city, Luzerne county, northeast-central Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Susquehanna River, about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Wilkes-Barre. In the early 18th century white settlers were attracted to the site of a village of the Nanticoke Indians and set up a gristmill, iron forge, and sawmill at the Susquehanna Rapids. The Nanticoke migrated to New York state in 1793. In 1825 the first anthracite coal mine was opened in the locality and by 1878 Nanticoke was a major coal-mining centre. Coal mining declined with the widespread use of fuel oil, natural gas, and electricity; the population decreased and all the mines were closed by 1973. Nanticoke is now basically residential with some light manufacturing development. Luzerne County Community College is located there. Inc. borough, 1874; city, 1926. Pop. (1990) 12,267; (2000) 10,955.

a confederacy of Algonquian (Algonquian languages)-speaking North American Indians who lived along the eastern shores of what are now Maryland and southern Delaware; their name means “tidewater people.” They were related to the Delaware and the Conoy. Nanticoke subsistence depended largely on fishing and trapping, and their social organization probably included a head chief, as well as subordinate chiefs of the various tribes. They were at war with the Maryland colonists from 1642 to 1678; in 1698 reservations were set aside for them. Sometime after 1722 most of the Nanticoke began moving northward, some settling with the Iroquois in what is now western New York state; many emigrated westward about 1784 and were incorporated into the Delaware tribe in what have become Ohio and Indiana.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated approximately 2,500 individuals of Nanticoke descent.