Chowanoc

Last updated
Chowanoc [1]
North carolina algonkin.png
16th-century territories
of the North Carolina Algonquian
Total population
extinct [2] (1820)
Regions with significant populations
North Carolina
Languages
Algonquian
Religion
Tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Coree, Machapunga, Weapemeoc [ citation needed ]

The Chowanoc, [1] also Chowanoke, were an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe who historically lived near the Chowan River in North Carolina. [2]

Contents

At the time of the first English contact in 1580s, they were a large and influential tribe and remained so through the mid-17th century. [2]

In 1677, after the Chowanoc War, English colonists set aside a reservation for the tribe near Bennett Creek. The Chowanoc suffered high mortality due to infectious disease, including a smallpox epidemic in 1696.

Descendants of the Chowanoc merged with the Tuscarora in the early 18th century. [2]

Name

The name Chowanoc has also been spelled Chawanook, Chowanock, Chowanoke, and Chawwonock. They are also known as the Chowanoc Confederacy. [1] Their name is Algonquian and translates as "they of the south" or "southerners". [3]

Territory

1585 map by Theodor de Bry with Chawanook territory in the right, top (east). The Carte of all the Coast of Virginia by Theodor de Bry 1585 1586.jpg
1585 map by Theodor de Bry with Chawanook territory in the right, top (east).

The Chowanoc had settlements from north of the confluence of the Chowan and Meherrin Rivers to the mouth of the Chowan River. Smaller towns were likely built along Bennett Creek and tributaries of the Meherrin and Wiccacon Rivers. [1]

Archaeology

Archaeologists explored the primary town also called Chowanoc in the 1980s and found that it was settled in the 10th century CE. [1]

History

16th century

About 1,200 to 2,500 [1] Chowanoc lived near the Chowan River, near the Nottoway and Meherrin rivers, when English colonists arrived in 1584, and they were most populous tribe in their region. [3] [2] Colonial Governor Ralph Lane encountered the tribe when they were led by the elderly Chief Menatonon (fl. 1580s). [1] Lane's took Menatonon's son Skiko hostage to force the chief to assist English colonists in their efforts to cultivate positive relationships with neighbor tribes and to ensure Menatonon’s support of the English colonists. [2] [1] When Skiko attempted to escape, Lane “laid him in the bylboes, threatening to cut off his head.” [4]

Their villages included Maraton, Ramushonok, and Obanoak, and likely also included Metocaum and Catoking. [3]

English mathematician and cartographer Thomas Harriot recorded that the Chowanoc had 18 villages. [1] Harriot estimated that the tribe could mobilize 700 or 800 warriors in a battle. [1] Lane described this town as being large enough to muster 700 to 800 warriors, which meant the capital's population was likely more than 2,100.[ citation needed ] Theodor de Bry's 1590 map sited five of the tribe's villages on the river of their name. [5]

17th century

Wetlands along the Chowan swamp Scene Chowan Swamp Gamelands ncwetlands KG (5).jpg
Wetlands along the Chowan swamp

In 1607 an English colonial expedition, in the area on orders from Captain John Smith of Jamestown, found that hardly any Chowanoc people were left along the Chowan River.[ citation needed ] They had been reduced to one settlement across the river in Gates County on Bennett Creek.[ citation needed ]

In 1607 an English colonial expedition, in the area on orders from Captain John Smith of Jamestown, found that few Chowanoc people were left along the Chowan River. They had been reduced to one settlement across the river in Gates County on Bennett Creek.

The Chowanoc maintained a large population through 1650. [2] More English colonists settled near the Albemarle Sound and signed a peace treaty with the Chowanoc in 1663. However, the tribe breached the peace by entering the Susquehannah War. [2] Several decades later, in 1644 and the Chowanoc War of 1675 to 1677, the Chowanoc had regained sufficient strength to wage two wars against English settlers. They met defeat each time.

After these wars, in 1677 the settlers forced the Chowanoc to cede most of their territory and move to an Indian reservation on Bennett's Creek. [2] It consisted of 11,360 acres. [6]

Infectious diseases transmitted by contact with European explorers and colonists, such as measles and smallpox, likely caused high fatalities and considerably weakened the Chowanoc, as took place with other coastal Carolina Algonquian peoples. None had natural immunity to such new diseases, which had been endemic among Europeans for centuries.

18th century

By 1701, their population had been reduced to a single village, located on the Bennetts Creek. [3]

The Chowanocs fought with the English against the Tuscarora in the Tuscarora War from 1711 to 1713. [2] They were devastated, and English people had encroached upon their lands by 1718. [2] Around 1723, the surviving Chowanoc and Tuscorara shared a 53,000-acre reservation, [2] located on Bennetts and Catherine creeks. [3] Their population declined, and survivors merged into the Tuscarora by 1733. [2]

19th century

Historian Joseph Norman Heard wrote, "They were extinct by 1820." [2]

Heritage group

In the early 21st century, people who claimed Chowanoc ancestry in the Bennett's Creek area formed an organization called the Chowanoke Indian Nation. Although they use nation in their name, the group is neither federally recognized [7] nor state-recognized [8] as a Native American tribe. Delois Chavis of Winton has been a leader of this organization, which purchased 146 acres of land in Gates County. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuscarora people</span> Indigenous Peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands

The Tuscarora are an Indigenous Peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands in Canada and the United States. They are an Iroquoian Native American and First Nations people. The Tuscarora Nation, a federally recognized tribe, is based in New York, and the Tuscarora First Nation is one of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roanoke Island</span> Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States

Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roanoke Colony</span> Failed colony in North America (1584–1590)

The Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was founded in 1585, but when it was visited by a ship in 1590, the colonists had inexplicably disappeared. It has come to be known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertford County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Hertford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,552. Its county seat is Winton. It is classified within the region known in the 21st century as the Inner Banks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gates County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Gates County is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the border with Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,478, making it the fifth-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Gatesville. Gates County is included in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area. It is part of the Albemarle Sound area of the Inner Banks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murfreesboro, North Carolina</span> Town in North Carolina, United States

Murfreesboro is a town in Hertford County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,835 at the 2010 census. The town is home to Chowan University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ananias Dare</span> English settler of the Roanoke Colony (c. 1560–1587)

Ananias Dare was a colonist of the Roanoke Colony of 1587. He was the husband of Eleanor White, whom he married at St Bride's Church in London, and the father of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. The details of Dare's death are still unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamlico</span> Native Americans of North Carolina

The Pamlico were Native Americans of North Carolina. They spoke an Algonquian language also known as Pamlico or Carolina Algonquian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meherrin</span> Indigenous people

The Meherrin people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who spoke an Iroquian language. They lived between the Piedmont and coastal plains at the border of Virginia and North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saponi</span> Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands

The Saponi are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. They spoke a Siouan language, related to the languages of the Tutelo, Biloxi, and Ofo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coree</span> Extinct Native American tribe in North Carolina

The Coree were a very small Native American tribe, who once occupied a coastal area south of the Neuse River in southeastern North Carolina in the area now covered by Carteret and Craven counties. Early 20th-century scholars were unsure of what language they spoke, but the coastal areas were mostly populated by Iroquois and Algonquian peoples.

The Machapunga were a small Algonquian language–speaking Native American tribe from coastal northeastern North Carolina. They were part of the Secotan people. They were a group from the Powhatan Confederacy who migrated from present-day Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chowan River</span> River in North Carolina and Virginia, United States

The Chowan River (cho-WAHHN) is a blackwater river formed with the merging of Virginia's Blackwater and Nottoway rivers near the state line between Virginia and North Carolina. According to the USGS a variant name is Choan River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory</span> State-recognized tribe in Maryland that claims descent from the historic Piscataway tribe

The Piscataway Indian Nation, also called Piscatawa, is a state-recognized tribe in Maryland who identify as descendants of the historic Piscataway people. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a territory on the north side of the Potomac River. By the early seventeenth century, the Piscataway had come to exercise hegemony over other Algonquian-speaking Native American groups on the north bank of the river. The Piscataway nation declined dramatically before the nineteenth century, under the influence of colonization, infectious disease, and intertribal and colonial warfare.

Eleanor Dare of Westminster, London, England, was a member of the Roanoke Colony and the daughter of John White, the colony's governor. While little is known about her life, more is known about her than most of the sixteen other women who left England in 1587 as part of the Roanoke expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nottoway people</span> Native American tribe in Virginia, US

The Nottoway are an Iroquoian Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a Nottoway language in the Iroquoian language family.

Manteo was a Croatan Native American, and was a member of the local tribe that befriended the English explorers who landed at Roanoke Island in 1584. Though many stories claim he was a chief, it is understood that his mother was actually the principal leader of the tribe. This leadership would not have automatically passed down to her children as many English at the time may have assumed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secotan</span> Historic Native American tribe

The Secotans were one of several groups of Native Americans dominant in the Carolina sound region, between 1584 and 1590, with which English colonists had varying degrees of contact. Secotan villages included the Secotan, Aquascogoc, Dasamongueponke, Pomeiock (Pamlico) and Roanoac. Other local groups included the Chowanoke, Weapemeoc, Chesapeake, Ponouike, Neusiok, and Mangoak (Tuscarora), and all resided along the banks of the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds.

The Hatteras Indians were a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who lived in the North Carolina Outer Banks. They inhabited a village on what is now called Hatteras Island called Croatoan.

The Chowanoc War from 1675 to 1677 was between the Albemarle County colony army, and the Chowanoc Native American tribe. For two years, the Chowanoc fought with the forces of Peter Jenkins, commander of the colony's army. In the summer of 1677, the colony won, and the Chowanoc were forcibly moved to modern-day Gates County.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Roy F. Johnson (1991). "Menatonon". In Powell, William S. (ed.). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: L–O. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 251. ISBN   0-8078-1806-2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Heard, J. Norman (1987). Handbook of the American Frontier: The Southeastern Woodlands. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-0-8108-1931-3 . Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Hodge, Frederick Webb (1907). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: A-M. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 292.
  4. Oberg, Michael Leroy (2013-02-12). The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN   978-0-8122-0341-7.
  5. Milteer, Warren E. “From Indians to Colored People: The Problem of Racial Categories and the Persistence of the Chowans in North Carolina.” The North Carolina Historical Review, vol. 93, no. 1, 2016, pp. 28–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44113316. Retrieved 14 Dec. 2023.
  6. 1 2 Petrone, Justin (13 September 2018). "Chowanoke Descendants Reclaim Ancestral Land, Envision Cultural Center". Indian Country Today. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  7. "Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs". Indian Affairs Bureau. Federal Register. 4 April 2022. pp. 7554–58. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  8. "State Recognized Tribes". National Conference of State Legislatures. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.

Further reading