Early Carolina Tribes and Villages - Late 16th Century

The history of early European contacts along the North Carolina coast is similarly clouded. Several explorers, including Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, are credited with reaching that region and even contacting the Indians; however, evidence is in no case conclusive. Native traditions recorded at the time of the English colony on Roanoke Island refer to only one previous contact with Whites: in 1558 shipwrecked people, probably Spanish, were saved by the people of Secotan and after a short time tried to make their way home on an improvised ship. Other ships wrecked on the Carolina coast first provided the Indians with iron implements (Barlowe 1589). For most Indian groups in coastal North Carolina, the history of European contacts therefore began only with the first arrival of the English ships in 1584 and the establishment of a colony one year later.

Source: North Carolina Algonquians by Christian F. Feest, in "Handbook of North American Indians" (1978), Vol. 15, 271–281; Bruce Trigger, Editor. Smithsonian: Washington, DC.

North Carolina Algonquian Tribes and Villages