Native+Americans

ALGONQUIN

The Algonquin tribes lived along the Atlantic coast from Maine to North Carolina. The Algonquin were mobile because their economy relied heavily on hunting and they had to follow whatever game they could find. These tribes included the Waccamaw, Chowanoc, and Pasquotank groups. Their diet consisted maily of fish and whatever the hunters brought in, but also included fruits, melons, corn, and divers roots. These groups all spoke various versions of the same language and lived similarly. John White of the lost Colony did several famous paintings of these Indians.

TUSCARORA

The Tuscora Indians lived in the coastal plain in the 1500's. The name Tuscarora comes from a word that means "hemp gatherers". They were called this because they gathered hemp to make ropes and cords. This tribe was mainly located around the Neuse and Tar rivers. People of the Tuscarora were related to, and had come from the Indian nation Iroquis in New York. Tuscarora Indians had amazing posture and all of them had flat bodies. They were said to have the "handsomest legs and feet in the world". This great posture came from a practice in which Tuscarora babies were strapped down hard to a board in their infancy. The Tuscaroras lived in longhouses that sometimes could get to be 100 feet in length. These houses would hold an entire clan (up to 60 people). The Tuscarora Indians moved out of North Carolina in the early 1700’s because of a war with the European settlers and went to live with their northern relatives in New York. Most of them still live there to this day.

CATAWBA

The Catawba Indians were the largest Native American group in the Piedmont region. The Portuguese soldier Juan Pardo gave the Catawaba their name. The natives would sometimes call themselves //is wa// (the people who lived on a river). The Catawaba lived in villages of circular, bark-covered houses and temples. Hunting and fishing heavily supplemented their diet, and men and women shared agricultural responsibilities. The Indians were related to Sioux tribes in the Great Plains. The Catawba wore clothes made of deerskin and both men and women wore long hair. Catawba Indians also loved storytelling, artwork, and music.

CHEROKEE

The Cherokee are probably the most famous Indian group in North Carolina. A variation of a Mississippi word for "people who live in caves" is thought to be where the name Cherokee comes from. Their ancestors first lived near the Ohio River. The Cherokee, like the Tuscarora, were related to the Iroquois in New York. They were forced from their previous settlement because of years of fighting with the Iroquois. During the woodland period, the Cherokee moved to the Appalachian Mountains. In the late woodland period, the population of the Cherokee could have grown to over thirty thousand. The tribe was so large that it was split into three groups, the upper, the middle, and the lower Cherokee. The most important Cherokee villages were found in the middle Cherokee. Every one of these groups spoke a different version of the Cherokee language. The Cherokees lived in houses made of rivercane and plaster, which were about as strong and warm as log cabins. The Cherokee got food from farming and hunting deer, wild turkeys, and small game.