About

The city of Nanticoke derived its name from the Nentego Indians. The whites corrupted the name Nentego to Nantico and finally Nanticoke. The name means Tidewater people or seashore settler. In 1608 Captain John Smith recorded seeing the Nentego tribe along the Chesapeake Bay near the Nanticoke River, Maryland. A nomadic tribe, these Indians asked permission of their Iroquois Council in Onandago (Syracuse), New York to move into Penna. and settle along the Susquehanna. The Iroquois granted their request and the Nentegos moved from Maryland and Delaware to the mouth of the Juniata River. When their villages along the river were overrun again by white traders and settlers, they were forced to leave. 

Nanticoke residents have found spear points, arrowheads, hammerstones, and other artifacts providing evidence of more than 8,000 years of Indian inhabitation. Thus the Nentegos were the last in a long line of Indian tribes to settle the area. We know little about earlier tribes, as no white men were present to record their history and the only information has been compiled from findings through archeological research. The spring floods and the plowing of the flats have provided some interesting findings concerning early Indian existence.