Hatteras people

Hatteras

Total population
Extinct as a tribe in the late 18th century [1]
Regions with significant populations
North Carolina
Languages
an Eastern Algonquian language
Religion
Native American religion
Related ethnic groups
other Eastern Algonquian peoples

The Hatteras were a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who lived in the North Carolina Outer Banks. ^[2] They inhabited a village on what is now called Hatteras Island ^[1] called Croatoan. ^[2]

Name

The name Hatteras was first used by the English explorer John Lawson. Lawson was writing a book where he mentioned the Hatteras for the first time. Although the meaning of Hatteras is unknown, ^[1] the people from that island were known as "the people of shallow water". John Lawson believed that they may have been the Croatans. ^{[1] [3]}

History

The Hatteras first had contact with English settlers, notably John White, in 1587, and were gone by the mid-18th century. ^[2]

In 1701, their population was estimated to be 80 people. ^{[1] [4]} During the 1711 Tuscarora War, the Hatteras sided with the colonists and fought against the Tuscarora and their allies for the colonists. This cost them heavily and many were driven from their lands by enemy tribes. ^[5]

It is claimed that some descendants of the Hatteras may be part of the Lumbee community, but historian Karen Blu states that this assumption is speculative, and based on documentation of which tribes had lived in the area before, and that there are no firm links between them and the Lumbee. ^{[6] [7]}

Language

The Hatteras spoke a language in the Algonquian language family. ^[1]

Notes

1. John Reed Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America, 80.
2. Harrison, Molly (August 1, 2003). Exploring Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores. Globe Pequot Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN   978-0762726097.
3. Dumbar, Gary."The Hatteras Indians of North Carolina", "Ethnohistory", 1960, DOI:10.2307/480877
4. Lewis, J.D."The Hatteras Indians", "Carolina: The Native Americans", South Carolina, 2007.
5. Michael Leroy Oberg (2013), The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN   978-0812203417 , retrieved 2015-03-28, …In 1711, the conflict known as the Tuscarora War began… The Hatteras, who "always had been friendly with the whites… and cherished friendship with the English because of their affinity," fought for the colonists against the Tuscaroras and their allies. By 1714 the Hatteras were refugees…
6. "Hatteras Tribe","Native Language of the Americas", 1998.
7. Blu, Karen I. (1980). The Lumbee problem: the making of an American Indian people. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-22525-0. OL   4409557M . Retrieved 20 December 2025.

References

• Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 80. ISBN   9780806317304.