Description
The Cape Fear Indians were a small, coastal tribe of Native Americans who lived on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina (now Carolina Beach State Park). The autonym of the Cape Fear Indians may have been Daw-hee. Their name for the area was Chicora. Of their villages, only one, Necoes, is known by name. Smallpox spread from Spanish colonies in Florida to the Carolinas in the 16th century. The population of the Cape Fear Indians was estimated to be 1,000 in 1600. A colonial census in 1715 recorded that they numbered 206. In 1664 the settlement called Charles Towne was founded, but it was abandoned in 1667 after war broke out between the Cape Fear Indians and the settlers over British slavery of Indians.
Language
Their language is unknown and may have been a Siouan language.
Culture
The Cape Fear Indians and the Winyaw migrated from their coastal villages up the Pee Dee River adjacent to a trading post the British founded in 1716. They eventually settled inland from Charleston in what is now known as Williamsburg County, South Carolina. In May 1749 provision was made by the Governor in Council to render protection to them through supplying their representatives with fifty pounds of bullets and twenty-five pounds of powder. There had previously been complaints that the Cape Fear were being abused and driven from nearby hunting lands by neighboring Europeans. It was ruled that they were a peaceable people and that their rights to hunt were protected by the government.