Guide to Indigenous Baltimore

The place now known as Baltimore, like the rest of what is now known as the United States of America, has always been home to Native peoples. Baltimore is part of the ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock, and a diverse host of American Indian folks from other nations have passed through or lived here at different times — and still do!

In the mid-twentieth century, thousands of Lumbee Indians and members of other tribal nations migrated to Baltimore City, seeking jobs and a better quality of life. They settled on the east side of town, in an area that bridges the neighborhoods of Upper Fells Point and Washington Hill. Here, they created a vibrant, intertribal American Indian community, which they affectionately referred to as “the reservation,” in its heyday.

In the decades since, due to a complex set of factors ranging from upward mobility, to Urban Renewal, to gentrification, the community has gradually moved away from the area, and the area is continually transformed. Recent generations never experienced “the reservation” as such. Today, most Baltimoreans are surprised to learn that it ever existed.

Use this app to learn about places and spaces important to American Indian history and continued presence in the city, with a specific focus on East Baltimore’s Historic American Indian “reservation.”

Please note that the information presented here is incomplete and subject to change because the community is always changing and this research is ongoing. Also, individual homes of Indian people and families — perhaps the most important part of “the reservation” — have not been included. Mapping these would be a complex and massive undertaking and we haven’t quite figured out how to do it, but we may yet.