Description
The Coree (also Connamox, Cores, Corennines, Connamocksocks, Coranine Indians, Neuse River Indians) 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 Coree were not described by English colonists until 1701, by which time their population had already been reduced to as few as 125 members, likely due to epidemics of infectious disease and warfare. In the early 18th century, the Coree and several other tribes were allied with the Iroquoian Tuscarora against the colonists.
Language
Their language may have been an Algonquian language like Powhatan.
Culture
Coree Indians, when first encountered by Europeans arriving in what is now North Carolina, were living south of the Neuse River along the Atlantic Coast. Like other Indians of the Coastal Plain, the Coree (or Core) lived in villages, reportedly three in number, and depended for their livelihood on both agriculture and the ocean. The Coree indians mainly lived in one area and were hunter/gatherers and lived close to many streams, so fish were one of their main food sources. The Coree indians made wicker pottery and arrowheads, which can still be found today as well.