FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — Editor's Note: The video above was published on Nov. 11, 2021
A decades-long effort to change the name of Indian Head Highway in Maryland appears to be gaining momentum as a bill moves its way through the Maryland General Assembly.
Legislators say a petition that is gaining steam is helping them push the issue forward.
"We are elated with the movement of this bill, but saddened that we have had to do so much to change a name on our own ancestral lands," said Jesse James Swann, Chief of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe.
The tribe was recognized by the State of Maryland in 2013.
The Piscataway people were encountered by English Captian John Smith during his first exploration of the Chesapeake Bay nearly 420 years ago, according to historians.
The Piscataway people were living in a large settlement on the Potomac River at the mouth of Piscataway Creek, according to the National Park Service.
National Park Service (NPS) maintains a historical park and farm at the site in Prince George's County.
The tribe was scattered by disease and conflict with colonists and other tribes, according to scholars. But many descendants remain in Southern Maryland, according to the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs.
Descendants of the Piscataway people say the name Indian Head Highway is derogatory toward all native people and should be changed to Piscataway Highway.
Southern Maryland Legislator Jay Walker testified during a virtual hearing on a bill on March 11.
“The term Indian Head was used a time when it was legal to kill native Americans, take their body parts and sell them,” Walker said.
The bill received approval from the House Environment and Transportation Committee and is now in Maryland's Senate for consideration.
The history of the name is not settled. Descendants claim it comes from a colonial time when the heads of executed natives were displayed along roads to intimidate others.
However, the official history of the town of Indian Head, which lies at the end of the highway, says the name is short for the geographic headlands along the Potomac there where Native Americans camped.
The bill only addresses the name of the highway, not the town.
However, the Piscataway Conoy Tribe is also advocating for the town and the nearby naval base to discard the name Indian Head as well.