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.
List of Roanoke Colonists (1587):
White, John -- governor, "Cittie of Ralegh"; [returned to England, Aug 1587;
Indians who were in England and returned home to Roanoke with the colonists:
when White finally returned to the colony, arriving Roanoke in August 1590
the colonists he had left behind in 1587 were gone.]
Allen, Mauris
Archard, Arnold
Archard, Joyce - [female]
Archard, Thomas - [child]
Arthur, Richard
Baily, Roger - [asst. to Gov. White]
Bennett, Marke
Berde, William
Berry, Henry
Berry, Richard
Bishop, Michael
Borden, John
Bridger, John
Bright, John
Brooke, John
Browne, Henry
Brown, William
Burden, John
Butler, Thomas
Cage, Anthony
Chapman, Alis - [female]
Chapman, John
Cheven, John
Clement, William
Colman, ____(?) - [female]
Colman, Thomas,
Cooper, Christopher - [asst. to Gov. White]
Cotsmur, John
Dare, Ananias - [asst. to Gov. White]
Dare, Elynor - [daur of Gov. John White; wife of Ananias; mother of Virginia]
Dare, Virginia - [b. 18 Aug 1587 on Roanoke Isl.]
Darige, Richard
Dorrell, Henry
Dutton, William
Earnest, John
Ellis, Robert - [child]
Ellis, Thomas
English, Edmond
Farre, John
Fernandez, Simon [asst. to Gov. White- ret. to Engl, Aug 1587]
Florrie, Charles
Gibbes, John
Glane, Elizabeth - [female]
Gramme, Thomas
Harris, Thomas
Harris, Thomas --[possibly represents two diff people of same name]
Harvie, Dionis - [asst. to Gov. White]
Harvie, Margery - [female]
Harvie, ____(?) - [b. on Roanoke]
Hemmington, John
Hewet, Thomas
Howe, George [asst. to Gov. White; killed on Roanoke Island, Aug 1587]
Howe, George - [child]
Humfrey, Thomas - [child]
Hynde, James
Johnson, Henry
Johnson, Nicholas
Jones, Griffen
Jones, Jane - [female]
Jones, John
Kemme, Richard
Lasie, James
Lawrence, Margaret - [female]
Little, Peter
Little, Robert
Lucas, William
Mannering, Jane - [female]
Martyn, George
Merrimoth, Emme - [female]
Myllet, Michael
Mylton, Henry
Newton, Humfrey
Nichols, William
Paine, Henry
Pattenson, Hugh [yes, PatteNson]
Payne, Rose - [female]
Phevens, Thomas
Pierce, Jane - [female]
Powell, Edward
Powell, Wenefrid - [female]
Prat, John - [child]
Prat, Roger - [asst. to Gov. White]
Rufoote, Henry
Sampson, John - [asst. to Gov. White]
Sampson, John - [child]
Scot, Thomas
Shabedge, Richard
Smart, Thomas -[child]
Smith, Thomas
Sole, William
Spendlove, John
Starte, John
Stevens, Thomas - [asst. to Gov. White]
Stilman, John
Sutton, Martin
Tappan, Audry - [female]
Taverner, Richard
Tayler, Clement
Tayler, Hugh
Tomkins, Richard
Topan, Thomas
Tydway, John
Viccars, Ambrose
Viccars, Ambrose - [child]
Viccars, Elizabeth - [female]
Warner, Thomas
Warren, Joan - [female]
Waters, William
White, Cuthbert
Wildye, Richard
Wilkinson, Robert
Willes, William
Wood, Agnes - [female]
Wotton, Lewes
Wright, John
Wyles, Brian
Wyles, John
Wythers, William - [child]
Manteo
Towaye
