FIRST 

 ON THE LAND 



By Kathy Hart 



With much fanfare and hoopla, the 

 United States will celebrate Christopher 

 Columbus' discovery of America this 

 fall. Although many historians now 

 question that Columbus was the "first" 

 European discoverer of this New 

 World, we will nonetheless celebrate 

 his voyage as the key event that opened 

 the gate for European discovery and 

 expansion. 



But as sure as Columbus opened the 

 door for Europe to come calling, he 

 shut it on those who truly had the right 

 to claim the forests and the plains, the 

 rivers and the valleys as their own — 

 the American Indians. 



With the arrival of the Europeans 

 came deadly diseases, guns that killed, 

 a growing hunger to own the land and 

 an attitude of superiority and conquest. 

 Combined, these factors proved fatal to 

 vast numbers of Native Americans, 

 who numbered 50 to 60 million in 

 North America at the time of European 

 contact, says Stanley Knick, director of 

 the Native American Resource Center 

 at Pembroke State University. 



Knick estimates that as many as 

 200,000 Indians representing three 

 language familes — the Algonkians, 

 the Iroquoians and the Siouans — 

 inhabited eastern North Carolina. 



The Algonkians were part of a large 

 population of Native Americans who 

 lived along the coast and tidewater 

 region from about the Neuse River in 

 North Carolina to Canada. 



The Iroquoians — mainly the 

 Tuscaroras — inhabited the inland 

 northern Coastal Plain. They were part 

 of a larger Iroquoian-speaking group of 

 nations that included the Cherokees and 

 tribes near the Great Lakes. 



The Siouans lived in the southern 

 Coastal Plain from the Neuse River 

 south. Their kinsmen also populated the 

 Piedmont and other areas of South 

 Carolina and perhaps Virginia. 



a SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1992 



