![[Nanticoke Indian Tribe, Delaware flag]](../images/x/xa-nanit.gif)
image located by Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2019
Last modified: 2020-06-03 by rick wyatt
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image located by Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2019
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Here is the story about Nanticoke flag:
Green over blue represents the
Nanticoke Indian Association members family owned land, located on the north
shore of the Indian River.
The Nanticoke School represents our
preliminary driving force to become legally incorporated as Nanticokes, as far
as the Delaware Assembly would allow in the 1800's. In that time period,
Delaware had a bi-racially segregated school system. Children either went to a
school provided for White students or one provided for African American
students. To avoid being classified as either White or African American, or just
left out altogether, the Incorporated Body was legally recognized by the
Delaware Assembly on March 10, 1881. We finally won the legal rights to build
our very own Nanticoke school on Nanticoke land.
The corm mortar/pestle
and eel pot represent the two most predominant ways of earning money for
Nanticoke families at that time. Farming and fishing, two of our most
traditional ways of life, enabled our ancestors to buy back the land that is
still family owned today.
The center section of an American flag
represents our American Patriotism. Our people have loved this land before there
was a United States of America. Nanticokes have always felt a strong loyalty to,
and duty to protect, the earth that we came from. These are some of the
principles that gave birth to our larger American nation. Despite our
differences and struggles in history, we are now also a part of this American
Nation. Nanticoke veterans have served this country in battle, under an American
Flag, on native and foreign soil throughout history.
Some gave their
lives while other returned home to enjoy this land in the same way that
Non-Nanticoke American veterans did. The willingness to serve, and/or go to war
for your country had been the most revered tradition among Nanticokes and Native
Americans in general. This tradition will continue, and the American flag
displayed inside Nanticoke flag will remind us of it.
There are
thirty-two white shell wampum beads that border the American flag portion.
Thirty-one beads represent the original thirty-one Incorporated Body Members.
The one remaining bead represents the Nanticoke Community members that were not
listed as Incorporated Body Members on that date.
"Nanticoke Nation":
The work nation can be defined as (1) a community if people collected of one or
more nationalities and possessing a coming territory, government, history
culture, and language; or (2) a tribe or federation of tribes (as in American
Indians.) As history teaches us, Native American people have been pressured to
move around to make way for new settlers of the land. The Nanticoke people of
today are descended from a large nucleus of Nanticokes, possibly joined by
surrounding smaller related, and now defunct bands that were pressured to merge
with the main body in order to survive. The result is our Nanticoke Nation of
today.
"Of Indian River Hundred DE": Our Nanticoke community is mainly
comprised of Indian River Hundred
"Halac'quow Ewapaw'gup Allappah'wee":
These are the Nanticoke words for "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow." These words
symbolically mean we were here in the past, we are here now, and we will be here
in the future. The words take from a Nanticoke/Choptank language vocabulary list
documented by Dr. William vans Murray of Cambridge, Maryland in 1792. A
Nanticoke/Choptank known as Mrs. Mulberry translated these words among many
more.
"1881": This is the year that the Incorporated Body was legally
recognized rebuilding a new foundation for a more organized and self governing
community of Nanticoke people.
The Nanticoke Flag was designed by
Matthew Harmon.
Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2019
