Chowanoc
16th-century territories of the North Carolina Algonquian | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as a tribe (1820) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Chowan River, North Carolina; later Catawba River, South Carolina | |
| Languages | |
| Algonquian | |
| Religion | |
| Tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Coree, Machapunga, Weapemeoc |
The Chowanoc, also Chowanoke, were an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe who historically lived near the Chowan River in North Carolina. At the time of the first English contact in 1580s, they were a large and influential tribe and remained so through the mid-17th century. In 1677, after the Chowanoc War, English colonists set aside a reservation for the tribe near Bennett Creek.
The Chowanoc suffered high mortality due to infectious disease, including a smallpox epidemic in 1696. By 1733 descendants of the Chowanoc had assimilated with the Tuscarora. In 1775, James Adair, an Irish-born trader and historian, noted ‘Chowan’ as a language still spoken within the Catawba Nation in South Carolina. The Chowanoc are academically considered to have ceased to exist as an independent entity by, at the latest, 1820.