As team members of Research Partners LLC, we are committed to effectual and inclusive research that honors the stories, histories, and lands of all participants and communities we connect with. We recognize that we are living and working on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank, or Anacostan indigenous peoples that lived in what we know today as Washington, D.C. and on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway, Pamunkey, Nentego (Nanichoke), Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Monacan, and Powhatan that are now called Maryland and Virginia. As a result of European colonialism, indigenous peoples were subject to forced removal, widespread disease, and other forms of genocide that led to mass loss of life and destruction of indigenous cultures. Consequently, we have lost valuable people, rituals, traditions, customs, and communities that represent the foundations of our history.

More than 80,000 people who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native live in Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia today, according to the Census Bureau. For example, the Piscataway Conoy people continue to live in communities in Southern Maryland, including LaPlata, Bel Alton, Pomfret, Indian Head, Accokeek, Oxon Hill, Cedarville, Clinton, Brandywine, Rosaryville, Upper Marlboro, Mitchellville, Glen Arden, Fort Tobacco, Camp Springs, Temple HIlls, Fort Washington, Davidsonville, and Croom. From 1976 to 2012, Piscataway elders lobbied the Maryland government for state recognition of the Piscataway Conoy tribe. Piscataway Conoy leaders were successful in advocating for the establishment of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs and in 2012, achieved state recognition from the State of Maryland for the Piscataway Conoy Tribe and the Piscataway Indian Nation. Moyaone, the Piscataway people’s principal village and a burial ground located in what is now Piscataway Park, continues to serve as a pilgrimage site.