Honoring Maryland’s Original Residents

Marietta House Museum To Unveil New Indigenous Peoples Garden

LEAD PHOTO (above): The Piscataway Princess Program photo appears courtesy of The Piscataway Tribe http://www.piscatawaytribe.org/

Some say that planting seeds may sow the beginnings of a better future – or at least show respect to the past. In this case, seeds have been planted to honor those who lived here long ago.

Marietta House Museum, operated by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, will host a small meet-and-greet event observing Indigenous Peoples Day Oct. 11. The event will be held between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Marietta will mark the holiday by unveiling a new “Indigenous Peoples Garden,” planted in summer 2021. The garden honors the history and continued traditions of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, native to present-day Prince George’s County. Artifacts found by archeologists in the area surrounding Marietta House Museum attest to their presence here prior to European colonization and development.

The local landscaping company Artistic Landscaping, Inc. helped plant a variety of local indigenous plants. The garden features a plaque bearing Marietta House Museum’s land acknowledgment statement, which reads as follows:

“Marietta House Museum acknowledges the history and continued traditions of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, who hunted, farmed, and lived on this land long before Marietta House was built. As we consider the history of this place, take a moment to remember the many people who were forced to leave their traditional homelands.”

The unveiling ceremony will be hosted by Dr. Julia Rose, the Marietta House Museum site director, and brief remarks will be given by the M-NCPPC, Department Parks and Recreation Director Bill Tyler, and the Assistant Division Chief of the Natural and Historical Resources Omar Eaton-Martinez. A representative of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Mr. Rico Newman, will join the event to officially unveil the garden.

Perhaps what grows in this garden will help yield a brighter future.

About the Museum

Marietta House Museum is a designated historic site operated by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC). Built in 1816 for Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Duvall, the two-story brick manor house was the central feature of a 700-acre tobacco plantation. Duvall and his descendants enslaved approximately 100-200 men, women, and children throughout the nineteenth century. Today, the house is operated as a museum and education center focusing on themes of law, freedom, and civil rights in the United States.