Enoch Lawrence Lee - Indian Wars in North Carolina

Many years ago North Carolina was a battlefield on which its native people fought to survive. The greater portion of this struggle took place in the century between 1663 and 1763. At the beginning of this period North Carolina became an English colony when King Charles II granted it to eight of his loyal followers, the Lords Proprietors. It was then an almost unbroken forest that stretched westward from the sea coast over the low and flat Coastal Plain; across the rolling hills of the Piedmont Plateau and up and over the lofty mountains of the west. At the time of the grant to the Lords Proprietors, a few white settlers had already begun to come into the area. To them, and to others who followed for many years thereafter, this forest was both a friend and a foe. On one hand, it provided timber and fuel, food and medicine, and many other things necessary to life. When cleared, it also provided land for cultivation. But endless toil was the price of a share of this treasure of nature. Courage, too, was needed, because the forest also sheltered the native Indians, to whom it had long been a home and who were not willing to have it taken from them.

Within the forest the Indians lived a primitive life in which they depended on nature to supply their simple needs. Suddenly, they were confronted with a more complicated way of life known as Western Civilization which the whites brought with them from Europe and which they sought to transplant on American soil. The ways of life of the two races were too different for one race to accept that of the other. As a result, a struggle over possession of the land followed. In this struggle, it was the good fortune of the whites that their advanced civilization was the more powerful. It was the misfortune of the Indians that the more advanced civilization was also the more destructive. Before the relentless white tide, the Indians were eventually crushed, but not before they had shed their own blood and the blood of countless whites. To the very end, the Indian fought to save his home and his people.

In his struggle for survival, the Indian has emerged as a savage villain. In part, this is because certain of his practices were cruel and barbarous when measured by the standards of Western Civilization. In part, it is because the story of the conflict between the two races has been told by white men who alone possessed a written language to record it. The story has become distorted because those who recorded it were generally too close to the horrors of the conflict to view the enemy with sympathy and understanding. Nevertheless, it is a story that can be seen in its true proportions only with some knowledge of the Indians as human beings. Fortunately, from the pens of certain writers of the time we are able to learn something of these people and of their way of life. Among the earliest of these writers was John Lawson, naturalist and historian, who lived and travelled among them.

When Europeans first arrived in North Carolina there were only three important tribes, or nations, in the region. In the order of their size they were the Cherokee of the western mountains, the largest; the Catawba Nation of the Piedmont Plateau and the Tuscarora of the Coastal Plain. The Cherokee and Tuscarora were members of the Iroquoian language group while the Catawba were Siouan. As settlers moved westward from the coast they came into contact with these tribes at different times and, because of their location, the Coastal Plain Indians were the first to attract attention. In addition to the Tuscarora, the natives of this region included several small tribes that were important only because they existed at a time when the white settlers were also few.

About 1660, the Coastal Plain Indians numbered approximately 30,000. About a half century later, rum, small-pox and intertribal warfare had reduced them to no more than 5,000, which was about the same as the white population of the time. From John Lawson and other sources we learn something of the distribution of the Indian population about 1710. The largest tribe, the Tuscarora, numbered about 4,000 persons, including between 1,200 and 1,400 warriors. At some unknown time in the past, they had separated from their kinsmen, the Iroquoian Five Nations Confederation in the north, and at Lawson's time they occupied an extensive inland area stretching from the upper Neuse northward to the Roanoke River. They also hunted as far south as Cape Fear. A few miles to the south of the Tuscarora the Woccon, a Siouan tribe of about 350 persons, lived, and to the northward there were about 150 Meherrin Indians, an Iroquoian tribe living along the Meherrin River. Eastward, and extending southward from the Virginia border to the Neuse River there were several Algonquian tribes, members of a separate language group with a total population of perhaps 500 persons. The Chowanoc, Pasquotank, Poteskeet and Yeopim, about 200 in all, lived above the Albemarle Sound. The remaining 300, members of the Pamlico, Hatteras, Matchapunga and Bay, or Bear, River tribes were located below the Sound. The Neusioc and Coree, Iroquoian tribes located on the Neuse River and Core Sound, had a combined population of about 125 people. Farther to the southward the Cape Fears, a Siouan tribe of about 200 members, lived along the lower Cape Fear, but were considered South Carolina Indians.

In addition to the Indians who lived on the Coastal Plain there were also outside tribes which came in from time to time to make war on the local natives. Of these invaders, the most feared were warriors of the Five Nations Confederation of New York, usually identified as the Seneca, the name of a member tribe. The Shawnee of the north and west were also frequent and destructive visitors.

Location of principal Indian tribes in North Carolina from 1663-1763

In addition to the Indians who lived on the Coastal Plain there were also outside tribes which came in from time to time to make war on the local natives. Of these invaders, the most feared were warriors of the Five Nations Confederation of New York, usually identified as the Seneca, the name of a member tribe. The Shawnee of the north and west were also frequent and destructive visitors.

In the beginning, the Indians usually welcomed the Europeans as friends with whom they could share the land. Too late to save themselves, they realized the whites did not wish to share but to possess alone. The Lords Proprietors repeatedly urged the colonists to cultivate friendly relations with the natives, but the colonists refused to follow the advice. Strange to say, they can to look upon the natives as intruders even though, as John Lawson wrote, "We have abandoned our own Native Soil, to drive them out, and possess theirs." The whites also looked upon the Indians "with Scorn and Disdain, and think them little better than Beasts in Human Shape." Far from being "Beasts in Human Shape," the natives were fine specimens of humanity who were described by their friend, Lawson, in the following words:

The Indians of North-Carolina are a well-shaped clean-made People, of different Statures, as the Europeans are, yet chiefly inclined to be tall. They are a very straight People, and never bend forwards or stoop in the Shoulders, unless much overpowered by old Age. Their limbs are exceeding well shaped. Their Bodies are a little flat, which is occasioned by being laced down to a Board in their Infancy... Their Eyes are black, or of a dark Hazel; The White is marbled with red Streaks, which is ever common to these People... Their [skin] Colour is of a tawny, which would not be so dark if they did not dawb themselves with Bear's Oil, and a Colour like burnt Cork. This is begun in their Infancy and continued for a long time, which fills the Pores and enables them better to endure the Extremity of the Weather. They are never bald on their Heads, although never so old, which I believe, proceeds from their Heads being always uncovered, and the greasing their Hair, so often as they do, with Bear's Fat, which is a great Nourisher of the Hair, and causes it to grow very fast. Amongst the Bear's Oil (when they intend to be fine) they mix a certain red Powder, that comes from a Scarlet Root... With this and Bear's Grease they anoint their Heads and Temples, which is esteemed as ornamental... Their eyes are commonly full and manly, and their Gate sedate and majestic... They are dexterous and steady, but as to their Hands and Feet, to Admiration. They will walk over deep Brooks and Creeks on the smallest Poles, and without any Fear or Concern... In Running, Leaping or any such other Exercise, their Legs seldom miscarry and give them a Fall; and as for letting anything fall out of their Hands, I never yet knew one Example. I never saw a Dwarf amongst them, nor but one that was Hump-backed. Their teeth are yellow with Smoaking Tobacco, which both Men and Women are much addicted to... They have no Hairs on their Faces, (except some few) and those but little... They are continually plucking it away from their Faces by the Roots... As there are found very few, or scarce any, Deformed or Cripples amongst them, so neither did I ever see but one blind Man; and then they would give me no account how his Blindness came... No People have better eyes, or see better in the Night or Day than the Indians. Some alledge that the Smoke of the Pitch-Pine which they chiefly burn, does both preserve and strengthen the Eyes... They let their Nails grow very long, which they reckon, is the Use Nails are designed for, and laugh at the Europeans for paring theirs, which, they say disarms them of that which Nature designed them for. They are not of so robust and strong Bodies as to lift great Burdens, and endure Labour and Slavish Work, as the Europeans are; yet some that are Slaves, prove very good and laborious; But of themselves, they never work as the English do, taking care for no farther than what is absolutely necessary to support Life. In Traveling and Hunting, they are very indefatigable, because that carries a Pleasure along with the Profit. I have known some of them very strong; and as for Running and Leaping, they are extraordinary Fellows, and will dance for several Nights together with the greatest Briskness imaginable, their Wind never failing them.