Dear Stakeholder and Interested Participants,

Greetings! Below you’ll find details about the upcoming DIPP gathering on June 3rd. We hope you’ll be able to join us that morning to help select activities to pursue in the focus areas in order to address flooding, erosion, and other risks impacting the communities and local environment. Let us know if you can make it! In addition, below you’ll also find a link to Moriah James’s excellent paper exploring the African American and Native American histories of the Deal Island Peninsula area and broader region. This paper was written in an effort to help document these important heritages for the community. Be sure to check it out. Finally, if you find yourself at the Ward Museum tomorrow for the Delmarvalous Festival, be sure to stop by the DIPP table to say hello!

Sincerely,

The DIPP Team

The website, developed by UMD Masters student Sarah Hartge, includes a map of cemetery plots that links to photos and biographies of individuals buried in the cemetery. It was created to provide a living memorial and heritage tool for the Deal Island community. Sarah gave a presentation about mapping cemeteries, developing an online genealogy repository, and provided a tutorial of the website. At the event, we also collected additional photos and information on individuals buried in Rock Creek Cemetery that has been added to the website. If you would like to add additional histories, stories, photos, or other information about family or friends buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, please contact rockcreekunitedmethodistchurch@gmail.com.

Notes from the Marsh: CBNERR-MD

On May 2nd CBNERR staff checked out two barn owl boxes that we suspected had hatchling owls large enough to band. We were able to catch the female (mother) owls in the both boxes and discovered they were banded in previous years. One in 2015 and the other in 2016. We banded a total of 13 young owls between the two boxes. We will check out the remaining boxes over the next few months and if the first two boxes are any indication, we will be busy!  Stay tuned for more information and some cute owl photos in the near future.

Events of Interest

This research paper was written for the Deal Island Peninula Project by Moriah James, a UMD Anthropology student interested in cultural heritage. To read the full paper, click here.

The various histories of Native Americans, African Americans and white Americans living on the Eastern Shore have produced a vibrant yet complex narrative over the past few centuries. Citizens of the Deal Island Peninsula and greater Somerset County have contributed to this history in a number of ways. Though there were several Native populations who inhabited the East coast, the Nanticoke people were among some of the groups that lived near the Deal Island Peninsula. Drawing from the abundance of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nanticokes were some of the first to persist through colonization. Since economic pursuits heavily relied on the Chesapeake Bay, the historical ebb and flow of the crabbing and oystering industries continue to play a significant role in the area’s heritage. With a special focus on African American heritage, this paper also explores the ways in which enslaved blacks and freedmen contributed to the economy on local, regional, and international levels. The precarious topic of race relations comes into play with the exploration of how the color of one’s skin impacted opportunities on land and at sea. This paper will also recount investigations of two infamous murder cases that took place in Kent and Somerset Counties. Finally, popular African American sites that were used in the past such as the Dames Quarter Rosenwald School, Henry’s Beach, and the John Wesley M.E. Church sit deserted but certainly not forgotten and remain highly valued for their representations of the Deal Island Peninsula’s past and living histories of its citizens in the present.

In the News

"Partnership Working to Save Wetlands" (Delmarva Now, 4/21/17): One potential strategy for addressing the deleterious impacts of rising sea levels on wetland is a technique called thin layering. Read more about thin layering and how it is currently being used in Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, a strategy that could be useful for enhancing the resilience of the Deal Island Peninsula area.

"Sea Grant Which Sustains More than 20000 Marine Jobs May Be Cut" (Bay Journal 5/4/2017): Projects like the Deal Island Peninsula Project rely heavily on grants from Sea Grant to support environmental and community vitalization efforts. Without the current Sea Grant funding, for example, DIPP would not be able to carry out ongoing efforts to address flooding and erosion risks to the Deal Island Island Peninsula area. Learn how Sea Grant and projects like DIPP may be affected under pending budget cuts.