Pamlico
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as a tribe | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| North Carolina | |
| Languages | |
| Algonquian (historical) | |
| Religion | |
| Tribal religion (historical) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Chowanoke, Machapunga |
The Pamlico (also Pampticough, Pomouik, Pomeiok) were a Native American people of North Carolina. They spoke an Algonquian language also known as Pamlico or Carolina Algonquian.
The Pamlico Indians lived on the Pamlico River in North Carolina. Named after them were Pamlico Sound, the largest sound in North Carolina, and Pamlico County. They are one of the most southerly Algonquian tribes on the Atlantic seaboard, and the most southerly one for which scholars collected a vocabulary.
The Raleigh colonists referred to the Pamlico in 1585-86 by the name Pomoui.
In 1695, smallpox, called "A great Mortality", devastated the Pamlico and neighboring Algonquian communities and reduced their populations. In 1701 the explorer John Lawson noted their Algonquian language and vocabulary (Lawson, 1860). By 1710 the Pamlico people were so limited that they lived in a single small village.
By 1709 the total North Carolina Algonquian population was down to some 600 from at least several thousand at the time of English encounter. The Tuscarora War, 1711-1713, claimed more fatalities among the Algonquian allies than of the Tuscarora. In the late stages, the Tuscarora turned on some of their allies. They likely incorporated some of the Pamlico as slaves. By the end of the century, only a handful of Algonkians remained.
With the decrease in numbers came the loss of tribal lands. Thus, the Weapemeoc Indians sold their lands on Albemarle Sound in 1660 and 1662 and started to move to the interior. By 1697 they complained against the encroachments of white settlers in their new location. The English assigned a reservation on Bennetts Creek to the Chawanokes (Chowan) before 1700; they reduced its sized from 12 to 6 square miles (16 km2) by 1707; the Chowanoke sold off land in 1713. After the Tuscarora War, the Machapunga also were assigned to a reservation. Other groups on the Pamlico Sound joined either the Machapunga or the Tuscarora.
...
Wikipedia