Native+Americans

The Algonquins are a Native American tribe that lived in small groups on the North Carolina coast. They spoke the Algonquin language, and are depicted in the famous paintings done by John White. The Algonquins relied on fish as their main food source but also ate fruits, walnuts, cucumbers, peas, roots, and corn. **Tuscarora ** The Tuscarora populated almost all of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. These Native Americans got their name for how they used hemp to make rope and binding cord. (Tuscarora means “hemp gatherers.") The Tuscarora were related to the Iroquois nation of New York. One thing that an early explorer observed about these people was that their bodies were flat. This is because Tuscarora children were laced down to boards when they were babies, giving them the correct form of posture.  **Catawba **  The Catawba lived in the Piedmont of North Carolina. This tribe was distinguished by the black pottery the made out of different clays in the area. They spoke various dialects of the Sioux language. In fact, the Catawba were distant kin to the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains.   **Cherokee **  The Cherokee is the most famous tribe of North Carolina, and they lived, and still live in the Mountains region of North Carolina. Like the Tuscarora they are also distant kin to the Iroquois. It is said they may have numbered more than 30,000 in the late Woodland Period. But then their numbers dwindled as settlers moved into the area. Since the Cherokee didn’t have access to clay to make pottery, they wove intricate baskets from green strips of tender branches from oak trees. So skillfully were these baskets crafted, that they have been recognized as some of the most beautiful works of art made by North Carolinians.
 * Algonquin **