Total population | |
---|---|
Extinct as a tribe | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Maryland | |
Languages | |
Eastern Algonquian | |
Religion | |
Native American religion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Nanticoke |
The Ozinie, also known as the Wicomiss, [1] were a group of Native Americans living near modern-day Rock Hall, in Kent County, Maryland. [2] They were hunter-gatherers and fished. [1]
They lived in a village near Chester River that flowed in the Chesapeake Bay. [1] They used Eastern Neck Island for shellfishing. [1]
They had an estimated population of 255 people. [2]
The Ozinie spoke an Algonquian language and were related to the Nanticoke, [3] another Algonquian-speaking tribe,
Captain John Smith encountered the Ozinie in 1608. [3] By 1631, William Claiborne, a British colonist in Virginia, maintained a lucrative fur trade with the local tribes. The Ozinies and the Nanticokes fought against the English colonists who encroached upon their lands. [4] By the mid-17th century, the Ozinie, Matapeakes, and Mononposons disappeared from the historical record. [1] The Ozinie assimilated with the neighboring Nanticokes by the 1660s. [3] [2]