NANTICOKE GRAVE OF A NATION

THE GRAVE OF A NATION

NANTICOKE INDIANS

In 1717 a large tract of land in Sussex County was set aside as a Nanticoke Indian Reservation. It started from the main highway between Laurel and Seaford, went westward three

miles and extended from the Laurel River toward Seaford where it joined another five hundred acres across the river to the site where Laurel now stands. We now call this Broad Creek Hundred.

By the year 1748, the Indians felt they had been crowded so persistently by the white man

that at a Grand Council of The Nanticoke they planned a general exodus. For many weeks the Indians were busy gathering their buried dead and brought then to the very southwest corner of the

reservation for final burial of the remains of the common people. The bones of chiefs were selected separately and were carried north with the caravan.

This southwest corner became a large sand hill, a monument to a vanquished race.

Indian Hill is the mound of this common grave of a nation. Many of the Indians now up north

evidently were not satisfied to leave their ancestors in the dust of Delaware and for years Nanticoke braves could be seen on trips down the peninsula to dig up bones to carry back to new homes.

Many bones remaining in the mound for years have been dug up by the farmers and artifact collectors, were found neatly laid in order surrounded by arrow heads, stone implements and

ornaments.

This grave mound and its bones gave proof to stories of the Nanticoke that they were a race of

giants and supermen as all of the uncovered skeletons were above average size, very few less than six

feet and one which was well over seven feet.

Source: Wilmington News Journal, Wednesday October 1, 1930, Historic Spots of Delaware,

by Sewell P. Moore. Abstract; Sunday, September 3, 2017 by Harrison H.