip's own family was impoverished, and Philip's children often left home at a young age, just as he had as a youngster, because of the family finances. (45) Later in his life, Philip worked as an herbal healer.(46)

It is not clear when Philip adopted the alias "Turkey Tayac" and began claiming to be a Piscataway Indian chief. However, by 1941 Philip had applied for an ID card from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, falsely claiming to be seventy five percent Piscataway. (47) Philip certainly knew that his paternal grandfather, Thomas A. Jones, was white, but he does not seem to have known his maternal grandfather, Charles H. Sheirburn, was also a white man. (48)

Genealogical research can disprove Philip's Indian ancestry claims, but can only hint at his motivation for making those claims. Philip probably experienced discrimination as a multiracial individual in a profoundly racist society. Philip also seems to have enjoyed the attention he received as a "Piscataway Indian Chief" from journalists and academic researchers. (49)

Unraveling the deceptive oral history that has been woven by Philip Proctor and his descendants requires a two-part strategy. First, it is necessary to compare Philip's own claims about his ancestry with the claims made by his descendants. This strategy will test the internal reliability of the oral tradition. Second, it is necessary to compare all of the oral history claims with the written record in order to assess the historical accuracy of the oral tradition.

Philip Proctor's Maternal Ancestry

The first of the Proctor/Tayac family's three heritage myths holds that their Collins ancestors in Philip's maternal line were among the Piscataways who left Maryland circa 1700, stayed away for several generations, and then "walked back" to take up residence in the state once again a century later. Genealogical research methods can be used to trace Philip's ancestors in the Collins line, and to compare their actual residence and migration patterns against the family's oral tradition.

Philip Proctor made contradictory claims concerning the Indian ancestry of his mother, Virginia Ann "Jennie" Collins. (50) He claimed in a 1971 oral history that his mother, Jennie Collins Proctor, was "eighty seven and one half percent" Indian and the rest was English. (51) Three years later, in another oral history, Philip claimed that Jennie was "three-quarters Indian". (52) However, genealogical research proves that Jennie Collins was at least half "white". Her father was a member of the white planter elite, and there is no evidence that he had any non-white ancestry.

In both oral histories, Philip identified his mother Jennie by the name Jan-Jan. (53) In the 1974 interview, Philip incorrectly identified his maternal grandfather as Mr. Sheriden, whose first name he did not know. (54) It is possible that Philip believed that since his own middle name was Sheridan, that Sheridan/Sheriden was his maternal grandfather's surname. Philip identified his maternal grandmother as Reddress Pugh, a "full-blooded Algonquian". (55)

However, it appears that Philip had confused his own grandmothers. Pug (Pugh) Proctor was actually the mother listed on his father's death certificate, and not his maternal grandmother. Philip's confusion surrounding the names of his grandparents indicates that his knowledge of his own family history was quite limited. Of his four grandparents, he was able to correctly identify only his paternal grandfather. (56)

The baptism records of St. Thomas Catholic Church reveal that Philip's mother Jennie Collins was the illegitimate daughter of Nancy Collins, a free woman of color, and Charles Henry Sheirburn, a white man. (57) Charles H. Sheirburn was born June 6, 1819 in Charles County, Maryland and died March 21, 1879 in Charles County, Maryland. (58) Charles never married, and lived with several siblings until his death.(59) Charles was a planter who owned fourteen slaves in 1850. (60) The household of Charles and his siblings included twenty slaves in 1860, with Charles owning seven of the slaves. (61) Charles H. Sheirburn was the father of Jennie and Nellie, two of Nancy Collins's four children, so their relationship probably extended over at least five years. (62) Around the same time as his relationship with Nancy Collins occurred, Sheirburn had another illicit relationship, this time with a white woman, which resulted in another illegitimate daughter. (63) Whether Charles H. Sheirburn was the father of Nancy Collins' two older daughters, Alice and Josephine Collins, is uncertain at present. (64)

An analysis of Charles Sheirburn's paternal southern Maryland ancestry reveals well-documented families of the elite planter class, with no evidence of African or Native American Indian ancestry. Charles's parents were Joseph and Mary (Yates) Sheirburn. (65) Charles H. Sheirburn's paternal grandparents were Nicholas and Mary (Matthews) Sheirburn. (66) Mary Yates Sheirburn was the daughter of Charles Yates, who was a member of a white planter family in Charles County. (67)

Beyond his propensity for extramarital relationships, Charles H. Sheirburn was also active in Democratic politics, both before and after the Civil War. (68) Charles' brother, William L. Sheirburn, was a Confederate spy. (69) Another brother of Charles and William was George M. Sheirburn. George Sheirburn, like Charles, also never married and instead engaged in an extramarital relationship with a free woman of color, which resulted in an illegitimate child. (70)

Jennie's mother, Nancy Ann Collins, was born circa 1837 and died in 1897. (71) Nancy was the daughter of Jane Collins, a free woman of color, who was born circa 1802-1805 and died after 1860. (72) The father of Nancy and her brother, William, who was born circa 1835, is currently unknown. It is possible that Nancy's father was a slave or a white man, since both types of relationships occurred among free people of color in Charles County during that time period. (73) Unfortunately, the local Catholic Church that the Collins attended burned in a fire in 1866, destroying baptism records that could have revealed more information about the Collins family.(74) Whenever Nancy and Jane Collins were enumerated they were always described as "mulattoes", so it is possible that there was additional white ancestry in the Collins family. (75)

Philip's descendants have advanced several different versions of their oral tradition describing Philip's maternal ancestry, all of which differ considerably from Philip's account. According to the 1988 version of the Tayac family's oral history, published ten years after Philip's death, Turkey's mother Jennie Collins was the daughter of Thomas Jones and Jan Jan:

"Now, Turkey's grandmother was Jan jan, which in Piscataway means 'very beautiful.' She had an affair with Thomas Jones, a Confederate spy, who was part Indian. . . . From the relationship between Jones and Jan jan, Turkey's mother was born. She [Jan jan] was pretty important in Turkey's life. When Turkey was a boy, she was a tall woman, a thin woman, with hair down to her butt. She was a medicine woman. When Turkey was a boy, he learned his medicine from her." (76)

However, the Tayac family was mistaken in their identification of Jennie A. Collins' parents. Jennie Collins' father was Charles H. Sheirbourne, not Thomas Jones. It was Philip's father, Louis Proctor, who was the son of Thomas A. Jones, a white Confederate agent, and Pug Proctor. The Tayac family had obviously confused Philip's two sets of grandparents. They also had confused the Indian names of Turkey's mother and grandmother. According to Philip, his mother was Jan-Jan and his maternal grandmother was named Reddress Pugh. (77)

There is also a clear conflict between Philip's oral history and the 1988 Tayac oral history over the claim that Philip Proctor knew his maternal grandmother, supposedly an Indian woman who taught him Indian medicine. In 1974, the interviewer asked Philip if his maternal grandmother lived with his family when he was young, Philip replied:

"Yes. Oh, no, she didn't live with us, but she lived close to us. I can remember. And through her, it helped me in knowing something about God." (78)

Philip also described his grandmother's skin as being copper colored, like his own, in the 1971 interview. (79) However, Philip's maternal grandmother Nancy A. Collins died in 1897, when Philip was only two years old. (80) Since most individuals do not remember events when they were two years old, it is unlikely that Nancy Collins could have transmitted much Indian medicinal knowledge to Turkey or that he could have remembered much about her.

Central to Philip's descendants' Piscataway heritage claims is their story that a female ancestress in the Collins family walked back to Maryland after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. (81) (The family makes this "walking back" claim for both Turkey's paternal ancestry and maternal ancestry.) The 1988 version of the oral history attributed the "walking back" to Turkey's maternal grandmother:

"At the turn of the 19th century, right where we're at, 27 Piscataways returned . . . Turkey's grandmother was one of the ones who walked back. She settled here, around Pope's Creek." (82)

This story about a female ancestress walking back was not narrated by Philip in his oral history interviews, and appears to originate with his descendants. This story is first mentioned in a interview with Philip's son, Billy "Red Wing"Tayac, in a 1978 newspaper article:

"Billy Tayac says his father's grandparents and members of the Conoy band of the Piscataways returned to the state during the last century and 'kept a low profile,' although one was accused of helping John Wilkes Booth flee across the Potomac after Lincoln's assassination."(83)

A comparison of two published versions of the Proctor/Tayac oral history--the 1988 article and a 1999 dissertation, both written by Gabrielle Tayac--reveals that the names of several persons described in the history were changed during the eleven years separating her two publications. In the previous quote from the 1988 article, Jan Jan was Philip's maternal grandmother. However, in the 1999 dissertation, Jan jan Seepee is now the name given to Philip's mother, Jennie Collins. (84)

Meanwhile, Philip's maternal grandmother (whose actual name was Nancy Collins) had been named as "Jan Jan" in the 1988 article, but by 1999 is renamed "Redbird", a name that was not mentioned in the 1988 article, but was mentioned by Philip in his 1974 interview.(85) However, Philip claimed in 1974 that Redbird was his paternal grandmother, while the 1999 version reassigns the Redbird name to his maternal grandmother (see Table One).(86)

Finally, the story about the girl who had "walked back" was also altered between the 1988 and 1999 versions. In 1988, Jan Jan--Philip's grandmother, who had previously in 1988 been identified with the Indian name of her daughter--was identified as the ancestor who "walked back". By 1999, the "walking back" story had been reassigned, pushed back a generation to Jane Collins, Philip's great-grandmother (who in this version is now called "Segoye Seepee"). (87) Segoye Seepee was not mentioned by Philip in his 1974 interview (see Table One). (88)

No explanation is offered by the author of the dissertation for all of the changes in the oral history since her previous publication, nor for the contradictions between her publications and what Philip narrated in his oral histories. However, a possible motivation can be discerned. It would appear that between 1988 and 1999, additional research into the census records was performed by a genealogist hired by PIN, which was required as part of their application for state recognition as an Indian tribe. This new research revealed that Nancy Collins, who was born circa 1837, was born too late to have walked back before the War of 1812. (89) In light of this new information, the Proctor/Tayac family's oral history was modified to conform to the written record. (90)

Further, because of political infighting between the PIN and the PCT, a competing Piscataway faction, PIN was now claiming that their ancestors were Piscataway returnees, in order to distinguish themselves from PCT and thereby establish themselves as the only "legitimate" Piscataway tribe. (91) Thus PIN needed to establish a connection between the original Piscataways, who last appear in the historical record in 1793, in order to bolster their claim of descent from the Piscataways who "walked back". The family's focus on reconstructing their oral account to fit the historical facts emerges in the 1999 version:

". . . the ancestress, Jane Collins, 'Segoye Seepee', said to have walked back into Maryland as a four year old child before the War of 1812 was born in 1805 making the dates comply". (92)

However, there are several factual problems with this story. First, the exact year of Jane Collins' birth is unknown, but based on her enumerations in the 1850 and 1860 Charles County censuses, Jane was born between 1802 and 1805. (93) Second, both the 1850 and 1860 censuses listed Jane's birthplace as Maryland, which is inconsistent with the family's claim that she was born in another state. Third, Jane's father, Samuel Collins, was already present in Maryland before the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

When Samuel Collins wrote his will in 1822, he identified his wife Mary Ann and his children: Henry, William, Mary, Jane, and Eleanor.(94) Samuel willed two tracts of land, Thomas's Adventure and Thomas's Maggott, to his two sons. (95) Samuel Collins had purchased interests in Thomas's Adventure and Thomas's Maggott in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1805. (96) Samuel Collins was described as being "of Charles County" in the five different transactions relating to those tracts of land.

Clearly, if Samuel Collins was already resident in Charles County from 1800 to 1805, when he was engaged in purchasing these tracts, then he and his nuclear family were not Piscataway Indian émigrés who returned to Maryland circa 1809. Furthermore, two of Jane Collins' siblings--Eleanor (Nelly) Collins and Henry Collins--were also enumerated on the 1850 Charles County census as having been born in Maryland before 1794, which is when the Battle of Fallen Timbers occurred. According to the 1850 Charles County census, Eleanor (Nelly) Collins was born circa 1791 and Henry Collins was born circa 1793.(97) After Samuel's death, the his children continued to live for the next thirty years on the land willed to them by their father. After the death of William Collins, Jane Collins and her sisters Eleanor Collins and (Mary) Ann Brookbank sold the land in 1853 that William had inherited from their father Samuel. (98)

According to Gabrielle Tayac, "a fear of removal permeated the community in the nineteenth century", and current Piscataway elders told stories about their Piscataway ancestors having to hide in swamps for long periods of time to avoid being put on a reservation. (99) However, the historical evidence describing the Collins family contradicts this mythology. The fact is that no Indians in the Delmarva region were ever subject to removal. No Piscataway Indians were even recognized as such by the local governments during this time period, much less targeted for removal.

The members of the Collins family, meanwhile, were thoroughly integrated into the community, and were not in hiding. They purchased land, wrote wills, bought and sold livestock and household goods in public commerce, administered estates, and appeared on the censuses. Many such transactions are preserved in the historical record. There are financial transactions in the land records documenting the Collins' sale of livestock, for example, or recording mortgages for Collins family members. (100) Jane's brother, Henry Colllins owned eight hundred dollars of real estate in 1850. (101) Henry's will, written in 1852 and probated in 1853, left all his property in trust to Peter W. Craim to be sold and paid to Henry's two sons Samuel and George. (102) In fact, the Collins family was financially comfortable during the antebellum era, wealthier even than a number of "white" families in the area.

Billy Tayac has gone so far as to claim that his "Piscataway" ancestors helped black slaves escape the South in the mid-1800s. (103) The truth is that the Proctor/Tayac ancestors were themselves slaveowners and thus unlikely to have been involved in helping slaves escape. Samuel Collins owned two slaves in 1820.(104) Two of Samuel Collins' children, Henry Collins and Jane Collins, were also slaveowners. In 1850, Henry owned four adolescent children, and Jane owned a fifty-year-old man. (105) It is clear from the historical record that the Collins family were planters and slaveowners, and among the economic elite of the non-white population in the region.

It is difficult to trace the ancestry of Samuel Collins, father of Jane Collins, because of limitations in the source material for free people of color. This is complicated by the fact that there are three free men of color named Samuel Collins resident in Charles County in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Unfortunately, the 1790, 1800, and 1810 censuses do not give age and gender categories for free people of color households, but instead give only a total number in the household. The 1790 Charles County census included two Samuel Collins out of three Collins households. (106)

On the 1800 Charles County census, there were three Samuel Collins enumerated as free people of color, with two, nine, and ten people in their households, respectively. (107) The Samuel Collins with two individuals in his household was listed as Samuel Collins, Sr. Another Samuel Collins with 10 household members was listed as Samuel Collins, Jr. Since the Samuel Collins who is proven to be the Proctor/Tayac family's ancestor had at least two children by 1800, then the household of Samuel Collins, Sr. must be eliminated as a possibility, so one of the other two households must have belonged to Philip Proctor's ancestor Samuel Collins. Samuel Collins, Jr. was listed next to Henry S. Yates on this census. (108) Since Philip's ancestor Samuel Collins indicated in his will that his property bordered Henry S. Yates, this proximity on the census is strong circumstantial evidence that Samuel Collins, Jr. was the enumeration of Philip's ancestor.

By the 1810 Charles County census, only one Samuel Collins remains. (109) An analysis of the 1820 census entry of Samuel Collins, the first census in which there are age and gender categories for free people of color, suggests that it was the household of Samuel Collins, father of Jane, Ann, Eleanor, Henry and William. (110) There are many other late 18th century and early 19th records in Charles County and the vicinity that refer to men named Samuel Collins. (111)

A possible origin for the Charles County Collins family is in neighboring Prince George's County. Christian Collins had three years remaining on her indenture when she confessed on March 24, 1718/1719 that she had given birth to an illegitimate child. (112) The court judged that the child was "begott by a Negroe man". The court ordered Christian's master, William Smith, to deliver her to the court after three years, once her indenture was completed. The court ordered the illegitimate child was ordered to be indentured for thirty-one years to William Smith, so the first Collins free person of color should begin to show up in records circa 1750. Indeed, other free mulatto Collins do begin to appear around this time in the colonial records, and continue to have a presence in the 18th and 19th century records of Charles, Prince George's and St. Mary's Counties. (113)

Genealogical research thus reveals much about the Proctor/Tayac family's Collins ancestors, and sheds light on the reliability of the heritage claims made through this line. Not only does the "walking back" story change each time it is told, but all of the documentary evidence also contradicts the story. Thus genealogical research can be used to confirm suspicions about the story's unreliability.

There is an uncommon wealth of data on the Collins family, considering that they were free people of color, a class that was often marginalized and thus scantily represented in the documentary record. They left a longer paper trail than many white families. All of the various documentary evidence is internally consistent, and hence far more reliable than the oral tradition, which has undergone several drastic revisions (see Table One). Furthermore, the historical documentary evidence cannot have been biased by the contemporary factional infighting that influenced the Proctor/Tayac family's recent construction and reconstruction of its oral tradition.

In this case it is not even necessary to adjudicate between the relative reliability of the oral and documentary evidence. The oral history is disconfirmed by the very existence of a plethora of documentary evidence showing the Proctor/Tayac family's proven Collins ancestors as resident and economically active in Charles County during the time period the oral tradition places them out of state. Thus the first of the Proctor/Tayac family's three central heritage myths is proven false.

Philip Proctor's Paternal Ancestry

The second of the Proctor/Tayac family's three central heritage myths holds that the family's claim to the office of tayac (or chief) has been inherited through Philip's paternal line tracing back 28 generations.(114) Genealogical research proves that this claim cannot be true. Philip's father was Louis Proctor, who died in 1915. (115) On Louis's death certificate his parents were listed as Tom Jones and Pug Proctor. (116) Once again, there are different versions of the Proctor/Tayac family's oral history describing who in Philip's ancestry was the "tayac", or hereditary chief. Philip himself does not seem to have completely thought out the story of how he became the 27th tayac, probably because he knew so little about his family history. Philip implied in his 1974 interview that his paternal grandmother, "Redbird", was the daughter of a tayac. (117) This implies that the tayacship was inherited through what anthropologists would call matrilineal descent. If so, Philip's father Louis would have to have inherited the tayacship from his maternal grandfather. However, since Philip was obviously confused about which of his own grandmothers was still alive when he was a child, it is hard to know which grandmother he believed was the daughter of a tayac.

Philip's descendants, on the other hand, claim that the tayacship is inherited patrilineally, descending from father to son. Their claim of patrilineal descent seems to be motivated by recent infighting among the various Piscataway factions over who is entitled to lead the tribe. (118) Philip's son Billy "Redwing" Tayac, leader of the PIN faction, claims that his legitimacy rests on a tradition of patrilineal descent of the tayacship. However, genealogical research shows that it is not possible that Philip S. Proctor could have been the hereditary leader of the Piscataway tribe based on either patrilineal or matrilineal descent.

There is a contradiction between Philip Proctor's genealogy and how PIN claims the tayac office is transferred. According to the PIN's petition for state recognition: "The modern Piscataway Indian Nation has continued this 350 year tradition of patrilineal chief inheritance. . ."(119)

In this version of the family history, Philip Proctor's father, Louis Proctor, was the Piscataway tayac "Woosah", and thus Philip became tayac when Louis died. Philip Proctor's son, Billy Tayac, now claims that he became tayac when Philip died. However, based on the principles of patrilineal succession, Louis Proctor (Woosah Tayac) would have to have inherited his office from his father, who was Thomas A. Jones, a man with no evidence of non-white ancestry.

The Proctor/Tayac family claimed in 1988 that their ancestor Thomas Jones was part-Indian. (120) But in the 1995 PIN petition and the 1999 dissertation, no mention is made of Thomas Jones. The claim now is that Louis's father was Noble Proctor, aka "Chitom Tayac". (121) This identification is based on the fact that there was an individual named Noble Proctor who had a son named Louis Proctor, born circa 1855, in Charles County. (122) The Proctor/Tayac family now claims this apparently unrelated family as their ancestors.

The Proctor/Tayac family has chosen to ignore both Philip's repeated statements about Thomas A. Jones being his paternal grandfather, and the death certificate of Louis Proctor, which listed Tom Jones as his father. Philip Proctor clearly believed that Thomas A. Jones was his paternal grandfather. In his 1971 oral history interview, Philip remarked that many people in his neighborhood commented on his father's physical resemblance to Jones. In the oral history he narrated in 1974, Philip reiterated that his paternal grandfather was Thomas A. Jones. (123)

According to that interview, Philip Proctor had contacted one of Jones's legitimate descendants to discuss their shared ancestry. When asked whether Thomas A. Jones was Catholic, Philip stated:

"I don't believe he was, either. Some say he was. This woman over in Virginia (note: Jones was her grandfather, though there was a different grandmother) say he was, but it seems to me like back in all his doings there was nothing said about him being a Catholic. . . Now here's another thing about it. How about his ancestors, his people? He was mixed up with some Indian. Yes, he was, but his family, his early settlers, they came from Wales. . . I just found out it's another family down there's relations."(124)

Philip's son, Billy Tayac, told a reporter in 1978 that one of Philip's grandparents helped John Wilkes Booth escape across the Potomac. (125) Indeed, Thomas Jones published a book describing his exploits with Booth, and this episode is well known among Charles County Civil War historians. Thus it becomes clear that the Proctor/Tayac family excised Thomas Jones from their family tree and replaced him with Noble Proctor/Chitom Tayac because of the blatant contradiction between claiming a patrilineal tayac sucession and Jones's obvious "whiteness".

It is apparent that the Proctor/Tayac family knows that Thomas A. Jones was their ancestor, based on the 1988 version of the oral history, and an interview with Billy Tayac in a video documentary about Philip Proctor. In the 1999 video, Billy Tayac displays a condolence cane given him by "the Iroquois people"in 1979, a year after Philip's death. The cane contains black pegs embedded in a row with each peg signifies a hereditary tayac. Starting from the peg representing the 25th tayac, a line on the cane points to an associated pictograph that depicts a stereotypical Indian character in loincloth and feathers, who is shaking hands with a white man in a tall hat. Beneath the two men, there is an upside down hat.

Since Philip was purportedly the 27th tayac, the 25th tayac would have been Philip's paternal grandfather, Thomas A. Jones. In the video's narration, Billy describes this pictograph:

"This is a very significant chief right here, as it shows a old beaver hat, and the beaver hat is turned upside down, and that signifies the dead Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln, and this is one of our ancestors meeting with the man who assassinated President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and he helped him escape from Maryland into Virginia." (126)

This is clearly a description of Thomas A. Jones, the Confederate agent who assisted Booth's escape. Thus the Proctor/Tayac family had in the 1990s taken their family oral history about their white ancestor, Thomas A. Jones, and attached his story to an unrelated free person of color, Noble Proctor, the man they now want to claim as their Piscataway Indian chief ancestor.

Genealogical research on Thomas A. Jones and his parents does not reveal any indication that they were Piscataway Indians. Thomas A. Jones, the son of Elisha and Mary Stuart/Stewart Jones, was born in 1820.(127) Thomas Jones's mother, Mary Stewart, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War soldier, Francis Ignatius Stewart. (128) In the book that Thomas A. Jones wrote about his part in John Wilkes Booth's escape after Lincoln's assassination, Jones represented himself as having been born poor, but by hard work managing to achieve "comfortable circumstances". (129) His father, Elisha Jones, was a small farmer who owned only two slaves in 1830 and no slaves in 1840. (130) In a county where many prominent white families owned many slaves, the family's limited slaveholding status probably defined the "poverty" described by Jones. Whenever Thomas A. Jones and his father were enumerated, they were always categorized as white. (131) When Elisha Jones died in 1859 at the age of seventy two, the death notice in his local newspaper did not mention that he was an Indian, much less a Piscataway tayac. (132)

Thomas A. Jones was fortunate in choosing a bride, Jane, from the prosperous Harbin family in Charles County. Thomas Jones and Jane Harbin were married in 1845. (133) The local newspaper reveals that in the antebellum era, Jones was clearly a young man trying to improve his economic position by aligning himself with the local elite families and filling several local political offices, such as constable and collector of taxes. (134) Jones was elected Justice of the Peace in 1853. (135) Jones was very politically active, first in the Whig party and then the Democratic party, with appointments as a delegate to meetings of both parties. (136) However, Jones seems to have experienced financial difficulty as the Civil War approached. By June 24, 1858, Jones was advertising part of his farm for sale in the local newspaper. (137) Jones also owned only five slaves in 1860, about half the number he owned in 1850. (138)

Jones' financial difficulties did not slow his Democratic political activities. In early January 1861, Jones signed a petition calling for Charles County to have a vote on whether to hold a sovereign convention. (139) After the war started, Jones helped Confederate sympathizers leave Maryland and go to Virginia by crossing the Potomac River. Jones also served as an agent for the Confederate mail service. He was imprisoned several times by Union authorities.(140) Jones' wife, Jane, died in 1861, during his first imprisonment. (141) By the war's end, Jones was the ranking Confederate spy in Maryland. After the assassination of President Lincoln, Jones helped John Wilkes Booth cross over the Potomac to Virginia. (142)

After the Civil War, Jones was reported as having an insolvent estate in the local newspaper both in 1868 and 1872. (143) He moved to Baltimore City, where he married a woman almost forty years his junior. (144) As the war receded in memory, Thomas A. Jones became less secretive about his actions in helping Booth cross the Potomac. Journalist George Townsend interviewed Jones in the 1880s about his part in Booth's escape. (145) In an attempt to raise money, Jones wrote a book published in 1893 that described in detail his role in J. Wilkes Booth's escape following Lincoln's assassination.(146) Jones attended the Chicago World's Fair that year to promote his book, but the book was not a financial success. (147) Thomas A. Jones died two years later in Charles County in 1895, the year his grandson Philip was born. (148)

Excising Thomas Jones from their genealogy is just one of the Proctor/Tayac family's manipulations of Philip's paternal ancestry. The family has also created another "walking back"story that they attribute to Philip's paternal line. Here is their 1988 version:

"In 1793, the Piscataways made their last appearance as a nation, according to 'official' historical documents at the Detroit Conference. . . Also in 1793, the tayac, some 'great men,' and their families returned to live in southern Maryland (Orphan's Court document)."(149)

However, by 1999 the story has undergone a radical revision. Now, the claim is that the tayac was at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and did not return to Maryland until much later: (150) "

"Piscataway oral history tells that about twenty-five people, including the Tayac and his great men, returned to Southern Maryland shortly before the War of 1812." (151)

The 1988 version has the tayac returning in 1793, and provides a vague citation to "Orphan's Court document". The 1999 version moves the tayac's return forward by well over a decade, and now claims that "there are no records that document the oral tradition pertaining to the approximately 25 Fallen Timbers returnees". (152) The unidentified "Orphan's Court document" that had been cited in support of the 1988 version has for some reason disappeared from the 1999 version.

The Tayac family claims that one of the Piscataway chiefs in their lineage is Billy Tayac's great-great grandfather Chief Red Jacket.(153) Since Thomas A. Jones was Billy's paternal great-grandfather, then "Chief Red Jacket" must be Elisha, Thomas' father. However, Elisha Jones was born in Maryland circa 1788. (154) There is no indication that the six-year-old Elisha Jones was at the Battle of Falling Timbers and then walked back to Maryland.

Given that Thomas A. and Elisha Jones were considered "white" in their community and there is no indication that they were Piscataway Indians, clearly Philip could not have inherited the tayacship patrilineally. Furthermore, historical records describing the 17th century Piscataways reveal that the office of tayac was traditionally transferred matrilineally between generations, and then in the colonial period by election.(155) There is no evidence of a permanent switch to patrilineal inheritance, unless the Proctor/Tayac family's representation of Philip Proctor's heritage can be considered valid. Based on the traditional system of matrilineal sucession, the only way that Philip Proctor could have inherited the office of tayac was through his maternal uncle. However, Philip Proctor's maternal grandmother, Nancy Collins, had only daughters and no sons. Philip Proctor did not have a maternal uncle from whom he could have inherited the office of tayac.

Whether you calculate the tayacship's descent matrilineally or patrilineally, Philip Proctor could not possibly have inherited the office through either line. Again, genealogical research has proven the second of the Proctor/Tayac family's three heritage myths to be false.

Land Claims to Piscataway Park

The third of the Proctor/Tayac family's central heritage myths dates back to the 1970s, and holds that Philip Proctor gave to the Department of the Interior the land that later became Piscataway Park, in exchange for burial rights in the park.

Concerns over lost land have resonated in the Proctor/Tayac family's historical memory. (156) Philip expressed a sense of mistrust over land that his mother Jennie brought to her second marriage, which was then sold by Jennie and her second husband, James Linkins. In 1890, Louis Proctor (Jennie's first husband and Philip's father) had purchased a fifty acre tract near Pope's Creek in Charles County. (157) In 1896, Louis sold this land to his wife, Jennie, for three hundred dollars. (158) After Louis died, and shortly after her marriage to James A. Linkins, Jennie transferred all her property into a deed of trust to her new husband. (159) The property in the trust was designated for her use and benefit during her life. James and Jennie Linkins sold the land in 1928 for only ten dollars.(160)

In a 1974 interview, Philip expressed the belief that he had been cheated out of the land by the administrator of Louis's estate:

"I believe right today, that the Huckleberry, I don't believe they can bring you a clear slate. . . Now my mother owned it--it's a lawyer down there that was the administrator. Never closed the deal. Not with me. I went in the County Court House down there, in the land section, I talked to a lady and she found it. I was right. . . She told me if you get a lawyer it might cost you more than you would get out of it to try to redeem any parts of it. . . But I'm not finished with them." (161)

However, the land's transfer was clearly from Louis to Jennie--in the year after Philip's birth--and then from James and Jennie Linkins to a third party. When Louis and Jennie died, the Huckleberry land was not part of either of their estates, and so Philip never inherited any legal right to it. Philip's lingering suspicions about his own inherited land rights, demonstrated in the quote above, may have motivated the fraudulent land claims he and his descendants would make against the National Park Service.

The disputed Park Service land included an Indian burial site located in Prince George's County. Gabrielle Tayac wrote in 1999 that Philip had given 700 acres in trust to the Department of Interior in 1961 (then, a few pages later, she reports the gift as comprising only 20 acres): (162)

"Turkey, who had put twenty acres of Moyaone into trust with the Department of the Interior for the creation of Piscataway National Park, had made a verbal agreement with Secretary Stewart Udall. The agreement is shown in a photo of the two men shaking hands at the establishment of Piscataway Park . . . Turkey wished that his people would always be able to freely visit the site and that he could be buried with his ancestors in the chiefs' ossuary at Moyaone. When Turkey began to sicken in 1976 at the age of 81, he went to the Department of the Interior to make arrangements for his imminent burial and was told that no one there had ever heard of him." (163)

The only evidence that the Proctor/Tayac family has been able to provide in support of this claim is the photograph that shows Philip shaking hands with Secretary Udall. However, once again the Proctor/Tayac account does not agree with the proven facts.

Alice Ferguson purchased the land that would eventually become Piscataway Park in three transactions between 1922 and 1945. (164) Philip Proctor was not involved in any of these transactions. Alice Ferguson was an amateur archaeologist, and Philip is reported to have worked as a laborer on some of her digs. (165) Upon Alice's death, her husband Henry G. Ferguson inherited her property. He transferred several parcels to the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which had been established after her death. (166) The Foundation's mission was focused on environmental and historical education.(167)

In 1960, an agreement was signed between Henry Ferguson and the Foundation, stating that the land that would become Piscataway Park was subject to certain conditions of use. These conditions stipulated that the land would be preserved in a scenic, park-like condition, and would be limited to educational and governmental uses. (168) In 1963, the Foundation entered into an agreement with the US Secretary of the Interior, stipulating that the park land would be turned over to the federal government for the purposes of creating a national park, subject to the conditions of use that Henry Ferguson had placed on the land. (169) The Foundation's transfer of the land to the federal government was finalized in 1968, subject to the agreement that a park would be created within five years. (170) The deed included a drawing of the proposed Piscataway Park, which included the "Moyaone Village Indian Site". (171)

The land records clearly demonstrate that Philip Proctor did not own the park land, nor did he transfer its title to the Department of the Interior. The reason that no one in the Department of the Interior had any record of Philip Proctor's land donation is that the claim was and continues to be a fraud created and perpetuated by the Proctor/Tayac family. Once again, basic research in primary sources has proven the family's third central heritage myth to be false.

Conclusion

The Proctor/Tayac family has repeatedly petitioned the state of Maryland, asking for special financial and political considerations supposedly due them on the basis of their hypothetical Piscataway ancestry. PIN has requested state tax exemptions and state recognition as a Maryland Indian tribe. (172) The Proctor/Tayac family has also accused the other Piscataway groups of making false claims to Piscataway ancestry and trying to steal PIN's Piscataway identity. (173) Billy Tayac argued that the state tribal recognition process should be made more rigorous so that "phonies" wouldn't seek a piece of the reserved benefits. (174) However, all three of the Proctor/Tayac family's own central heritage myths have been unraveled by the genealogical research presented above.

When an oral history changes each time it is told, that is a clue as to its unreliability. In the case of Philip Proctor, a comparison of his genealogical claims to the written record shows that he only knew his white paternal grandfather's identity, and was confused as to his other three lines. It is also apparent that he invented an Indian heritage for ancestors who were clearly members of the white elite in southern Maryland. Even his free people of color Collins ancestors were economically successful, owning land and slaves. Comparing the genealogical claims made by Philip's descendants to Philip's own version of his genealogy and to the actual family history as documented in the historical record shows yet further evidence of confusion and deception in the family's oral tradition.

Finally, clear evidence of genealogical fraud emerges when comparing the two versions of the oral tradition published by Gabrielle Tayac in 1988 and 1999, respectively. Her 1999 version invents new relationships that contradict the documentary evidence, that contradict her 1988 published version, and that contradict Philip's two recorded oral histories from 1971 and 1974. The contradictions are nowhere even acknowledged by Gabrielle Tayac, much less explained.

Situating the various versions of the family's tradition in their political context has provided clues as to why specific elements of the genealogy were altered, in response to changing legal and political incentives. This case reveals the importance of genealogical research for government decision making, as Maryland state officials are required to assess the authenticity of the Tayac family's claims on the public trust.

To date, the Tayac family has been remarkably successful in their masquerade. They have amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to PIN. (175) Not only did they obtain special burial rights in Piscataway Park through an act of Congress, but for decades they have also requested and received special access and privileges from the National Park Service. (176) Tayac family members are often invited to speak to groups as representative Indians.(177) Billy Tayac has been interviewed a number of times in newspapers, especially around the Thanksgiving holiday when reporters seek out Indian interviewees. (178) Billy compares the attention he receives for his Indian activities to "being in love--the more you get, the more you want". (179)

Laura Browder observed:

"The successful Native impostor offers perhaps the purest expression of American fantasies about those whose near extermination provided a basis for our nation's existence. Created to fulfill the needs of both impostor and culture, the success of the ersatz Indian rests on his or her ability to embody the cultural fantasies of an age. . . The real question, perhaps, is who the next successful invented Indian will be--and what he or she will be able to tell us about the needs of our culture." (180)

In September 1999, ground was broken on the mall in the District of Columbia for the construction of the National Museum of the American Indian. Billy "Red Wing" Tayac, leader of the Piscataway Indian Nation, blessed the site by sprinkling tobacco, water, and soil from a Piscataway burial ground on the ground. The museum had invited Billy to be the official eastern Indian representative at the ceremony. In celebration of the national Indian museum, in full view of the Capital where Congress had honored his father's fraudulent burial claim, Billy remarked: "The water's still here. The earth is still here. And we are still here. We're very proud that Indian people today have a place to remember our ancestors." (181) Billy's performance was widely reported in the national media, none of whom questioned his identity as a Piscataway Indian chief.

Table One: Evolution of the Tayac family's heritage claims.

Footnotes

1. John W. Frece, "Piscataways Seek Southern Md. Casino," The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 29 September 1993, online http://www.sunspot.net/ , printout dated 14 September 2000.

2. Gabrielle Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," Northeast Indian Quarterly, 5 (Winter 1988): 9.

3. Since Philip S. Proctor never changed his name legally to Turkey Tayac, he will be referred to by his legal name in this article. However, since the Indian ancestry claims involve his descendants who do use the surname Tayac in legal documents, that will be the surname used for them in this article. Paul Hodge, "Chief is Buried in Piscataway; Spat over Turkey Tayac's Successor Mars Ceremony," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 12 November 1979, page C9.

4. When Philip was interviewed in 1974, he signed his name as "Chief Turkey Tayac XXVII." Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, by Kelly Giorgio, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974. Transcript ("'Turkey Tayac': The First Twenty Years") held by Leah C. Sims, 2000, vi. Obituary of Chief Turkey Tayac, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 10 December 1978, page A18, column 1.

5. Paul Hodge, "Dream of Tribal Burial Nears Reality," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 21 December 1978, page MD 1 and MD 7.

6. Bill 96 H.R. 5419, the bill calling "for the commemoration of the efforts of Goodloe Bryon to protect the Appalachian Trail" was passed in 1979, provision b. permitted Chief Turkey Tayac to be buried in Piscataway Park, Maryland, CIS Legislative Histories (1979), Congressional Information Service Inc., online www.lexis-nexis.com , printout dated 18 August 2000.

7. Debate concerning Bill 96 H.R. 5419, 1 October 1979, Congressional Record-Senate, (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, District of Columbia, 1979), 26972.

8. For other Indian identity hoaxes, see Ives Goddard, "The Identity of Red Thunder Cloud", online http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/goddard1.html , printout dated 22 February 2001. Previously published in hard copy (Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter, April 2000). Donald B. Smith, Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance: the Glorious Imposter (Red Deer, Alta.: Red Deer Press, 1999). Laura Browder, "'What Does It Tell Us That We Are So Easily Deceived?' Impostor Indians," American Indian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, Dane Morrison, editor (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1997): 313-331.

9. Gary Mills and Elizabeth Shown Mills, "_Roots_and the New Faction: A Legitimate Tool for Clio?". The Virginia Magazine 89 (January 1981): 6.

10. Names in the PIN petition are redacted. However, Philip's granddaughter, Gabrielle Tayac, wrote a 1999 dissertation on the Piscataways. Ms. Tayac "received permission from the Piscataway to use the confidential genealogical information to reconstruct the history of the nineteenth century community for this dissertation." In many passages, the 1995 petition and 1999 dissertation are identical except for the redaction. Gabrielle Astra Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998" (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard College, 1999), 180.

11. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 175-178.

12. Philip listed his parents as Louis P. Proctor and Jennie Collins. His age is listed as 60, but his year of birth was incorrectly given as 1885, not 1895. Philip Sheridan Proctor, Application for Social Security (#579-50-8206), 13 September 1955.

13. Gabrielle Tayac has claimed that the federal census in Maryland had only three categories: black, white, and mulatto. In fact, since 1860 the Census has always provided an "Indian" category. The instructions to census enumerators were often very specific as to the meaning of the "mulatto" category. It was to include "all persons having any perceptible trace of African blood." In 1900, the members of Philip's family were listed as black. Louis J. Proctor household, 1900 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 4th election district, enumeration district [ED] 72, supervisor's district [SD] 3, sheet 19B, dwelling 312, family 316; National Archives micropublication T623, roll 621. In 1910, the race of the Louis and Jennie Proctor family members was listed as mulatto, Lewis Proctor household, 1910 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 4th district, enumeration district [ED] 40, supervisor's district [SD] 4, sheet 8A, dwelling 139, family 140; National Archives micropublication T624, roll 563. In 1920, Jennie Collins Proctor Linkins' race was listed as mulatto, James Linkins household, 1920 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, District 4, enumeration district [ED] 44, supervisor's district [SD] 4, sheet 7B, dwelling 115, family 115; National Archives micropublication T625, roll 671. Gabrielle Astra Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 185. Twenty Censuses: Population and Housing Questions, 1790-1980 (Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1979), 18.

14. American Anthropological Association, Statement on "Race", online http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm , printout dated 22 February 2001.

15. Brewton Berry, Almost White (1963; reprint, London, England: Collier-Macmillan, 1969), 35. Some members of the Piscataway Indian groups now consider the name Wesort derogatory. However, since that was the name used before 1974 by the group and by scholars, that is how the historical group will be referred to in this article to avoid confusion. Tracey A. Reeves, "Minority Status a Source of Pride, Irritation for Indians," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 28 July 1988, page MD 14, column 1.

16. Albert Elliot Segall, "You Sort; Wesort" (Master Thesis, The George Washington University, 1976), 28.

17. Thomas J. Harte, "Trends in Mate Selection in a Tri-Racial Isolate," Social Forces 27 (March 1959): 215.

18. Frank G. Speck, Indians of the Eastern Shore of Maryland (Baltimore, Maryland: Springfield State Hospital Press, 1922), 11.

19. 1941 Indian Identification Form of Philip Proctor, which is reproduced in the Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition. Philip Proctor's name is redacted. However, birthdate and father's name (Louis Proctor) on the form matches Philip's birthdate and father's name. "Billy Tayac says he is more than half Indian, since his father was a full-blood and his mother, Mary Lee, was of Italian and Shawnee descent." According to Kelly Giorgio's interview with Philip, his first wife, Mary, was born in Montana and her parents were from Hungary. The Washington Post, 21 December 1978, page MD 7, column 3. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 44.

20. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 11-12. From Gabrielle Tayac's dissertation: "This study is concerned with how Piscataways have expanded their identities to include a pan-tribal American Indian collective identity, not about how individuals without tribal identity acquire it. That in itself is a massive issue, given the rise of such newly created tribes - some of which enroll individuals with no biological indigenous ancestry - since the 1970s as the Wild Potato Band of Cherokees (Nation-wide), the Bear Tribe (Minnesota), Assateagues (Crisfield, MD), and the Mammoth Clan of Delaware (Ithaca, NY). Such created 'tribes' are beyond the scope of this dissertation.". Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 18.

21. When Giorgio and Philip discussed the Wesort community, Philip "explained that they, too, had Indian blood, but had also intermarried with negroes, and so dismissed them." Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 41.

22. Segall, "You Sort; Wesort," 39.

23. Segall, "You Sort; Wesort," 39-40.

24. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 41.

25. Frank G. Speck, Indians of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, 11.

26. William Harlan Gilbert, "The Wesorts of Southern Maryland: An Outcasted Group," Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 35 (August 1945): 237-246. Thomas J. Harte, "Trends in Mate Selection in a Tri-Racial Isolate," Social Forces 27 (March 1959): 215-221. Thomas J. Harte, "Social Origins of the Brandywine Population," Phylon 24 (Winter 1963): 369-378.

27. Gilbert, "The Wesorts of Southern Maryland: An Outcasted Group," 237. Albert Segall used Philip Proctor as an informant on the Wesort community and described him as "a somewhat unreputable character of the Population". Segall, "You Sort; Wesort," 24.

28. Petition of Piscataway Conoy Tribe for State Recognition (1995), Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Divison of Historical and Cultural Programs, Department of Housing and Community Development, Crownsville, MD, 21032. Petition of Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995), Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Divison of Historical and Cultural Programs, Department of Housing and Community Development, Crownsville, MD, 21032. For an article on the conflict between the two groups, see Greg Garland, "Indian Tribal Claims Raises Questions of Identity, Intentions; Piscataway Groups Seeking Recognition," The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 2 April 1999, online http://www.sunspot.net/ , printout dated 14 September 2000. Thomas Ford Brown, "Ethnic Identity Movements and the Legal Process: The Piscataway Revival, 1974-2000," online http://www.towson.edu/\~tabrown/piscataway.html , printout dated 15 September 2000, now online at http://www.nativeweb.org//pages/legal/piscataway.html.

29. The federal petition gave two names for the petitioning tribe: PCT and Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes. Petition of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes aka Piscataway Conoy Tribe for Federal Recognition (1995), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Branch of Acknowledgement and Recognition, Washington, District of Columbia.

30. James H. Merrell, "Cultural Continuity Among the Piscataway Indians of Colonial Maryland," The William and Mary Quarterly 36 (October 1979), 568-570.

31. Jean B. Lee, The Price of Nationhood: The American Revolution in Charles County (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1994), 268. The remaining thirteen free individuals were categorized as black. Only the statistical figures from this census are available. Maryland historians have found that individuals described as mulatto in Maryland colonial records were often the result of interracial unions between white women and black slaves. Thomas E. Davidson, "Free Blacks in Old Somerset County, 1745-1755," Maryland Historical Magazine 80 (Summer 1985): 154.

32. The PCCS/PCT petition listed seven core tribal surnames: Butler, Proctor, Thompson, Savoy, Swann, Newman, and Harley. For genealogical data on the core surnames, see Paul Heinegg's webpage. Petition of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes aka Piscataway Conoy Tribe for Federal Recognition (1995): 7. Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, Maryland and Delaware section, online http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/maryland.htm , Paul Heinegg, web master p.heinegg@worldnet.att.net , printout dated 15 December 2000.

33. Petition of the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes aka Piscataway Conoy Tribe for Federal Recognition (1995): 7.

34. All details about Eleanor Butler and Charles from Martha Hodes, White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the 19th-Century South (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1997), 19-38.

35. The Maryland Court did not base their decision on the Butler family's descent from an white woman, but instead pointed to the lack of proof that Eleanor Butler was convicted under the 1661 statute because records from St. Mary's County, Maryland had been destroyed. Hodes, White Women, Black Men, 35.

36. In 1794, Isaac Proctor married Elizabeth Butler in Charles County. The bride and groom were first cousins. Second cousins John Butler married Elizabeth Proctor in 1793. Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, Maryland and Delaware section, Adams-Butler section, Butler family, online http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Adams-Butler.htm , printout dated 15 December 2000.

37. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, iv, 4, and 18.

38. Philip called Nellie his half-sister in 1971, but did not state if she was the child of Louis or Jennie. Philip described Nellie as being "as white as any woman" and stated that no one would believe that she was his sister because she was so white. Giorgio listed three names for the parents of Philip and his siblings: Woozah, Jan-Jan, and "Mr. Stone" (1/2 Indian). It is probable that Mr. Stone was Nellie's father. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, by John M. Wearmouth, 28 December 1971. Tape of interview held in 2000 by Library of Southern Maryland College (La Plata, Maryland, 20646). Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 42.

39. 1941 Indian Identification Form of Philip Proctor, Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995).

40. Louis Proctor, death certificate 79/15506 (1915), Maryland Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, microfilm roll SR 3040, Maryland Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 34.

41. James A. Linkins b. December 26, 1852, d. December 14, 1953, James A. Linkins tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland; viewed and transcribed by author, August 2000. James was the son of Peter Linkins and Rosella Proctor. Peter Linkins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Hill Top district, page 240, dwelling 413, family 413; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. The maiden name of Rosella Proctor was listed in the baptism records of James' siblings, George Washington and Olivia Columbia Proctor, Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entries October 7 (1862), 4, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, located at Province Archives, Georgetown University Special Collections, Washington, D. C., Box 27, folio 15, oversize box 4. Peter Linkins b. ca 1827 was the son of Peter Linkins and Nellie (-?-), see baptism of forty year old Peter Linkins. Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry May 10 (1867), 38, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions.

42. Interview, Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, 28 December 1971. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 24-29.

43. Philip Proctor's military discharge, which is reproduced in the Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995).

44. A search of the Boyd's District of Columbia Directory for Philip Proctor revealed the following results. In 1929, Philip Proctor was listed as a laborer. In both 1933 and 1934, Philip S. Proctor was listed as being employed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In 1935 and 1936, Philip S. Proctor was listed as an messenger employed by the IRS. In 1937, Philip was listed as a laborer. In 1938, Philip was listed as a messenger with the IRS. In 1939 and 1940, Philip was listed as employed by the IRS. In 1942, Philip was listed as a laborer with the IRS. Four different addresses were listed for Philip and his wife, Mary, in the years searched. See "Philip Proctor-Report #1," 15 September 2000, Leah C. Sims (lcsims@eskimo.com), copy held by Leah C. Sims.

45. From interview with Philip's daughter, Julie Proctor Yates. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History,"13.

46. Interview, Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, 28 December 1971.

47. Degree of Indian blood is listed as 3/4. 1941 Indian Identification Form of Philip Proctor, Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995).

48. "The only ancestor about whom Turkey is unsure is Thomas A. Jones. He thinks Jones might have had Indian blood." Since Philip told Giorgio that his mother Jan-Jan was 3/4 Indian and her mother, Reddress Pugh, was "full blooded Algonquian". Philip must have believed that Jan-Jan's father was half Indian. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 42-43.

49. Robert L. Humphrey and Mary Elizabeth Chambers, Ancient Washington: American Indian Cultures of the Potomac Valley, (Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, 1977), 29.

50. Jennie A. Collins Proctor Linkins was born November 24, 1863 and died October 3, 1934. Jennie Linkins tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland; viewed and transcribed by author, August 2000. A search of Maryland death certificates did not reveal any death certificate for Jennie Linkins.

51. Interview, Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, 28 December 1971.

52. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 42.

53. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 42-43.

54. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

55. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

56. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

57. Virginia Anna (Jennie) was listed as a "col illegit" child about six years old when she was baptised, Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry June 30 (1869), 61, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions.

58. Charles County, Maryland Miscellaneous Records, Genealogical Records Committee Report: volume CV (typescript serial, 1942-1944; DAR Library, Washington), 32. Two of Charles' siblings and his nephew were also buried there: brother Joseph A. Sheirburn (b. September 14, 1817, d. February 10, 1880), sister Eleanor Sheirburn (tombstone sunk into ground, so the dates on this tombstone unavailable), and William Sheirburn (d. January 1, 1897 age 54 years).

59. Charles H. Shebunn household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 288, dwelling 1224, family 1224; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Charles H. Sherburn household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 640, dwelling 65, family 65; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473. C. H. Sheirburne household, 1870 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 2nd District, Newburgh post office, page 82, dwelling 368, family 377; National Archives micropublication M593, roll 584.

60. 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 1017; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 300.

61. Each of the four Sheirburn siblings has an entry for their slaves on the 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh District, page 171; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 484.

62. Nellie was Jennie's younger sister. Nellie Ann was listed as a "col illegit" two years old child when she was baptised, Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry June 30 (1869), 61, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions.

63. Baptism of Christina Hamilton, born April 28, 1867, daughter of Charles Sheirbarn and Marg Hamilton, Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry May 28 (1867), page 38, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions.

64. No information has been found on Alice Collins, who was born ca 1854. Alice was listed with her mother on the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Josephine Collins married John A. Mason. Josephine Collins Mason's tombstone, which was erected by her son Joseph P. Mason, has May 30, 1861 as her birth date and September 10, 1917 as her death date. However, on the 1860 and 1870 Charles County censuses, Josephine was born circa 1856. Josephine was buried next to her husband, John A. Mason. Paul Mason, the informant on Josephine Collins Mason's death certificate, did not know the name of her father, but he identified her mother as Nancy Collins. Josephine Mason's race was listed as colored on her death certificate. Josephine C. Mason tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland; viewed and transcribed by author, August 2000. John A. Mason tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland; viewed and transcribed by author, August 2000. Jane Collins household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 663, dwelling 256, family 252; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473. Nancy Collins household, 1870 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 2nd District, Port Tobacco post office, page 63, dwelling 139, family 143; National Archives micropublication M593, roll 584. Josephine Mason, death certificate no. 79-103 (1917), Maryland Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Records, microfilm roll SR 3051, Maryland Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

65. Joseph Sheirburn was born between 1765-1774 and Mary Yates Sheirburn was born between 1784-1790. Age ranges based on calculations from censuses. Joseph Sherburn household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 541, line 9; National Archives micropublication M32, roll 10. Joseph Sheirburn household, 1810 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 75, line 2; National Archives micropublication M252, roll 15. Joseph Sherburne household, 1820 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 204, line 7; National Archives micropublication M33, roll 40. Mary Sheirvourn household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 186, line 10; National Archives micropublication M704, roll 163. For the relationship between Charles Henry and his parents, see Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1827-1829, December Term 1827, 145-147, Maryland Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Mary Sheirburn, widow of Joseph Sheirburn was appointed guardian of her son Charles Henry Sheirburn, age 7, in 1827.

66. For more on Charles Henry Sheirburn's ancestry, see "Charles H. Sheirburn of Charles County, Maryland-Report No. 1," 15 January 2001, Leah C. Sims (lcsims@eskimo.com), copy held by author.

67. The Charles Yates family were enumerated as white on the 1790 Charles County. Bureau of the Census, Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland(1907; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998), 55. For more on Mary Yates Sheirburn's ancestry, see "Mary Yates Sheirburn of Charles County, Maryland-Report No. 1," 15 January 2001, Leah C. Sims (lcsims@eskimo.com), copy held by author.

68. Roberta J. Wearmouth, compiler, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume One: 1844-1854 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1990), 49 and 143. Roberta J. Wearmouth, compiler, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Three: 1870-1875 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993), 200.

69. David Winfred Gaddy, "Secret Communicatons of a Confederate Navy Agent," Manuscripts 30 (Winter 1978): 49-55. David Winfred Gaddy, "A Confederate Agent Unmasked: An Afterword," Manuscripts 30 (Spring 1978): 94.

70. Baptism of Mary Frances Hawkins (col.), daughter of Geo. Sheirburne and Eveline Hawkins, Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry April 23 (1869), page 59, St. Ignatius Catholic Church.

71. Nancy Ann Collins tombstone listed the date of her death as December 14, 1897, aged 73 years. Text on the tombstone states that it was erected by her daughter, Josephine, for her mother. This information has Nancy being born circa 1824, which is inconsistent with her census data. Nancy Collins tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland; viewed and transcribed by author, August 2000.

72. Jane was a fifty five year old laborer in 1860. Jane Collins household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 663, dwelling 256, family 252; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473. No entry in the 1870 MD census index for Jane Collins.

73. I have already referred to the two relationships between white Sheirburn men and free women of color. For relationships between free people of color and slaves, see James Butler's certificate of freedom. James Butler (also called Jo or Hezeiah) was bought and manumitted by his father, Ignatius Butler in 1804. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 17 (1826-1828): 89-90, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

74. Pamphlet about Saint Ignatius Church at Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, copy in possession of author, pages unnumbered, information on church fire under section The Church.

75. Jane Collins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 223, dwelling 116, family 116; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Jane Collins household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 663, dwelling 256, family 252; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473. Nancy Collins household, 1870 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 2nd District, Port Tobacco post office, page 63, dwelling 139, family 143; National Archives micropublication M593, roll 584.

76. The quote is from Billy Tayac. Tayac, "'So Intermingled With This Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 7.

77. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 42-43.

78. Billy Tayac told Giorgio that it was Philip's father's mother who lived near the family on the Huckleberry. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 36-37.

79. Interview, Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, 28 December 1971.

80. Nancy Collins tombstone, St. Ignatius Catholic Church Cemetery, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Maryland.

81. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 176.

82. Tayac, "'So Intermingled With This Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 7.

83. The Washington Post, 21 December 1978, page 7, column 2.

84. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 181.

85. Tayac, "'So Intermingled With This Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 7. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 181. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

86. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

87. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 176.

88. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 43.

89. The Recognition Advisory Committee (RAC) recommended to PIN that they do additional genealogical research on the ancestors of PIN's members to trace "those ancestors back in time as close as possible to 1790.". "Addressing RAC Concerns", Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995), the page is unnumbered, but it is the first page of that section.

90. There are redacted notes of the genealogical research performed in 1995 and 1996 for PIN in the petition, Piscataway Indian Nation Petition for State Recogniton.

91. Brown, "Ethnic Identity Movements and the Legal Process: The Piscataway Revival, 1974-2000,".

92. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998" 176.

93. Jane Collins was listed as age 48 in 1850 and age 55 in 1860. Jane Collins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 223, dwelling 116, family 116; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Jane Collins household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 663, dwelling 256, family 252; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473.

94. The will was written 10 September 1822 and probated in the February Term 1823. Samuel Collins will (1822), Charles County, Maryland, Wills, Liber HB, No. 14 (1818-1825): 243-246. Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

95. Charles County, Maryland, Wills, Liber HB, No. 14 (1818-1825): 244.

96. Both tracts of land were listed on the Charles County, Maryland Rent Roll of 1753. Thomas's Maggott was listed as 78 acres on the north side of the Patuxent River. Thomas's Adventure was 96 acres on the north side of Patowack (probably Patuxent misspelled) River. [Anonymous compiler],Charles County, Maryland, Rent Roll of 1753 (Miami Beach, Florida: T. L. C. Genealogy, 1998), 86-87. For Samuel Collins' land purchases from the heirs of William Farr, see Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 3 (1799-1801): 320-322. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 3 (1799-1801): 428-430. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 5 (1801-1803): 54-57. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 5 (1801-1803): 114-116. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 6 ( 1804-1806): 535-537. All at Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

97. Nelly Collins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 222, dwelling 97, family 97; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Henry Collins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 222, dwelling 96, family 96; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Mary Ann Collins Brookbank, Jane's sister, was born circa 1804 in Maryland. Ann Brookbank household, 1850 U. S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 219, dwelling 40, family 40; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290.

98. This 1853 deed is evidence that Philip's ancestress Jane Collins and Samuel Collins' daughter Jane were the same person. The 1840 census included only three Collins households in Charles County. All three households were headed by the children of Samuel Collins, who were living adjacent to one another. William Collins had died circa 1847. His widow (first name not listed) was cited at the December Court Term 1847 to appear to show why she had not administered William's estate. The widow never came to court and letters of administration were granted to John Latimer. William's share of Thomas's Maggott and Thomas's Adventure was sold to Francis W. Weems in 1853. According to this deed, the three sellers--Jane Collins, Eleanor Collins, and Ann Brookbank--had the right to the land from William and Samuel Collins. William Collins household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 190, line 25; National Archives micropublication M704, roll 163. Henry Collins household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 190, line 26. Jane Collins household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 190, line 27. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1845-1849: 316-318 and 389, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber RHM, No. 1 (1851-1853): 730-731, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

99. Tayac,"'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 182.

100. Henry Collins and William Bruce transaction. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 15 (1822-1824): 523-524, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Henry Collins, Sr. and Henry Collins, Jr. transaction. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 17 (1826-1828): 82-83, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

101. Henry Collins household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 222, dwelling 96, family 96.

102. Henry's land was purchased by Francis W. Weems, who also bought William Collins's share of Samuel Collins' land from Henry and William's three sisters. Charles County, Maryland, Wills, Liber JS, No. 17: 89-90, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1845-1849: 69, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

103. Jose Barreiro, "The Earth is Sacred to Us," Northeast Indian Quarterly 3 (Summer 1986): 12.

104. Samuel Collins household, 1820 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 207A, line 3.

105. 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 843; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 300. 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 849.

106. Saml. Collins household: 3 white males of 16 years and upwards, 2 white females, and 1 slave. George Collins (Mulatto): 1 all other free person. Thos. Proctor & Samuel Collins (Mulattoes): 12 all other free persons. The Samuel Collins identified as a white household was probably a misidentified free person of color household. Virginia DeMarce has noted that "sometimes, persons who are clearly racially mixed on the basis of other documents were counted as white on the census". Bureau of the Census, Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland (1907; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998), 48, 49, and 52. Virginia Easley DeMarce, "Looking at Legends-Lumbee and Melungeon: Applied Genealogy and the Origins of Tri-racial Isolate Settlements," _National Genealogical Society Quarterly_81 (March 1993): 39.

107. Besides the three Samuel Collins, there was also a George Collins, who had four free persons of color in his household. Samuel Collins Senr. household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 562, line 10; National Archives micropublication M32, roll 10. Samuel Collins household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 561, line 24; National Archives micropublication M32, roll 10. Samuel Collins Junr. household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 562, line 21. Samuel Collins household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 522, line 11; National Archives micropublication M32, roll 10.

108. Henry S. Yates household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 562, line 20. Samuel Collins Junr. household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 562, line 21.

109. The household had 13 "all other" members. Samuel Collins household, 1810 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 72, line 23, National Archives micropublication M252, roll 15.

110. Samuel Collins' household included 1 free colored male under 14 [William], 1 free colored male 14-26 [Henry], 1 free colored male 45 and above [Samuel], 1 free colored female under 14 [probably Mary Ann], 2 free colored females 14-26 [Jane and possibly Eleanor], 1 free colored female 45 and over [Mary Ann, Samuel's wife], 1 female slave under 14, 1 female slave 45 and over, and 4 persons engaged were in agriculture. The Henry Collins household was another free colored Collins household on the 1820 Charles County census. Samuel Collins household, 1820 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 207A, line 23; National Archives micropublication M33, roll 40. Henry Collins household, 1820 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 214, line 15; National Archives micropublication M33, roll 40.

111. Samuel Collins in Joseph Edelin's Account, January 24, 1778 and Jane Yates' Account, April 3, 1779.[Anonymous compiler], Charles County, Maryland, Wills, Administration Accounts, Inventories, and Orphan Court Proceedings, 1777-1780 (Miami Beach, Florida: T. L. C. Genealogy, 1995), 43-44 and 133. Samuel and William Collins appeared on a 1778 list of males from 18 years and up. William Collins signed the loyalty oath. Charles County, Maryland, Court Records, Liber X, No. 3 (1774-1778): 630, 632, 644. Samuel Collins and Samuel Collins, Sr. listed in 2nd District. Neither Collins owned land. Samuel Collins, Sr. owned 1 "sickly" female slave 14-36. General Assembly House Of Delegates, Assessment of 1783, Second District, Charles County, SM 59-39: 2. Samuel Collins was the administration of George Collins in 1792. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1791-1796: 80, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Samuel Collins purchased a pot, pair of pot hooks, and a bedstead at a sale in 1795. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1791-1796: 507. Samuel Collins purchased an oval table, 1 case and 12 bottles, and an ox chain in 1799. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1797-1799: 542, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. A Samuel Collins posted for Elizabeth Proctor, executrix of Thomas Proctor in 1797, and served after Elizabeth's death as the administrator of Thomas Proctor's estate from 1803 to 1810. Charles County, Maryland, Orphans Court, 1797-1799: 185. Samuel Collins was listed as "Administrator De Bonis Non", indicating that Elizabeth Proctor had died before completing the administration of Thomas Proctor. Inventory of Thomas Proctor (1803), Charles County, Maryland, Inventories, 1802-1808: 74-75, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Distribution of Thomas Proctor's Estate (1810), Charles County, Maryland, Administrative Accounts, 1808-1812: 291-292, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

112. Prince George's County, Maryland, Court Records, Liber H (1715-1720): 809, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Maryland law required that a child of a union between a free white woman and slave man would be indentured for thirty one years. Thomas E. Davidson, "Free Blacks in Old Somerset County, 1745-1755," Maryland Historical Magazine 80 (Summer 1985): 153.

113. A George Collins (mulatto) sold property and indentured himself for eleven months to Gabriel Moran in 1804. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 6 (1804-1806): 37-40, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, Collins Family, online http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Caldwell-Evans.htm , printout dated 15 February 2001.

114. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 4.

115. Ms. Tayac twice gives an incorrect date of death for Louis Proctor. In her dissertation, she claims Louis [Woosah Tayac] died in 1913. In her 1988 article, Billy Tayac told about how when Louis "Woosa" Proctor died, "a ball of fire rolled down the stairs." In the PIN petition, Ms. Tayac repeats the fireball story for an individual (name redacted) who died in 1908. The redacted name is almost certainly Louis Proctor. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 203. Tayac, "'So Intermingled With This Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 7-8. Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995), April 1995, 49.

116. Louis Proctor died September 16, 1915. His birth date is unknown at present. Louis's age was listed as about 60 years on his death certificate and his race was listed as colored. The informant on the death certificate was Louis' sister-in-law, Josephine Collins Mason. The birthplaces of both Tom Jones and Pug Proctor were listed as Charles County. There were two numbers on his death certificate: 79 written and 15506 stamped. Louis Proctor, death certificate 79/15506 (1915), Maryland Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, microfilm roll SR 3040, Maryland Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

117. Giorgio states that "Turkey's father, who used the name Tayac (his mother was apparently the daughter of a tayac) because of the stigma attached to the Jones name." Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, iv.

118. Brown, "Ethnic Identity Movements and the Legal Process: The Piscataway Revival, 1974-2000,".

119. Petition of the Piscataway Indian Nation for State Recognition (1995), April 1995, 12.

120. Tayac, "'So Intermingled With This Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 7.

121. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998", 18 and 196.

122. Noble Proctor had at least two wives. His first wife, Mary, was probably the mother of his son Louis. Noble and his second wife, Elizabeth, had a son, Alexander, who was born in 1864. Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry May 15 (1864), 9, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions, Chapel Point, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, located at Province Archives, Georgetown University Special Collections, Washington, D. C., Box 27, folio 15, oversize box 4. N. A. Proctor household, 1870 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, 2nd District, Allen's Fresh post office, page 81, dwelling 355, family 364; National Archives micropublication M593, roll 584.

123. Philip described the treatment of oyster men in Charles County by Thomas A. Jones in the following quote. "They used to even whip 'em, with tar ropes. Shanghaied. My grandfather shanghaid 'em, too. Ol' Grandaddy Jones, he'd beat 'em. Didn't do what he wanted 'em to, he'd take a tar rope and tear 'em up." Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, iii, iv, 9, 37-38, quote on 9.

124. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 37-38.

125. The Washington Post, 21 December 1978, page 7, column 2.

126. Janet Cavallo and Jason Corwin, The Flickering Flame: The Life and Legacy of Chief Turkey Tayac, VHS videotape (Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Red Nations Productions-LISN, 1999).

127. Jones stated that he was born near Port Tobacco, Maryland, on October 2, 1820. Thomas A. Jones, J. Wilkes Booth: an Account of His Sojourn in Southern Maryland after the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his Passage across the Potomac, and His Death in Virginia(1893; reprint, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1990), 8. Thomas A. Jones' relationship to Elisha Jones and Mary Stuart/Stewart is based on a letter from Ann Mary Jones, daughter of Elisha and Mary, to her brother Jones in prison, and the identification of Mary Ann Jones as the daughter of Elia (Elisha) and Mary Stuart Jones of Charles County, Maryland when she entered the Home of The Little Sisters of the Poor in Baltimore. John M. Wearmouth and Roberta J. Wearmouth, Thomas A. Jones: Chief Agent of the Confederate Secret Service (Port Tobacco, Maryland: Stones Throw Publishing, 2000), 4, 21-22. Ann Maria Jones was also the sponsor of Thomas A. and Jane (Harbin) Jones' son, William Ernest, when he was baptised. Ledger of Baptismal Records, 1862-1871: unnumbered entry June 26 (1862), 2, St. Ignatius Catholic Church and Missions.

128. For relationship of Mary Stewart/Stuart Jones, wife of Elisha Jones, to Francis Ignatius Stewart, see Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IB, No. 24 (1839-1842): 491-493, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. For Francis Ignatius Stewart/Stuart's revolutionary war military service, see Henry C. Peden, Jr., (compiler), Revolutionary Patriots of Charles County, Maryland, 1775-1783 (Westminister, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1997), 283. For his census entries in Charles County, see Bureau of the Census,Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland (1907; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998), 53, listed as Ignatius Stuart. Francis Ignt. Stewart household, 1800 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 556, line 14; National Archives micropublication M32, roll 10. Francis I. Stewart household, 1810 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, page 88, line 4; National Archives micropublication M252, roll 15.

129. Jones, J. Wilkes Booth, 8 and 11.

130. Elisha Jones household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 189, line 5; National Archives micropublication M704, roll 163.

131. Elisha Jones household, 1840 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, page 189, line 5; National Archives micropublication M704, roll 163. Elisha Jones household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Hill Top district, page 231, dwelling 252, family 252; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Thomas A. Jones household, 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 274, dwelling 974, family 974; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 290. Thomas A. Jones household, 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Allen's Fresh District, Allen's Fresh post office, pages 640-641, dwelling 70, family 70; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 473. Thomas A. Jones household, 1870 U.S. census, City of Baltimore, Maryland, population schedule, 7th Ward, Baltimore post office, page 9, dwelling 114, family 135; National Archives micropublication, M593, roll 574. Thomas A. Jones and his family in Rebecca Roundtree household, 1880 U.S. census, City of Baltimore, Maryland, population schedule, part of 3rd precinct, 7th ward, enumeration district [ED] 64, supervisor's district [SD] 3, sheet 11, dwelling 105, family 105; National Archives micropublication, T9, roll 499.

132. Notice appeared on April 28, 1859. "Elisha Jones died at 'Rich Hill', his residence, 16 April, 72 years old." Roberta J. Wearmouth, compiler, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Two: 1855-1859 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1991), 105.

133. Wearmouth and Wearmouth, Thomas A. Jones, 4-5.

134. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume One: 1844-1854, 22, 26, 43, 52.

135. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume One: 1844-1854, 154.

136. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume One: 1844-1854, 24, 59-60, 64-65, 147. Roberta J. Wearmouth, compiler, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Two: 1855-1859(Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1991), 49-50.

137. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Two: 1855-1859, 82.

138. 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh district, page 1017; National Archives micropublication M432, roll 300. 1860 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, slave schedule, Allen's Fresh District, page 171; National Archives micropublication M653, roll 484.

139. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Two, 1855-1859, 126 and 128.

140. William A. Tidwell, Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1988), 66-67, 86, 90-91.

141. Wearmouth and Wearmouth, Thomas A. Jones, 11.

142. Jones, J. Wilkes Booth, 65-110. Osborn Oldroyd, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Flight, Pursuit, Capture, and Punishment of the Conspirators (1901; reprint, Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1990), 100-110, 260-281.

143. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Two: 1855-1869, 166. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Three: 1870-1875, 88-89.

144. Thomas A. Jones and his family in Rebecca Roundtree household. 1880 U.S. census, City of Baltimore, Maryland, population schedule, part of 3rd precinct, 7th ward, enumeration district [ED] 64, supervisor's district [SD] 3, sheet 11, dwelling 105, family 105.

145. George Alfred Townsend, "How Wilkes Booth Crossed the Potomac," The Century Magazine (April 1884): 822-832.

146. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Five: 1844-1898, 250.

147. Wearmouth, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Five: 1844-1898, 256.

148. Roberta J. Wearmouth, compiler, Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser, Volume Six: 1894-1898 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1999), 67.

149. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 5.

150. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 169, 175-177.

151. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 169.

152. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 175.

153. "Petitioners make allegations about the Tayac family lineage that are defamatory and, according to Chief Billy Redwing Tayac, completely spurious. Piscataway chiefs in his lineage include not only Chief Turkey Tayac, but also his grandfather Chief Woosah Tayac, his great-great grandfather Chief Red Jacket, and many others." Philip Nash, Letter Opposing PCCS/MIHS, 22 November 1995, Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Divison of Historical and Cultural Programs, Department of Housing and Community Development, Crownsville, MD, 21032: 11.

154. 1850 U.S. census, Charles County, Maryland, population schedule, Hill Top district, page 231, dwelling 252, family 252.

155. Merrell,"Cultural Continuity Among the Piscataway Indians in Colonial Maryland, 562.

156. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 9.

157. Jennie's name was listed as Jane in this transaction. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber JST, No. 3 (1889-1891): 400-405, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

158. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber JST, No. 8 (1895-1897): 145-146, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

159. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber CP, No. 30 (1916): 570-571, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

160. Charles County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber WMA, No. 48 (1927-1928): 526-529, Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

161. Interview with Philip Proctor aka Turkey Tayac, March 7, 1974 and March 14, 1974, 38-39.

162. Joe Tayac stated in the 1988 article that Secretary Stewart Udall "had coerced by [sic of my] father to relinquish claims" in exchange for the burial rights. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 243, 248. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 14.

163. Tayac, "'To Speak with One Voice:' Supra-Tribal American Indian Collective Identity Incorporation among the Piscataway, 1500-1998," 248.

164. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 178: 241. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 363: 411. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 781: 16. All libers located in Prince George's County Courthouse, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

165. The Washington Post, 12 November 1979, page C9.

166. Alice Ferguson Foundation - A Historical Account, online http://www.fergusonfoundation.org/history.html , printout dated 22 February 2001. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 1808: 101. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 2076: 496. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 2221: 572. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 2316: 79. All libers located in Prince George's County Courthouse, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

167. Alice Ferguson Foundation - Foundation Facts, online http://www.fergusonfoundation.org/facts.html , printout dated 22 February 2001.

168. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 2687: 1-5, Prince George's County Courthouse, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

169. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 3564: 266-268, Prince George's County Courthouse, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

170. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 3564: 266-272.

171. Prince George's County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber 3564: 271.

172. Piscataway Indian Nation, Petition for State Recognition (1995). Maryland House of Delegates, House Bill No. 1283 (1977), Article 41, B 1.

173. "Indian Tribal Claims Raises Questions of Identity, Intentions; Piscataway Groups Seeking Recognition,"The Baltimore Sun, 2 April 1999.

174. Tracey A. Reeves, "Minority Status a Source of Pride, Irritation for Indians," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 28 July 1988, page MD 14, column 2.

175. Piscataway Indian Nation, Internal Revenue Service Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990), 1998, Part I, Net Assets, line 21.

176. Gabrielle Tayac, "Stolen Spirits: An Illustrative Case of Indigenous Survival Through Religious Freedom," in American Indian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, Dane Morrison, editor (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1997), 217-231. Linda Joy, "Piscataways Object to Rules on Access to Burial Grounds," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 27 April 1983, page MD 2. Henry Scarupa, "Indians Struggle for Rights to Land," The Sun Magazine, The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, 15 November 1981, pp. 22-23.

177. The following talks are two examples. Billy Tayac gave a talk at St. Mary's College of Maryland on 5 November 2000. The description of his talk was: "The Native American Chief of the Piscataway nation, Billy Tayac, speaks on continuing Native American struggle to regain traditional values, culture, and spirituality in an atmosphere of cultural, physical,and spiritual genocide." Environmental Studies - More Reasons, St. Mary's College of Maryland, online. http://www.smcm.edu/Academics/Inter/envstud/other\_opps.htm , printout dated 2 November 2000. Gabrielle Tayac spoke at the 35th Annual Spring Symposium on Archeology on 15 April 2000. "Who's Talking and Who's Listening: Interpreting Maryland's Past from Native American and Archeological Viewpoints," DHCD News Releases, March 2000 News Releases, http://www.dhcd.state.md.us/news/mar2000/3\_30\_00.htm , printout dated 22 February 2001.

178. Neil Henry, "Indians' 'Day of Mourning'," The Washington Post, Washington, District of Columbia, 25 November 1982, page A21.

179. Tayac, "'So Intermingled with this Earth': A Piscataway Oral History," 16.

180. Laura Browder, "'What Does It Tell Us That We Are So Easily Deceived?' Impostor Indians," American Indian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, Dane Morrison, editor (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1997), 314 and 331.

181. Matt Kelly, "Indian Museum Breaks Ground in D.C.," Associated Press, online http://www.webarchives.net/september\_1999/indian\_museum\_breaks\_ground\_in\_d.htm , printout dated 22 February 2001.