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The Croatan were a Native American tribe living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They lived in current Dare County, an area encompassing the Alligator River, Croatan Sound, Roanoke Island, and parts of the Outer Banks, including Hatteras Island. Now extinct, they were one of the Algonquian peoples.
They were believed to be on good terms with English settlers of the Roanoke Colony. There has been a persistent myth, not supported by any substantive documentation, that the survivors of that abandoned colony joined the Croatan. The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research has excavated English artifacts within the territory of the Croatan tribe. It is conducting a DNA study to try to identify any surviving lines.
In earlier myths, researchers thought the modern Lumbee tribe were descendants of the Croatan and the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. There is no historical evidence for this.
More recently the Lumbee have claimed descent from the Cheraw, a Siouan-speaking people. There is no direct historical evidence of this connection. The evidence available seems to indicate that the Lumbee may have some ancestors among certain Siouan tribes[citation needed]. The Lumbee definitely have ancestors among mixed-race African Americans free in Virginia before the American Revolution, who migrated to the Virginia and North Carolina frontiers and may be traced through court records, land deeds and other existing historical documents.[1][2]
- ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 2005, accessed 15 Feb 2009
- ^ J. Cedric Woods, "Lumbee origins: The Weyanoke-Kearsey connection", Southern Anthropologist, 2004, accessed 30 Jul 2008
References
- K.I. Blu: "Lumbee", Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 14: 278-295, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004
- A.S. Eterovich: Croatia and Croatians, and the Lost Colony. San Carlos, CA: Ragusan Press, 2003
- T. Hariot, J. White, J. Lawson: A vocabulary of Roanoke. Merchantville: Evolution Publishing, 1999
- Th. Ross: American Indians in North Carolina. South Pines, NC: Karo Hollow Press, 1999
- G.M. Sider: Lumbee Indian histories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
- S.B. Weeks: The lost colony of Roanoke, its fate and survival. New York: Knickbocker Press, 1891
- J.R. Swanton: "Probable Identity of the Croatan Indians." U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, 1933
- J. Henderson: "The Croatan Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina." U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, 1923
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