We-Sorts

Wesorts is a name for people of "mixed-race" origins who currently claim descent from the Piscataway Native American population in Charles County, Maryland. Many people, particularly with the surnames Proctor, Newman, Savoy, Queen, Butler, Thompson, Swann, Gray and Harley, claim that heritage. Their appearance suggests a mixture of European, Native American and African-American ancestry.

A local joke by some members of the present day Piscataway nation is that the proper name of the tribe is "Wesorts" - as in "we sorts of Mulattos, we sorts of Indian." Wayne Karlin's novel The Wished For Country fictionalizes the origins of the We-Sorts.

External links

• The Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians
• Piscataway Indian Nation
• Piscataway Indians - Catholic Encyclopedia
• Ethnic Identity Movements and the Legal Process: The Piscataway Revival
• Leah C. Sims (2005). Unraveling a Deceptive Oral History: The Indian Ancestry Claims of Philip S. Proctor and His Descendants