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Anacostia Park

The name "Anacostia" is a latinization of the Algonquian name "Nacotchtank." When Englishman John Smith explored the area in 1608, the Nacotchtank Indians were the primary residents of the Anacostia River's eastern shore. Various groups of people had lived in the area for at least 10,000 years.

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Go deeper into the history of each park with scholarly articles and essays from Oxford University Press, freely available for the centennial year.

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Bonus Army

The Bonus Army was a group of World War I veterans who wanted payment of a wartime bonus. Thousands of veterans set up camp in what is now Anacostia Park. In the end, they were removed by force and not given the bonus they asked for.

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