Carolina Algonquian

The Carolina Algonquian had been living on the Outer Banks long before the first English expedition arrived in 1584. Archeological evidence suggests that Native peoples arrived in North Carolina around 9500 to 8000 B.C., with the first evidence of Outer Banks habitation occurring between 2500 to 2000 B.C. By the time the first English expedition arrived at Roanoke Island in the summer of 1584, the Algonquian had inhabited the region for at least 800 years. During that time, they developed a unique culture built around the waterways and with their own societal, agricultural, and religious practices.

 

Algonquian Fishing and Hunting Techniques

Fishing and hunting provided the Algonquian people with stable food sources all year. The Algonquian used weirs, a type of underwater netted fencing, to effectively corral native fishes (flounder, trout, mullet, etc.). In addition, they employed sharpened wooden poles for a type of spearfishing. The Algonquian fishing methods were effective in the shallow sounds of the Outer Banks. As Thomas Hariot wrote of Algonquian fishing methods: "The inhabitants take them in two manner of ways, the one is by a kind of weir made of reeds...The other way, which is more strange, is with poles made sharp at one end, by shooting them into the fish...either as they are rowing in their boats, or else as they are wading in the shallows." Often, the Carolina Algonquian fished during low-light times of day, dawn or dusk. They would use small controlled fires in their dugout canoes to be the brightest light source, drawing fish up to their canoe. Each of these techniques can be seen in the watercolor image drawn by John White in 1585. The Algonquian would smoke many of the fish they caught to preserve them for longer-term storage for the winters when other food sources were more scarce.

There was also an abundance of crabs, oysters, and other shellfish along the shoreline used as a food source. Often, large middens, garbage piles found through archeology, are full of seashells left from mussels and are a big indicator of Algonquian settlements in the area. The shells would also be an important tool source as they could be broken into sharp edges.

For hunting land-based game, the Algonquian primarily used the bow and arrow. As Hariot also observed about hunting black bear: "The inhabitants in time of winter do use to take and eat many. They are commonly taken in this sort in some islands or places where they are, being hunted for as soon as they have spial of man, they presently run away, and then being chased, they climb and get up in the next tree they can. From whence with arrows they are shot down stark dead, or with those wounds that they may after easily be killed." In addition to hunting black bears, the Algonquian also hunted deer and other small game such as squirrels and turkeys.

 

Algonquian people used corn as one of their major staple crops.

Agricultural Practices

Fish and wild game were not the only source of food for the native population. The Algonquian people gathered nuts, berries, and other wild edible plants in the Outer Banks, but their main supply of plant foods came from agriculture. The main crop of the Algonquian people was maize, or corn as it is known today. Grown with beans and squash, these three plants would form the basis of the major agricultural staple, the three sisters. Grown together in close proximity, each of the three plants helped the others to grow. Algonquian people planted corn first, allowing it to take root and grow tall. Second, they would plant beans that attached themselves to the already tall corn stalks. The beans served as nitrogen fixers, adding nitrogen to the soil. Lastly, the Algonquian would plant squash, allowing the large leaves to cover the soil and provide vital shading in the hottest summer months. Each of the plants helped sustain the others, creating the three staple crops of the Outer Banks.

Algonquian people did not just use agriculture for food, but also for other purposes. Tobacco, called Uppowoc, served a variety of purposes for the Algonquian, including religious ceremonies and medicine. As we know, the English quickly took a liking to the Algonquian-cultivated tobacco, and it became an exotic crop that was immediately desired in Europe. Thomas Hariot remarked on the importance of tobacco to the Algonquian: "This Uppowoc is of precious estimation amongst them, that they think their gods are marvelously delighted therewith..."

 

This drawing by John White is of a priest, otherwise often referred to as a werowance.

Algonquian Society and Religion

The Algonquian people created a complex and rich society in the Outer Banks. Their language is a branch of the greater Algonquian language that was spoken from the Carolinas along the coast up to present-day Canada. In Ossomocomuck, the Algonquian word for the Outer Banks area, many different tribes lived, worked with, or competed against each other, all while having a similar overall culture.

At the time of the English colonization, many of the villages along the coast were under the control of one werowance, or chief, named Wingina. Not a centralized community, Wingina exercised some influence over the villages of the Roanoke, Croatoan, and Secotan tribes of the area. Wingina and his villages competed against other tribes up the Albemarle Sound controlled by another werowance, Menatonan, who also met with the English while they were in the Outer Banks.

Algonquian people also had celebrations and ceremonies as part of their culture. A ceremony witnessed by John White involved singing and dancing around posts with people's faces carved into them. While in the village of Secotan in 1585, John White painted an image of the village and included a group of Algonquian people dancing around the posts to show the importance of dance to their ceremony. Rituals were also performed by Algonquian people in the Outer Banks before hunting or fishing expeditions with the hope of increasing their yields.

Algonquian religious beliefs were recorded extensively by Thomas Hariot. His perception of their religion was biased (he believed they should be converted to Christianity), so his description likely does not provide a full picture of the Algonquian religious practices.

Hariot wrote that the Algonquian believed there was "only one chief and great god, which has been from all eternity." However, this one god created many lesser gods "to be used in the creation and government to follow." These lesser gods created the sun, moon, and stars first, followed by water. Woman was created next, followed by man.

All Algonquian gods were represented by "images in the form of men, which they call Kewasowok...Then they place in houses appropriate or temples, which they call Machicomuck, where they worship, pray, sing, and make many times offering unto them."

 

Algonquian Towns

Algonquian villages were located up and down the coast of the Outer Banks, often in many of the same areas where present-day towns are located. While not considered migratory, Algonquian people moved throughout the area to find seasonal food sources, as well as for protection against harsh seasonal weather. Towns would have fields for farming corn, beans, and squash, as well as central locations for ceremonies and gatherings.

When the English arrived on the Outer Banks in the 1580s, they were quick to discover that the Algonquian culture was highly sophisticated. Estimates of the Algonquian population along the Outer Banks during this time were between 5,000 and 10,000 people spread throughout multiple subcultures and town centers. John White's and Thomas Hariot's documentation of these town centers proved invaluable to European understanding of the New World.

In 1585, John White made detailed drawings of two of these towns, Pomeiooc in present-day Hyde County and Secoton in present-day Beaufort County. Pomeiooc was drawn as a circular village with a palisade around the outskirts of the village to protect it from attacks, whereas Secotan (pictured left) was more open and spread out without a palisade. In addition to White's drawings, Thomas Hariot described the structures in these towns in detail: "They were made of small poles made fast at the tops in round form after the manner as is used in many arbories in our gardens of England...In most towns, the houses were covered with barks, and in some with mats of long rushes, from the tops of the houses down to the ground."

Other villages in the Outer Banks at the time of the English arrival included Croatoan on present-day Hatteras Island, Dasemukepeuc at present-day Manns Harbor, and a small village on Roanoke Island, believed to be located near Fort Raleigh NHS and the main English colonization site.