The ecocultural description of Nause-Waiwash Band territory can best be summarized as brackish estuarine marsh and salt estuarine marsh. According to Nause-Waiwash Band oral history, the annual burning of marshes helps to sustain these ecosystems, now despite the combined effects of rising sea level, land subsidence and erosion. Nause-Waiwash marshes serve a critical role in a food web that includes famous Chesapeake Bay oysters, blue crabs, and fish. The Band also celebrates the life of muskrats, who live in the marshes, and provide their fur and meat. The Nause-Waiwash ancestral homeland includes much of the eastern shore of Maryland and Delaware. The principal town was Chicone, near present-day Vienna, Maryland, on the Nanticoke River.
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