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Discover the story of Mary Kittamaquund and the lesser-known history of the lands that ultimately became the home of the Peter Family.
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day in October and American Indian Heritage Month in November, we are pleased to have Dr. Gabrielle Tayac, Ph.D. present on the lesser-known history of the lands that ultimately became the home of the Peter Family. You probably know about Martha Washington, but have you ever heard of Mary Kittamaquund? She was the daughter of the 17th century Piscataway Tayac (high chief) and child bride of Giles Brent. Mary legally owned lands eventually incorporated into George Washington’s properties. We will enter her tribal and colonial worlds to understand how Tudor Place has a longer history than you knew.
Dr. Gabrielle Tayac (Piscataway) is a community-engaged public historian and museum curator. She grounds her work in both living Indigenous knowledge systems and historical methods. She served as an inaugural curator, historian and educator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, helping to transform museum practices to mutually energize Native reunification with cultural sources for research, community development and common understanding. At George Mason University, Dr. Tayac oversees the CoCreative History Space to train new generations of public historians in their pursuits to understand and interpret histories, near and far, ancient and modern. She has served on numerous advisory boards, councils and committees, including America250, Dumbarton Oaks’ Mellon Initiative on Democracy and Landscape, Historic St. Mary’s Commission, the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Survival International and Amnesty International. She is rooted in the tidewater lands, caring for places especially along Nanjemoy Creek, with family, striving always to be a good relative and ancestor.
