The “Last” Nanticoke of Delaware

Research note. This article brings together historical records, community memory, and family tradition. Living relatives are not named. Interpretive claims are presented as claims to be weighed against primary sources, not as settled fact where documentary support is incomplete.

To many, history is just a collection of dates and names on a page, but for me, it is a personal inheritance. Lydia E. Clark (born Lydia Norwood, 1768–1856) is not just a historical figure in a Delaware textbook; she is my 5th great-grandmother.

Tracing my lineage through the generations reveals a direct path to this woman known to her tribe as Nau-Gau-Okwa, also known as Lydia Norwood:

• Lydia E. Norwood (1768–1856)
• Mary Caroline Clark (1829–1896), her daughter
• Mary Elizabeth Frame (1873–1916), my 3rd great-grandmother
• Martha Jackson (1888–1979), my great-great-grandmother
• Phoebe Thompson (1920–1981), my great-grandmother
• Two subsequent living generations (names withheld)
• Present-day descendant (name withheld)

Understanding Lydia’s life offers profound context into the “invisible” history of Native Americans in the Mid-Atlantic.

Context: The Age of Invisibility and Paper Genocide

Lydia lived during an era where the dominant society was determined to believe that Native Americans had effectively disappeared from the coastal regions. This phenomenon, often called “paper genocide,” was an administrative erasure.

For people of Nanticoke and Lenape descent, the simple acts of accepting baptism or becoming successful, tax-paying farmers meant they “ceased to be Indian” in the eyes of the law. Once a person adopted these European-style trappings, they were frequently reclassified as “mulatto” or “free person of color”. This legal shift stripped tribal members of their inherent identity to simplify racial categories for a white-dominated society.

Lydia herself was caught in this trap; while she was a “perfect Indian type” who spoke the Nanticoke language, census records from 1840 and 1850 labeled her as “free colored” or “mulatto”.

The Evasive Label of the “Moors”

To navigate this dangerous racial landscape and avoid discriminatory laws or the threat of being “shipped west,” many in the community, including Lydia’s relatives, adopted the term “Moors”. This evasive nomenclature served as a survival strategy, providing a separate identity that was neither “white” nor “black,” but allowed the community to remain on their ancestral lands.

A Legacy of Leadership and Resilience

Lydia came from a family of leaders. Her brother, Noble “Noke” Norwood, was a tall, “dark copper-colored” man described as a leader in the Indian community during the early 19th century.

The resilience of our family continued through Lydia’s grandson (my relative through Chief Wyniaco’s line), William Russell Clark. He became the first Chief of the formally incorporated Nanticoke Indian Association in 1922. Chief Wyniaco later contended that Lydia’s 1855 testimony, which suggested African rather than Indian roots, may have been coerced by the white landowner on whom she was dependent in her old age. He maintained that she later regretted those statements. This interpretation should be weighed against the surviving contemporary record and other primary sources.

Why This Story Matters Today

Some published accounts treated the Nanticoke language as lost after Lydia’s death in 1856. By 2007, community members had begun a revival effort using surviving word lists, including lists associated with Thomas Jefferson.

Lydia’s story is a reminder that we are still here. The monuments erected by non-Natives claiming she was the “last” of the aborigines were wrong. She was not a closing chapter, but a bridge. As her descendant, I carry her history not as a “thing of the past,” but as a living reality. Knowing her story means refusing to let the “paper genocide” of the 19th century define who we are in the 21st.

For source evaluation and research methods, visit the Sources & Research Library. An external biographical reference is available in the Lydia Clark entry.