More than 50,000 Indians lived in the area now known as North Carolina at the time of Christopher Columbuss arrival in the New World. The Formation North Carolina Coastal and Eastern Counties examines the history of this Native American Indian population. It also focuses upon the formation of North Carolina from colonial times; tracing the origins of its earliest settlers, including Native Americans. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the number of American Indians on official census rolls had been reduced drastically, possibly due to the threat of removal of people identified as Indians. Still, the Indian population thrived in spite of governmental attempts to remove them. Author Milton E. Campbell offers extensive documentation of the survival of Native American Indians and their culture into the twenty-first century in North Carolina. The first three chapters of the book lay the foundation for chapters discussing individual Native American Tribes within North Carolina. Also included is an overview of the surnames that were identified as Indian names in the 1900 Census of Robeson County. The conclusion includes three short personal interviews on Native American ancestry in North Carolina Coastal and Eastern Counties. Explore the intriguing and fascinating history of eastern North Carolina with this detailed, engaging study.

In the early 1800s, dozens of Siouan-speaking Cheraw families, including Catawbas and Lumbees, fled war and oppression in the Carolinas and migrated to Florida, just as native Apalachicola Creeks were migrating away. Being neither Black nor White, the Cheraw descendants were persecuted by the harsh ¿racial¿ dichotomy of the Jim Crow era and almost forgot their proud heritage. Today they have rediscovered their past. This is their story. S. Pony Hill was born in Jackson County, Florida. He holds a degree in Criminal Justice from Keiser University, Deans List, and Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society member. He was previously a contract researcher for federal acknowledgement grants through the Administration for Native Americans and several tribes including the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee in Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation, and the Sumter Band of Cheraw Indians (SC). He specializes in southeastern Indian archival research and ethno history. He is the author of Patriot Chiefs and Loyal Braves, available online and the recently released book Strangers in their Own Land: South Carolinas State Indian Tribes. He currently lives with his family in San Antonio TX. Christopher Scott Sewell was born in New Bern, North Carolina. He holds a degree in Sociology from Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. He has worked extensively as a contract researcher in the field of Southeastern populations, and has been involved in Native American rights issues for twenty years. He currently lives with his family in Bristol, Florida.

Genealogists and other historical researchers have valued the first two editions of this work, often referred to as the genealogist's bible."" The new edition continues that tradition. Intended as a handbook and a guide to selecting, locating, and using appropriate primary and secondary resources, The Source also functions as an instructional tool for novice genealogists and a refresher course for experienced researchers. More than 30 experts in this field--genealogists, historians, librarians, and archivists--prepared the 20 signed chapters, which are well written, easy to read, and include many helpful hints for getting the most out of whatever information is acquired. Each chapter ends with an extensive bibliography and is further enriched by tables, black-and-white illustrations, and examples of documents. Eight appendixes include the expected contact information for groups and institutions that persons studying genealogy and history need to find. ""

The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, NC, written by George Edwin Butler (1868-1941) and composed only a year after Special Indian Agent Orlando McPherson's Indians of North Carolina report, was an appeal to the state of North Carolina to create schools for the "Croatans" of Sampson County just as it had for those designated as Croatans in, for example, Robeson County, North Carolina. Butler's report would prove to be important in an evolving system of southern racial apartheid that remained uncertain of the place of Native Americans. It documents a troubled history of cultural exchange and conflict between North Carolina's native peoples and the European colonists who came to call it home. The report reaches many erroneous conclusions, in part because it was based in an anthropological framework of white supremacy, segregation-era politics, and assumptions about racial "purity." Indeed, Butler's colonial history connecting Sampson County Indians to early colonial settlers was used to legitimize them and to deflect their categorization as African-Americans. In statements about the fitness of certain populations to coexist with European-American neighbors and in sympathetic descriptions of nearly-white "Indians," it reveals the racial and cultural sensibilities of white North Carolinians, the persistent tensions between tolerance and self-interest, and the extent of their willingness to accept indigenous "Others" as neighbors. A DOCSOUTH BOOK. This collaboration between UNC Press and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library brings classic works from the digital library of Documenting the American South back into print. DocSouth Books uses the latest digital technologies to make these works available in paperback and e-book formats. Each book contains a short summary and is otherwise unaltered from the original publication. DocSouth Books provide affordable and easily accessible editions to a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers.

In 1913 the State of North Carolina officially recognized Robeson County Indians as "Cherokees," a designation that went largely unnoticed by the Federal Government. When the same Indians petitioned for Federal recognition and assistance in 1915, the Senate tasked the Office of Indian Affairs to report on the "tribal rights and conditions" of those Robeson County Indians. Special Indian Agent Orlando McPherson, a Midwesterner who was in the final stages of a long career as a civil servant, was commissioned to investigate. The resulting federal report is essentially literature review in the guise of fact-finding. It relies heavily on Robeson county legislator Hamilton McMillan's musings on the relationship between Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony and the Indians around Robeson County. The report reaches many erroneous conclusions, in part because it was based in an anthropological framework of white supremacy, segregation-era politics, and assumptions about racial "purity." In fact, later researchers would establish that the Lumbees, as Malinda Lowery writes, "are survivors from the dozens of tribes in that territory who established homes with the Native people, as well as free European and enslaved African settlers, who lived in what became their core homeland: the low-lying swamplands along the border of North and South Carolina." Excavations would later establish the presence of Native people in that homeland since at least 1000 A.D. Ironically, McPherson's murky colonial history connecting Lumbees to early colonial settlers was used to legitimize them and to deflect their categorization as African-Americans. The McPherson report documents one important phase of an Indian people's long path to self-determination and political recognition, a path that would designate them variously as Croatan, Cherokee Indians of Robeson County, Siouan Indians of the Lumber River, and finally, Lumbee--the title of their own choosing and the one we use today. A DOCSOUTH BOOK. This collaboration between UNC Press and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library brings classic works from the digital library of Documenting the American South back into print. DocSouth Books uses the latest digital technologies to make these works available in paperback and e-book formats. Each book contains a short summary and is otherwise unaltered from the original publication. DocSouth Books provide affordable and easily accessible editions to a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers.

Includes "Index to The Carolina Indian Voice" for January 18, 1973-February 4, 1993 (p. 189-248).