NC Indian Tribes

​There are 3 regions in our state:

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Each region in our state was thehome to different tribes of Native Americans.

• The Cherokees were the largest Native American group living in the Mountain Region.

• Cherokee means

  • Cherokee means “Speakers of another language”

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  “Speakers of another language”

• ​The Cherokees spoke a language in the Iroquoian language family.

• “Osiyo” = hello

  “Wado” = thank you​

• ​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEXKjyqTw1o&feature=share&list=UUuqKGb4re9a5TssItxrTw6Q

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• ​Cherokee girls and women worked in the fields, prepared food, made baskets, and took care of the children.

• Cherokee boys and men hunted and fished.

• ​Cherokee villages held the Green Corn Ceremony to give thanks for a good harvest.

• ​Cherokees built large, sturdy, rectangular homes for shelter.

• ​A hole in the roof let out smoke from the fire pit below.

• ​The Catawba's were the largest group of Native Americans living in the Piedmont Region.  There were between 5,000 and 6,000 members.

• ​“The People of the River”

• ​The Catawba's spoke the Siouan language and the Catawba language.

• ​“Hawoh” = thank you

• ​The Catawba government was democratic.  All members of the community would meet and discuss problems.

• ​The Catawba people hunted, gathered food, and farmed.

• ​Catawba lived in small villages along the river.  They made round houses.

• ​One tradition was called “The Three Sisters,” which was planting beans, corns, and squash in the same mound of dirt.

• ​Tribes in the Coastal Plain Region included: Hatteras, Roanokes, Croatoans, Secotans, Pamlicos, and Tuscaroras.

• ​The Coastal Plain Native Americans spoke the Algonquian languages.

• ​The Algonquian languages can still be heard in English today:chipmunk, raccoon, pecan, hickory, skunk, and succotash are all Algonquian words.

• ​The government was democratic.  The chief of the tribe would make the final decisions.

• ​Shells were cut and made into strings of beads called wampum.  Wampum was traded for other goods.

• ​They fished using weirs to trap fish.

• ​A cultural tradition was making pottery.  Clay was used, mixed with crushed shell bits to make bowls, pipes, and arrowheads.

• ​Their villages were along the rivers and sounds.  They built longhouses made of wooden frames with rounded roofs covered with bark or grass.

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