Category: 16. Origins of the tribe

535. Swanton, John R. “Probable identity of the 'Croatan Indians'.” U.S. Dept. of Interior. Office of Indian Affairs. Washington, DC, 1933. 5p.

Availability: Sampson-Livermore Library, UNC-Pembroke. Reprinted in Senate Report 73-204 (23 Jan. 1934; The Lumbee Indians: An annotated biblography, entry 1347) and House Report 73-1752 (23 May 1934; The Lumbee Indians: An annotated biblography, entry 1348). Excerpted in The Lumbee Petition, 83.7 HN pp. 68-70.

Croatans “are descended mainly from certain Siouan tribes of which the most prominent were Cheraw and Keyauwee.” Probably the Eno, Shakori, Waccamaw, and Cape Fear also contributed. Disagrees with the Lost Colony and Cherokee origin theories. The National Anthropological Archives has notes and correspondence collected by Swanton (manuscript group 4126) while writing this paper. The materials include (1) a 5-page mimeographed draft of this report, with a handwritten note at the end: “A more accurate designation would be ‘Siouan Indians of Lumber River,’ or something similar”; (2) rough notes from Swanton’s research on Croatan surnames, census counts, and history; and (3) a 1934 letter written by Douglas Rights regarding Croatans in Alamance and Rockingham Counties, North Carolina.

This annotation first appeared in The Lumbee Indians: An Annotated Bibliography (McFarland, 1994), by Glenn Ellen Starr.

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