Native Americans

Native Americans. Mount Vernon's First Residents. , For thousands of years before the Washington family acquired this land in 1674, Native Americans resided here. On the hilltop beyond this sign, archaeologists have excavated a variety of prehistoric Indian artifacts. This high point of land rising above the river offered an attractive seasonal hunting, fishing, and feasting ground for Native Americans. Late Archaic peoples in the region numbered in the tens of thousands. They continued to practice hunting and gathering while also making steps toward a more settled lifestyle which created new forms of social organization, or tribes, living in seasonal villages., At the time of European contact, three separate groups or tribes, the Dogue, Patawomeke, and the Piscataway, live along this stretch of the Potomac River, using the rich resources from both the rivers and the forests. When George Washington moved to Mount Vernon in 1754, there were few Native Americans in the area. Washington chose the name "Dogue Run" for one of his five farms at Mount Vernon. The protected forest (part of Mount Vernon's viewshed), which exists today across the Potomac River in in Maryland, is called Piscataway National Park., [Captions:] , These casts represent projectile points found at Mount Vernon, dating to the late Archaic period (5,900 to 3,200 years ago). The photos show their actual sizes.