Native Americans

I am by no means an expert on Native Americans, but I have had some experience. To begin with, in North Carolina alone there are several Indian tribes still around, but many were destroyed by disease, war, and displacement or amalgamated through marriage. The Cherokee are the most famous of the NC Native American tribes. There are actually two branches of this group—the Eastern Cherokee in the NC mountains and the Western branch in Oklahoma. This happened because even when a majority of Cherokee were moved West, on the now famous Trail of Tears, some were never rounded up because they resisted or hid too well. Other present day tribes in NC include the Lumbee, Coharie, Waccamaw Siouan, Haliwa-Saponi, Meherrin, and the Indians of Person County. Many counties in NC have Indian names such as Alleghany, Alamance, Catawba (named after a tribe), Cherokee (named after a tribe), Chowan (named after a tribe), Currituck, Pasquotank (named after a tribe), and Perquimans (named after a tribe). Past tribes include the Chowanoke, Croatoan, Hatteras, Moratoc, Secotan, Weapemeoc, Machapunga, Pamlico, Coree, Neuse River, Tuscarora, Meherrin, Cherokee, Cape Fear, Catawba, Shakori, Sissipahaw, Sugeree, Waccamaw, Waxhaw, Woccon, Cheraw, Eno, Keyauwee, Occaneechi, Saponi, and Tutelo Indians. (see NC Museum of History site for more info http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/AI/TimeLine.htm)

North Carolina is a part of the sub-region called Southeastern Woodlands which is apart of the Eastern Woodlands. This region is famous for the Temple Mound Builders, Marksville, and the Mississippian Culture. The Mississippian Culture is noted for having the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico, called Cahokia with its famous Monk’s Mound (located in present day Illinois). Monk’s Mound was approximately 100 ft high and contains 600,000 cubic meters of dirt, and it covered an area 3 acres larger than the pyramid at Giza, making it one of the largest examples of prehistoric construction in the Western Hemisphere. NC is not known for any “major” sites, but the Town Creek Indian Mounds were supposedly during this period of Mississippian Culture (see NC Museum of History site for a list of Native American related sites http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/AI/Museums.htm)

I may post more info after our presentation, but for now, to learn more about life in the Americas before Columbus arrived and how things changed when he did come (worthy of a long posting in itself), check out Charles C. Mann’s book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Here is a link to his book http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781400040063&itm=3

For more maps and info on the web, check out the following links.

Maps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Americanindiansmapcensusbureau.gif (2000 census map of concentrations of Native Americans in the U.S.)
http://www.aaanativearts.com/Native_American_map.jpg (map of some major tribes’ locations)
http://nativeamericanrhymes.com/regions.htm (map of regions)
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncqualla/native.htm (NC county map of Native American tribes)
http://rla.unc.edu/lessons/Front/L006.htm (map of the location of current NC Native Americans)
http://www.mrsbogucki.com/aemes/resource/woodland/index.htm (map and quick overview of Eastern Woodlands)

Native American Cultural Areas
http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/naa/naa_web/mod13A.html (Poverty Point)
http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/naa/naa_web/mod03.html
(a breakdown of Native American cultural areas)
http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/naa/naa_web/mod13D.html (Mississippian culture)

Other Sites
http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/AI/home.htm (check out the Handouts tab for helpers)
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/northcarolina/ (an excellent list of NC Indian tribes, past and present, and their info)
http://ssw.unc.edu/fcrp/cspn/vol11_no2/aiinnc.htm (some info on NC Native Americans, including a short list of NC state-recognized tribes, but mostly this is census info)
http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/nchh/amerindian.html#17th (timeline of Indians in NC)
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NC/HISTORY/HISTORY.HTM (some info on Indians in first 5 sections of page)