The Jamison family

The historical record reveals significant kinship ties between the Conestoga-Susquehannock and Nanticoke peoples of the Eastern United States, particularly in the early 20th century. William Russell Clark, chief of the Nanticoke in Sussex County, Delaware, claimed partial Conestoga Indian descent in 1915 newspaper accounts. Oral traditions further assert Clark's lineage from the 26 Susquehannock families who integrated with the Lenape, with whom the Nanticoke maintained close relations. Clark's leadership around 1900 is credited with the establishment of the Nanticoke Indian Association, which would formalize the modern Nanticoke community in Sussex County, Delaware, one of the few Nanticoke communities with a long-running historically documented community.

The Jamison family played a crucial role in reinforcing these kinship bonds between the Nanticoke and our people. Enumerated as "Indian" in the 1920 York County census, the Jamisons were identified as Indigenous by the federal government, and in 1921, when anthropologists asked the Nanticoke about our people, they suggested an expedition to Port Deposit, Maryland to search for us. This led to the discovery of remaining Conestoga-Susquehannock individuals in Port Deposit, Maryland, and re-established ties between the Nanticoke and the Conestoga-Susquehannock. Just 3 years later, in 1924, Winona Jamison's marriage to Oscar Wright, a relative of Chief William Russell Clark, solidified the alliance between these communities, validating the Nanticoke's 1921 knowledge of where they might find Conestoga-Susquehannock people.

The Jamison-Wright’s appearance in the 1930 census presents a stark example of the systemic erasure of Indigenous identity that was widespread at this point in history. Their family's designation as "Indian" was clearly crossed out and replaced with "negro," a deliberate attempt to deny their Indigenous heritage and, consequently, their land rights. This alteration, which can be viewed in the gallery for the “census records” section of this course, highlights the discriminatory practices faced by Indigenous communities. However, the 1950 census reinstated the family's "Indian" designation. By 1950, Winona’s brother William Jamison was living with them, and his occupation was recorded as a basket maker, corroborating oral histories of the family's itinerant trade in woven goods between Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.