Exploring Native American History on the Outer Banks

By Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center Staff
Jun. 12, 2023

A visit to the Outer Banks often brings attention to the beaches, fishing, restaurants, water sports, and sunsets. Yet OBX also holds remarkable history, including barrier-island places tied to important firsts and enduring stories.

Long before today’s travelers arrived on the wind-shaped shores of Hatteras Island, the earliest Outer Bankers made their lives in this coastal landscape. Much of the existing knowledge comes from John White’s early drawings and sixteenth century records, while many historians place Native American life on coastal North Carolina as early as 500 AD; some believe their presence began far earlier.

The name Hatteras Island is also rooted in that history. The island has seven villages today. On the John White map, Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo are shown in the area once associated with the Hatorask Tribe, the source from which Hatteras developed. Farther south, Avon lies along land connected with the Paquiwoc Tribe. Continuing down the island leads into the territory of the Croatoan Tribe, now Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras Village. Across the water on Ocracoke, the Wokokon Tribe once lived.

The Outer Banks tribes spoke languages within the Algonquian dialect and seem to have been connected to one another. Accounts do not describe warfare among them, although there were some conflicts with inland tribes.

These communities were settled societies that farmed, fished, hunted, and used the abundant resources around them. Large shell middens made up of oyster, clam, and scallop remains have helped researchers estimate population size. Estimates differ, but Dr. David Phelps, East Carolina University professor and archaeologist, studied Hatteras Island in the 1990s and estimated an early population at 4,000, close to the number of people living there today.

Although the island was somewhat separated from other places, ancient travelers could reach Hatteras Island through an inlet just north of modern Buxton, a passage that Mother Nature has since closed. Productive fishing areas and dense forests rich with game attracted Native people to the island. Evidence of several village sites has been discovered in present day Buxton, Frisco, and on Ocracoke Island.

Early Native Americans survived by living in balance with their surroundings, understanding the worth of living things and making use of what nature supplied. Their culture was sophisticated and complex, with systems for hunting, fishing, trade, crafts, tool making, and rotation agriculture. People lived in longhouses covered with mats woven from Cattail stems. Cattail plants served many purposes: flower fluff provided soft padding, the plant helped start fires, root gel was used for burns and scrapes, and 3 parts were eaten.

Beyond providing food, the forests gave the island’s original residents materials for vessels that extended their fishing range and allowed travel beyond the island. From cypress trees, they made strong dugout canoes capable of carrying multiple people while moving quickly and quietly across sound waters. Their weight also made them suitable for ocean currents.

Visitors to Hatteras Island may not expect to encounter a Native American museum, but the island is connected to a major historic event: the first recorded meeting between English and Native people. That encounter occurred in July 1584 near the current site of the Frisco Native American Museum. Early records include descriptions of the Native people’s appearance, manners, clothing, and hairstyles, presenting observations from English accounts of that first contact.

The Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center offers visitors a way to look into that distant past.

The museum features nationally recognized displays on Native American cultures from across the United States, while one large gallery focuses on the island’s original inhabitants. At the entrance to the gallery, visitors are greeted by a life size cut-out figure of a Native man based on 400 year old John White drawings. The tattooed warrior stands with a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows over his shoulder.

Deeper in the gallery, a dug-out canoe discovered on museum property is displayed beside life-size figures of an Algonquian woman and child, both tattooed as well.

The canoe bears signs of age and use while still holding its original graceful shape. Long, slender poles shaped for spearing fish rest inside it, making the skill and agility of Native fishermen easy to picture. The carved and hollowed log suggests quiet movement across sound waters or a pause on a sandy shoreline.

The gallery also presents artifacts discovered at the south end of Hatteras Island, along with objects revealed by Hurricane Emily in 1993 in present day Buxton.

After recognizing the significance of the materials exposed by the storm, the museum hosted several seminars to encourage support for continued investigation of the area. Those efforts led East Carolina University to carry out multiple summer archaeological digs in the Buxton area. Finds from those projects are displayed as well.

No museum can present an entire culture’s full history, but the Hatteras Island gallery at the Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center offers a meaningful glimpse into an ancient world that continues to spark imagination, curiosity, and care. That world connects with the present when visitors take part in workshops, special programs, and volunteer opportunities created to help keep older traditions alive.

Author

Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center Staff

The Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center contains a nationally recognized collection of Native American artifacts, exhibits and natural history displays. Its galleries include Native art and information about Native Americans across the United States, along with artifacts from the first people of Hatteras Island. Designated as a North Carolina Environmental Education Center and a Historic Albemarle Tour site, the museum also has several acres of nature trails running through a lush maritime forest. Facebook is used to share programs and volunteer opportunities.