Chincoteague. Wachapreague. Nassawadox.
Whether you are one of the thousands each year who pass through Virginia’s Eastern Shore on their way to points south, or your family has resided here for 10 generations—whether you are from here or a “come here”—one can’t help but notice the Native American place names that permeate this region.
But who were the indigenous peoples who named these islands, rivers and towns—and what happened to them? This ninth film in the Eastern Shore series, currently in production and slated for release in 2026, seeks to find the answers.
Following a team of archaeologists as they uncover long-buried remnants of early settlements, and featuring interviews with local historians and archivists, as well as profiles of those who proudly claim indigenous heritage, The Native Shore pieces together the history and legacy of the region's first inhabitants—from thousands of years of Indian life before the arrival of Europeans, to the Colonial era of co-existence and conflict, as tribal land was increasingly encroached upon and occupied by settlers. The relocation of native peoples to smaller and smaller tracts of land, and eventually the process of "de-tribalization" and, by the early 19th century, the disappearance of the tribes altogether, was an early manifestation of the devastating process that would unfold across the rest of the American continent.