Delaware names the Nanticoke "a certain class of colored persons," then "the offspring of the Nanticoke Indians" (Dover, 1875 / Mar. 10, 1881 / Mar. 23, 1903)

SUMMARYDelaware names the Nanticoke "a certain class of colored persons," then "the offspring of the Nanticoke Indians" (Dover, 1875 / Mar. 10, 1881 / Mar. 23, 1903) [Connections: Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDIn 1875 Delaware passed "An Act to tax colored persons for the support of their own schools." Nanticoke families paid the tax for schools their children did not attend. The Act of March 10, 1881 exempted named residents of Indian River Hundred and incorporated them as "The Indian River School Districts for a certain class of colored persons." It does not use the word "Indian" for them. The Act of March 23, 1903 (ch. 470) was titled "An Act to better establish the identity of a race of people known as the offspring of the Nanticoke Indians" and allowed certificates of descent. In 2016 Delaware formally designated the Nanticoke Indian Tribe its first state-recognized tribe, effective March 10, 1881, the same act that had called them "colored."

PATTERNOver 22 years the same people went from "colored persons" to "Nanticoke Indians" in Delaware law

LENS (WW9)The state's own statute book shows the renaming running in reverse

OPENGet the official session-law images for 1875 (vol. 15, ch. 48), 1881 and 1903 from Delaware Public Archives

SOURCENative Americans of Delaware State, "Legislative Acts" (transcriptions); Wikipedia, Nanticoke Indian Association; Delaware General Assembly, Session Laws ch. 346, 148th G.A. (approved Aug. 2, 2016).