Description: Mixing chronological narrative with a full ecological portrait, anthropologists Helen C. Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson have reconstructed the culture and history of Virginia's and Maryland's Eastern Shore Indians from A.D. 800 until the last tribes disbanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

In Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, the reader learns not only the characteristics and traditions of each tribe but also the plants and animals that were native to each ecozone and were essential components of the Indians' habitat and diet. Rountree and Davidson convincingly demonstrate how these geographical and ecological differences translated into cultural differences among the tribes and shaped their everyday lives.

Ecology also influenced the process by which tribes interacted with white settlers. The authors show that Maryland's active fur trade delayed English settlement in the region's richly forested interior, allowing the native people to remain "traditional" longer. When settlements pressed in on them, they moved away. The English takeover in Virginia was early and swift but aimed at making the Indians citizens, not forcing them out. The Accomacs, already primarily farmers and fishermen, adopted some English ways and thus were able to survive longer on their reservation land.

Making use of exceptional primary documents, including county records dating as far back as 1632, Rountree and Davidson have produced a thorough and fascinating glimpse of the lives of Eastern Shore Indians that will enlighten general readers and scholars alike.

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