Land Acknowledgment
Land Acknowledgment Statement
Dames a la Mode is based in Washington DC on land that was the traditional homeland of the Nacotchtank people. While they were an independent tribe, they were allied and associated with the larger Piscataway Chiefdom of what is now Southern Maryland.
The Nacotchtank village was located at the intersection of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and their name was later latinized as Anacostine, which is sometimes what this group is referred to today. As colonizers encroached on this land to expand tobacco production, the Nacotchtank people were forced out of their village. The colonizers brought disease and killed members of the tribe who were trying to defend their land, decimating the already small group. Eventually the population that was left was absorbed into the larger Piscataway tribe. Unfortunately this tribe is extinct as a separate group today.
As an acknowledgment of the harm done to the indigenous people who inhabited this land before me, annual reparations of $500 will be given to the Piscataway people in support of their LandBack Project. You can learn more about it here: https://www.piscatawayindians.com/projects
To learn more about the Nacotchtank people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacotchtank
To learn more about the Piscataway people
https://www.piscatawayindians.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piscataway_people
To find who inhabited the land you live on, use this map: