Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) barrier island off the eastern Delmarva Peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean. Mariners have known the Virginia coast for a long time to be dangerous, and they called the many sands pit splinters “The Graveyard.” The dangers of the shallow water are made worse by the angry, uncertain mixing of two strong Atlantic Ocean currents.
This is where the cold Gulf Stream coming from Labrador and the warm Gulf Stream coming from the north meet. This is where the rage that has killed or damaged thousands of ships comes together. Assateague Island National Seashore is a beautiful low-lying sands pit island that faces the Atlantic Ocean. It is on the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. This beautiful place is said to be the Eastern Gate symbolic entranceway for the Woodland Indians. It is best known for its wild horses, which are called Chincoteague ponies.
Similar to Point Conception in California, Assateague Island is an ultra-sacred portal for Native American souls entering and exiting the Earth plane. The name Assateague is derived from a Native American term meaning “a running stream between” or “swiftly moving water.” Prehistoric tools have been unearthed on the island, demonstrating that the Indians raised vegetables and hunted the plentiful wildlife on the island long before the first white settlers arrived in 1688.
There is no evidence, however, that Native Americans lived permanently on this narrow sacred island. At the time of first contact, British colonists observed very peculiar burial practices among the Native Americans living near Assateague Island. The American Indian groups of Assateague, Choptank, and Nanticoke had a lot of respect for the bones of their recently dead relatives. The bones were put in a special Chiacason House made of logs and shelves that were built just for them. Before being put in the holy building, the bones were scraped clean of all skin.
The dead person’s jewelry, pipes, beads, and other valuable things were put in boxes with their bones. After some time, the bones were brought back together and reburied in a fixed tomb where they would not be moved again. After the funeral, the person’s things were given to their friends and family in a somber ritual.
Early records showed that when the Indians were being removed from Maryland in 1759-60, they made a substantial effort to take the unburied bones with them, much to the consternation of the Puritan colonists. Assateague Island is a revered Native American location where lately deceased and newborn souls would depart and enter the cosmos. Further south at Roanoke Island, along the Outer Banks Island chain, the first British colony of settlers mysteriously disappeared and became known as the Lost Colony.
At Roanoke Island in North Carolina in the late 16th century, the British launched their first attempt to found a colony in North America. A colonization company was commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585, first consisting of troops to construct a fort. Later, in 1587, a permanent group of 116 men, women, and children was added. Everything appeared to be going well for the colony until a conflict between England and Spain caused a three-year delay in supplies and protection.
When relief finally came in 1590, the Roanoke colony was completely abandoned. Clues indicated that the English were starving and the “Lost Colony” had moved inland, perhaps to trade with the natives. It was not until the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement 20 years later that an effort was made to locate the Roanoke settlers. Because the investigation came decades later, no conclusive answer was established by academics and the Lost Colony was relegated to either being massacred entirely or loosely assimilated into various native groupings.
The Lumbee or Croatan tribe of North Carolina cannot completely understand why historians persist in calling the Roanoke colony the “Lost Colony” since they left information telling the British where they were going. The colonists had carved the word “Croatoan” onto a wooden post, indicating that they were going inland to live with the friendly Cheraw Indians.
When the descendants of the Croatan Cheraw were found some 50 years later speaking English, practicing Christianity, and using about 75 of the last names that the colonists had brought with them, it was accepted that these were the descendants of the Roanoke colony. These descendants, who call themselves the Lumbee after the Lumber River running through their traditional land, were a mixed race with so many Caucasian features that they were spared the forced relocation to Oklahoma with the Cherokee and other tribes in the 1820s and 1830s.
The Lumbee anthropological model is an excellent example of cultural diffusion in North America when a numerically dominant tribe adopts a racially distinct group and, over the years, merges into a single identifiable culture.
Getting to Assateague Island: The entire 37-mile, (60-kilometer) barrier island spanning two states is part of the Assateague Island National Seashore, and the Virginia side contains the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Assateague Island is a barrier beach built with sand that insistent waves have risen from the Atlantic Ocean’s gently sloping floor.
Almost the entire island is undeveloped wilderness, perfect for waterfowl and the two herds of wild “ponies,” but difficult for travel. There are two bridges accessing the island: Route 611 on the Maryland side and Route 175 on the Virginia side but no single road connects the two coastal access areas. Instead, visitors can enjoy over 10 miles (17 kilometers) of uninterrupted shell-strewn public beaches.
Virginia: If you want to know a little about its past, A group of British residents came to the coast of Virginia on April 20, 1607, to make a home on the continent. The colony was called Jamestown, and it got off to a rough start. But after 20 years of the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke, North Carolina, settlement, Jamestown became the first English community to live. The Jamestown colony looked like it would fail like the ones that came before it, but everything changed when a young man named John Rolfe bred tobacco plants that made them mild and easy to smoke.
Because tobacco was so important in Europe, the first tobacco baron fields were built in the South along the James River. The first one was the Shirley Plantation, which is still in business. People who moved to Virginia early on had a hard time, but they quickly learned that cash crops like cotton, rice, indigo, and sugar could help the South grow very quickly. As early as 1619, the first African slaves came to Virginia.
They began a change that would last for many years. The island has several marshes, bays, and coves, notably Toms Cove. Cars may cross the island from Maryland and Virginia, but no road runs north/south.
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