The Cape Fear Indians were a small, coastal tribe of Native Americans who lived on the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Carol ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

(now Carolina Beach State Park).

Name and language

The autonym of the Cape Fear Indians may have been Daw-hee. Their name for the area was Chicora. Of their villages, only one, Necoes, is known by name. The colonists noted Necoes as about 20 miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in present-day Brunswick County.Swanton, John R. (1952; reprinted 2003). ''The Indian Tribes of North America'', p. 75. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company. Their language is unknown and may have been a

Siouan language Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the entire ...

History

Smallpox spread from Spanish colonies in Florida to the Carolinas in the 16th century. The population of the Cape Fear Indians was estimated to be 1,000 in 1600. A colonial

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

in 1715 recorded that they numbered 206. British colonist William Hilton observed 100 Indians at Cape Fear in 1662. One Indian individual sold to Hilton Cape Fear River and adjacent lands. In 1664 the settlement called Charles Towne was founded, but it was abandoned in 1667 after war broke out between the Cape Fear Indians and the settlers over British slavery of Indians. The second Charles Towne was founded near Cape Fear lands in 1670.;Rudes, Blumer, and May 308 Some Cape Fear Indians fought with their

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany *Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other N ...

allies under Colonel John Barnwell against the

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

in 1712. When the

Tuscarora War The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711 until February 11, 1715 between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamassee, and other allies on the other. This was cons ...

broke out in North Carolina in 1711, South Carolina tribes joined in the fighting. In 1712, Cape Fear warriors and the Saraw, Saxapahaw, Winyaw, and

Pedee The Pee Dee people, also Pedee and Peedee, are American Indians of the Southeast United States. Historically, their population has been concentrated in the Piedmont of present-day South Carolina. In the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists ...

served in British Captain John Bull's company to fight alongside the British against the Tuscarora and helped defeat them. As a result, most of the Tuscarora left the area and migrated north, reaching present-day New York and Ontario to join the related

Haudenosaunee Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

tribes. The Cape Fear Indians and the

Winyaw The Winyaw were a Native American tribe living near Winyah Bay, Black River, and the lower course of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The Winyaw people disappeared as a distinct entity after 1720 and are thought to have merged with the Wacc ...

migrated from their coastal villages up the

Pee Dee River The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in the Carolinas of the United States. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course, above the mouth of the Uwharrie River The Uwharri ...

adjacent to a trading post the British founded in 1716.Rudes, Blumer, and May 310 They eventually settled inland from Charleston in what is now known as

Williamsburg County, South Carolina Williamsburg County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census its population was 31,026. The county seat and largest city is Kingstree. After a previous incarnation of Williamsburg County, the current count ...

. In May 1749 provision was made by the Governor in Council to render protection to them through supplying their representatives with fifty pounds of bullets and twenty-five pounds of powder. There had previously been complaints that the Cape Fear were being abused and driven from nearby hunting lands by neighboring Europeans. It was ruled that they were a peaceable people and that their rights to hunt were protected by the government. Anthropologist

John R. Swanton John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and et ...

wrote, "In 1808 White neighbors remembered when as many as 30 Pedee and Cape Fear Indians lived in their old territories," but by this time "the Pedee and Cape Fear tribes were represented by one half-blood woman."Sawnton p. 97

Notes

References

* * * {{authority control Native American history of North Carolina Native American history of South Carolina Native American tribes in North Carolina Native American tribes in South Carolina Cape Fear (region)