The First Colony Foundation

In the 19th century, historical accounts document the movement of North Carolina’s Tuscarora from Bertie County to join their Iroquoian cousins in New York after broader patterns of migration and displacement as the early English exploration of the Carolina coast led to political upheaval, food shortages, and devastation for the indigenous Algonquian-speaking peoples. Cartographic evidence reveals that the remnant Croatoans once inhabited a broad territory, but over time, their core population dispersed. See how early English colonization, pandemics, & Roanoke & Croatan tribal movements reshaped the fate of North Carolina’s indigenous tribes.

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The draft 1586 Grant of Arms to Cittie of Raleigh lists the names of John White, governor of the Virginia Colony, and his assistants, but 2 names bear scrutiny.

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A copper earring unearthed by First Colony Foundation archaeologists at Roanoke Island’s Elizabethan Gardens was almost certainly traded – or gifted – to local Native Americans by Sir Walter Raleigh’s explorers, based on scientific tests released this week.

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Archaeologists from the First Colony Foundation discovered pieces of 16th-century Algonquian pottery and a copper ring of European origins in North Carolina.

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The story of an English settlement known as the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke and Sir Walter Raleigh’s early explorers remains one of the most fascinating mysteries of American history.

The search for what happened to the English settlers has recently focused on the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, where researchers uncovered more evidence of a farmstead belonging to the “Algonquian village of Roanoke” (also spelled Roanoac), an Indigenous community that hosted the explorers in 1584.

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First Colony Foundation will launch a new book, Excavating Fort Raleigh, by the late Ivor Noel-Hume on his archaeological search for traces of Sir Walter Raleigh’s efforts to plant an English colony on Roanoke Island, with an event at the Pioneer Theater in Manteo on Saturday, April 6, at 4 p.m. Open to the public, the free, one-hour event will include a ceremonial presentation to the Park Service, brief remarks and background on the book, followed by a Q&A session and book signing.

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