Chief Donna Abbott is leading the charge and preserving Indian culture on the Eastern Shore

DORCHESTER COUNTY, Md. – Chief Donna Abbott is the first female chief in Maryland. She heads the ‘Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians,’ representing the people of Nanticoke and Choptank reservations.

Abbott is fighting for the protection and preservation of the tribe’s ancestral lands. At first, she didn’t want to take the role of chief, but realized she had the opportunity to lead forth change.
“I didn’t want the work that Chief Winterhawk, my uncle LU Abbott, and Gilbert Robbins put into organizing this organization to go to waste. It had been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears put into it.”

According to the official Nause-Waiwash website, there are around 300 descendants of the original Nanticoke and Choptank Indians. Chief Abbott plans to educate community members about their Indian heritage.

“There are probably 2 or 3 generations that were taught it was disgraceful to acknowledge your Native American history, and who you were, so they didn’t teach it to their children.”

Due to this, she believes local Indigenous history should be part of Maryland’s public school curriculum. “Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, and Dorchester, we all got together with those government agencies, and they have developed this. I want to call it a prototype because there is no other program like this, and we hope other places will adopt this program.”

Chief Abbott and ‘Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians’ will continue to preserve Indian culture, whether with local tribes or state officials. “We all have the same goal; we’re all trying to preserve what brief history we have left, and if we’re all after the same thing, then why not build that relationship and work together to do it.”

For more information on the tribe, click here.