The Potapoco were a tribe of Native Americans living in southern

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

at the time of English colonization in the 17th century. The Potapoca were among the Atlantic coastal tribes speaking

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...

, and they inhabited the area along what the English colonists later called the

Port Tobacco River The Port Tobacco River is a tidal tributary of the Potomac River located in Charles County, Maryland in the United States. The river is approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data ...

. They called their settlement Potopaco. Overall, the dominant tribe on the north side of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Datas ...

was the Algonquian

Piscataway tribe The Piscataway or Piscatawa , are Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, with whom they merged after a massive decline of population following two centuries of interaction ...

, which later absorbed some of the smaller tribe's survivors. Upon absorption, the Potapoco became a sub-tribe of the Piscataway.

References

Eastern Algonquian peoples Extinct Native American tribes Native American tribes in Maryland Piscataway tribe {{NorthAm-native-stub