Croatan
Sign in to saveAlso known as Hatteras, Croatoan, Roanoke
The Croatan were a small Native American ethnic group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They might have been a branch of the larger Roanoke people or allied with them. The Croatan lived in current Dare County, an area encompassing the Alligator River, Croatan Sound, Roanoke Island, Ocracoke Island, and parts of the Outer Banks, including Hatteras Island.
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Beliefs
- European colonization
- The Lost Colony
- Speculation of the fate of the "Lost Colony"
- Research
- Modern claimants
- Notable people
- See also
- Notes
- References
The Croatan were a small Native American ethnic group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They might have been a branch of the larger Roanoke people or allied with them. The Croatan lived in current Dare County, an area encompassing the Alligator River, Croatan Sound, Roanoke Island, Ocracoke Island, and parts of the Outer Banks, including Hatteras Island.
The chiefs, called werowances ("he who is rich"), each controlled up to 18 towns. The greatest were able to muster 700 or 800 fighting men. Chiefs and their families were held in great status and received respect, but they were not all-powerful. To pursue a collective goal, chiefs had to convince their followers that the action would be in the tribe's best interest. The chief was responsible for spreading wealth to his tribe, and, if unable to do so, they received less respect, or even lost respect entirely.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Croatan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.