Historical mysteries: Indian tribe was remarkably European

Web posted May 18, 1997

By E. Randall Floyd
Special Columnist

Pioneers pushing inland along the Lumber River in 18th-century North Carolina were surprised when they found a tribe of Englishspeaking Indians who dressed like white frontiersmen and lived in remarkably comfortable houses.

Even more astounding was the way many of the tribe looked. Although most had dark skins, a few exhibited fair complexions, blond hair and blue eyes.

Some could also read, claiming white gods had long ago taught their ancestors how to ``talk in books,'' which, the explorers understood, meant to read and write.

Who were these blue-eyed Indians?

One theory holds that the 40,000 modern Lumbees are descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony of Roanoke, a group of more than 100 men, women and children who disappeared in 1589.

Raleigh received a charter in 1584 to set up a buffer colony in the path of advancing Spanish settlers. One year later he outfitted an expedition to settle Roanoke Island, a wooded isle near the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina.

The settlement failed, mainly because of the colonists' preoccupation with finding gold rather than tending to fields. Unfriendly natives also influenced their decision to abandon the colony that summer and return to England by hitching a ride with Sir Francis Drake, who was fresh from raids in the West Indies.

In spite of tremendous personal financial losses from the first expedition, Raleigh sent 110 more colonists under the command of John White, who in time would become famous for his early drawings of colonial life in North America.

White spent about a month getting the settlement started, then returned to England for supplies. Among the settlers he left behind were his daughter, her husband, and their newborn daughter, Virginia Dare - believed to be the first child of European parents born in the New World.

Before departing, he left instructions that should the remaining colonist be forced to leave the settlement in his absence, they were to inscribe their destinations in a ``conspicuous place.''

War broke out with Spain later that year, and White was unable to return to the colony until two years later.

A grim sight awaited the governor upon his arrival at Roanoke: The settlement had been ransacked and destroyed and the entire population had vanished.

Researchers suggest that they were either captured by pirates or killed by Spanish soldiers. Others, however, contend that their tragic fate is more likely linked to a single enigmatic word Gov. White found carved into a wooden post at the site of the settlement.

That word was ``Croatan.''

Historians aren't sure what the word meant, but some believe it was the name of local Indians who may have attacked the settlement and killed the colonists. It has been suggested that after the massacre the settlers' bodies may have been hauled away and cannibalized.

Others say the settlers, approaching starvation, abandoned the island and went onto the mainland to find food. There hostile Indians might have done away with any survivors, or simply carried off women and children into slavery.

Anthropologist Charles Hudson of the University of Georgia believes Roanoke's settlers simply joined up with a local tribe in order to survive. They eventually intermarried and produced the fairskinned, blue-eyed descendants who greeted American explorers later.

Reseachers say the 18th-century Lumbees wore Europeanstyle clothes, lived in multi-room dwellings and were familiar with whiskey and the English language.}When asked to identify themselves, these Indians said they were ``Croatans'' - the same name White had found carved on the wooden palisade.

Syndicated writer E. Randall Floyd lives in Augusta.