History buff searches for Lost Colony[Roanoke]

The News & Observer ^ | 25 Oct 2006 | Catherine Clabby

[arthurus]

CROATAN

[TYVets]

Dare is a big name among the local Indian derivatives.

Within the last 10 years genealogists have started using the DNA samples of people now living to piece together information about common ancestors.

Proof that the survivors went native may be discovered as DNA research continues.

[BIGLOOK]

There were other places that were established over time that fly under the historical radar. Roanoke was meant to be a colony, Jamestown followed as did Plymouth. Whale oil was was in demand and whalers spotted outposts along the NE coasts for fresh water and meat. These took years to take hold but succeeded while other (ill) planned colonies struggled.

Cui Bono? Profit, Chief.

[Jack Hammer]

"Despite failing to sustain a settlement, they were England's earliest LAND GRAB in North America."

LOL. Those evil White people again.

[Caramelgal]

Are you suggesting that the English settlers who vanished from Roanoke Island went “native’ in the same way that sailors of the Bounty went “native” on Pitcairn Island?

That’s an interesting hypothesis and one I haven’t heard about before.

It does make some sense in that the desire for survival is a strong force among all humans and the natives may not have objected to their assimilation and could explain the reason for the lack of human remains at the settlement site.

But aside from some native Indians with surnames from the colony's roster and antidotal suggestions that some Indians looked more like Englishmen, what is the archeological or anthropologic evidence to support this hypothesis?

The English settlers who vanished from Roanoke Island could have just have reasonably died from a combination of starvation, disease and Indian raids.

The issue of surnames, if adopted in later times can be explained as having nothing to do with the original settlers as well as inter marriage among later English and natives could explain the “English” looking Indians. It could be a more recent phenomenon and not related to the original settlement.

Interesting theory though.

[CWOJackson]

The same situation existed in Florida. Spain attempted some colonies (four - six?) and they all failed. Once the French established a fort and colony in their territory Spain got serious and established St. Augustine.

I was surprised to learn that at the time the English attempted their first colony St. Augustine was thriving to the point where it had schools and a road system. I didn't learn this in school though...I had to read about it later myself.

[arthurus]

I wait for that, and for another similar "mystery" about the disappearance of the Greenland colonists when the Medieval Warm slid into the Little Ice Age. I suspect they gradually increased their hunting and went for longer and longer hunting trips as agriculture became less productive. They had met and knew of the indigenous folks and it would be natural to accompanythem on occasional then more than occasional walrus and seal hunting trips. I would bet that the Inuit have traces of Nordic genes.

[arthurus]

All true, but the individual Indians that looked like Englishmen observations were made in the first years of Jamestown. After 20 years the few Roanoke adult survivors would likely all be dead just because living "native" in those environs meant generally that a thirty year old was a respected elder and a 60 year old was next to mythical.

[JSteff]

Yes there was a thing on discovery or history channel on that subject. The conclusion was that the many of the colony blended into native tribes to survive the winter.

The colonists did not disappear their dna did end up blended into the native American tribes.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam and lesser_satan. Won't ping it, will add it. Possibly of interest to Pharmboy. Blam, an earlier topic mentioning Phil Evans.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
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[SunkenCiv]

perhaps of interest -- viking greenland site:freerepublic.com

Google

[BIGLOOK]

I didn't learn this in school though...I had to read about it later myself.

Nor did I. It was part of my family history which I paid little attention to.....more interested in cars and girls and guns. But it was brought up in middle school by my history teacher who took me aside and gave me a hard assignment. Said I had an old family name and challenged me to to explore more deeply into my family's history; how they arrived, how they lived and how they succeeded while planned colonies failed.

My history teacher's name was Ponte; he was a Spaniard,

[adeodatus]

Croatoan -- I think. The name of a local tribe and/or a local island.

[guinnessman]

That's it.

Thanks!

[blam]

"Blam, an earlier topic mentioning Phil Evans."

Thanks, I thought this all sounded faintly familiar, lol.

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologist promises to return Croatan ring (N.C. / Lost Colony)
Durham Herald-Sun (Durham, NC) | September 3, 2002 | The Associated Press
Posted on 09/04/2002 10:21:06 AM EDT by Constitution Day
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/744407/posts

Volunteers To Dig Into Croatan Indian Village Site Again ("Lost Colony")
Virginian - Pilot | 5-28-2006 | Catherine Kozak
Posted on 05/28/2006 9:25:38 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639893/posts

[southernnorthcarolina]

Good stuff. Thanks for posting it.

For those unfamiliar with NC geography, Roanoke Island is just inside the Outer Banks chain of barrier islands. The city of Roanoke, VA, and the town of Roanoke Rapids, NC have only a vague connection to Roanoke Island: both are far upstream on the Roanoke River, which empties into Albemarle Sound 60 miles or so west of Roanoke Island.

The Native American connection is controversial, with some among the Lumbee tribe, now centered in Robeson County, south of Fayetteville and approximately 200 miles SW of Roanoke Island, claiming descent from the Croatroan tribe. Quite a few Lumbees have blue eyes, which some cite as evidence of intimate contact with the British colonists.

As always, history involves conjecture and disagreement. North Carolina's status as home to the first "permanent" English settlement is disputed (does a failed "permanent" settlement count?); our claim to being the home of the First State University is challenged by some Georgians; and our claim to being First in Flight based on Wilbur and Orville Wright's 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk (only 15 miles or so from Roanoke Island) is challenged by Ohioans who point out that the brothers were from Dayton and fabricated the plane there.

More tenuous is our claim as Andrew Jackson's birthplace near my present abode (most historians, not to mention Jackson himself, think he was born just over the line in South Carolina), and more unrealistic still is the claim of Charlotte as the site of the Mecklenburg [County] Declaration of Independence, May 20, 1775, thus predating the Declaration of Independence -- a claim few outside of North Carolina take seriously.

History is fun, but not to be taken too seriously. It's usually written by the winners, and revised to their will. If historical facts of relatively recent vintage can be the subject of so much disagreement, it boggles the mind to ponder how truly ancient history has evolved after the fact.

[BIGLOOK]

Addenda: Whale oil, sugar and later, cotton founded this country.

[lafroste]

I own a brick from the original fort. It was dug up by my mom in the 1950's. Croatan.

[SunkenCiv]

Odds were definitely in favor. ;')