Description
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 Croatan people who exist today live in Cumberland, Sampson, and Harnett counties predominantly. The chiefs, called werowances ("he who is rich"), controlled from 1 to 18 towns. The greatest were able to muster 700 or 800 fighting men. Chiefs and their families were held in great status and with respect, but they were not all-powerful.
Language
Carolina Algonquian (also known as Pamlico, Croatoan) was an Algonquian language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup formerly spoken in North Carolina, United States. Carolina
Culture
Algonquian tribes had a varied diet that included fishing for salmon, sturgeon, and cod. They also hunted seals, walruses, whales, beavers, deer, geese, ducks, and pigeons. The Algonquian culture includes the different manifestations of social organization, types of housing, religion, and habits that the people had before the arrival of the colonizers. The social organization was based on the community. The houses changed according to the season of the year and could be shared with several families. The religion they practiced was animistic and they conducted trade using a primitive form of currency called, "wampun."