Long before English colonist built a fort on Roanoke Island, the island and the surrounding areas were home to the Roanoac, Croatoan, and Secotan tribes, Algonquian-speaking people whose complex township stretched across the region. The estimated number of Algonquian people in the region numbered between 5,000 and 10,000 people. The region was dotted with small, temporary towns consisting of a variety of private homes, public buildings, and common areas. Largely self-sufficient, towns made up chiefdoms and empires of different sizes, duration, and complex social structures. While attempting to find a suitable location for a colony, English soldiers, colonists, and sailors visited many of the villages in present-day eastern North Carolina.
The First VillageThe first village visited by English colonists in 1584 was a small village on the island of Croatoan, present-day Hatteras Island. On the north end of the island, this village served as a trading and fishing location with close access to the ocean. It also was the first village to spot passing European ships as they sailed past the Outer Banks. This village may have been controlled by Granganimeo, brother of the weroance, or chief, of the Roanoac tribe, as he is the host of the English at the village on Croatoan. But it also served as the main village for the Croatoan people, perhaps under the control of the Roanoac tribe. Manteo, the most consistent Algonquian-speaking ally of the Lost Colony, hailed from this village. He later assisted the English soldiers in 1585 when they built an outpost near the village to watch for Spanish ships searching for the colony. According to Arthur Barlowe, one of the English captains leading the 1584 expedition, there were at least one hundred people on Croatoan.Roanoke IslandAfter spending time hosting the English on Croatoan, Granganimeo invited several of the English to visit the other town under his control. Traveling about 50 miles north, they arrived to present-day Roanoke Island where there was a village at the northern end of the island. The unnamed village consisted of just nine cedar bark houses and may have served as a hunting village during the summer months. Around the village was a palisade made of sharpened trees to defend the village. While there is limited information about the make-up of this village, further evidence of how the tribes of the area built their towns come from the 1585 recordings of two English colonists, the artist John White and the scientist Thomas Hariot.
The British Museum Pomeiooc and SecotanThe English soldiers, in addition to Thomas Hariot and John White, visited the towns of Pomeiooc near Lake Mattamuskeet in present-day Hyde County and Secotan in present-day Beautfort County.Pomeiooc, as drawn by John White, was a town of 18 buildings arranged around a central gathering location and fire. The towns visited by the English colonists also had homes for priests and healers, and central places for feasts and religious ceremonies. The painting of Pomeiooc shows a temple, "builded rownde, and couered with skynne matts," larger than every other building except the weroance’s house. Surrounding the village is a palisade made of sharpened trees, likely similar to the palisade around the village on Roanoke Island. Outside the palisade are several fields of corn and a small pathway outside the village. There were also three artificial ponds for water or irrigation near the cornfields. 
The British Museum The houses in both towns were very similar. Thomas Hariot, a scientist from the 1585 colony, recorded that the homes in the Algonquian-speaking villages were made of small poles tied with cords made from plants or leather. They were "in rounde forme after the maner as is used in many arbories in our gardens of England." He adds that in most towns, the houses were covered with tree bark or mats made from long reeds. Houses covered with bark were less drafty and easier to heat. However, suitable bark was hard to find in large quantities for construction and repair. Bark-covered houses were probably reserved for weroances. Townspeople probably lived in mat-covered houses. Mats could be raised and lowered to let in light and fresh air but were less efficient insulators. White drew several of these houses with mats raised or removed to show their interiors. Four such houses in the Secotan engraving and two in Pomeiooc have a bench or table used for storage. Arthur Barlowe also reported that some large houses may have also had a shrine, or Machicomuc. However, White does not show this feature in his illustrations. With few exceptions, the houses and other buildings in both engravings are rectangular in plan. Their length, which according to Hariot, ranged from 36 to 72 feet, was usually double the width. Other Towns the Colonist VisitedThe English colonists also visited several other Algonquian-speaking villages and towns in northeastern North Carolina including:● Chowanoke, probably the largest town in the region, was 50 miles west of Roanoke Island. It stood on the west side of the Chowan River in present-day Hertford County. It was the capital of the Chowanoke tribe, which had 19 towns, about 700-800 fighters, and a total population of perhaps 2,000. Granganimeo told Arthur Barlowe of this town in 1584 and described it as being independent from Wingina, the main Roanoac weroance. In 1585, English soldiers, led by Ralph Lane, traveled to the village and held Menatonan, the chief of the Chowanoac, hostage. They believed the Chowanoac Tribe was planning an attack against the soldiers at Roanoke Island. After holding him hostage for two days, they released Menatonan back to his village and returned to Roanoke Island convinced it was Wingina planning an attack from his village of Dasamongeupeuk. ● Dasamonguepeuk, on the western shore of the Croatan Sound directly west of Roanoke Island. It was possibly the capital of the Roanoac tribe as Wingina lived there during the winter of 1585-1586 when English soldiers were living on Roanoke Island. The village was attacked by Ralph Lane and English soldiers in the spring of 1586 as their supplies dwindled. In the attack they killed the weroance Wingina as well as several other Algonquian-speaking people. John White also led an attack here in 1587, but found no Roanoac people, but mistakenly attacked Croatoan women and children. He later learned Dasamonguepeuk had been abandoned by the Roanoac tribe when the English returned in 1587. ● Aquascogoc, was one of the first villages visited by the English soldiers . It may have stood on the eastern bank of the Pungo River in modern Hyde County. Likely a Secotan village, the English returned to the village and burned the cornfields when a silver cup was missing after their visit. The story of the English burning the cornfields at Aquascogoc quickly spread throughout the area and became a lightning rod for anti-English sentiments among the Algonquian-speaking people of the region. Many Algonquian-speaking people seemed to live outside the towns. There, they were closer to the extensive fields, fish weirs, and hunting and foraging grounds needed to support the population. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of scattered houses and farmsteads throughout the region. For over 1,000 years, the Algonquian-speaking people on Roanoke Island and eastern North Carolina built a variety of towns and villages throughout the area, including on Roanoke Island. These villages for the Roanoac, Secotan, and Croatoan people became destinations sought after by English explorers and colonists to learn more about the Algonquian-speaking people in eastern North Carolina. While the villages varied in size, population, and complexity, each showcased the Algonquian-speaking culture to the English. Those locations are now important archeological areas where clues about the interactions of the Algonquian-speaking people and the English can still be uncovered. |
Last updated: October 30, 2026