in 1590 to find the word "Croatoan" carved on a
palisade. Some of the survivors of the
Lost Colony of Roanoke may have joined the Croatan.
Governor White finally reached
Roanoke Island on August 18, 1590, three years after he had last seen them there, but he found his colony had been long deserted. The buildings had collapsed and "the houses [were] taken down." The few clues about the colonists' whereabouts included the letters "CROATOAN" carved into a
palisade. Croatoan was the name of a nearby island (likely modern-day
Hatteras Island) in addition to the local tribe of Native Americans. Roanoke Island was not originally the planned location for the colony and the idea of moving elsewhere had been discussed. Before the Governor's departure, he and the colonists had agreed that a message would be carved into a tree if they had moved and would include an image of a
Maltese Cross if the decision was made by force. White found no such cross and was hopeful that his family was still alive.
Speculation of the fate of the "Lost Colony" In 1709, English explorer
John Lawson wrote
A New Voyage to Carolina, in which he recounts the history of North Carolina. He describes the remains of an English fort on Roanoke Island, and then conjectures that the "Hatteras Indians" were descended from the settlers at Roanoke, stating "A farther Confirmation of this we have from the
Hatteras Indians, who either then lived on
Ronoak-Island, or much frequented it. These tell us, that several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book, as we do; the Truth of which is confirm’d by gray Eyes being found frequently amongst these
Indians, and no others." Based on legend, some
Lumbees, based in
North Carolina, self-identified as descendants of the Croatan and survivors of the
Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. In 1885, historian Hamilton McMillan proposed a connection between the Lumbees and the early English colonists who settled on Roanoke Island in 1587 and the Algonquian tribes who inhabited coastal North Carolina at the same time. McMillan's hypothesis contends that the colonists migrated with the Indians inland. In 1914, when Special Indian Agent O. M. McPherson was reporting on the rights of various Indian groups, he published a list of names of the Lost Colony, claiming names on the list were typical Indian names in the North Carolina counties of Robeson and Sampson, due to them interbreeding with other settlers, claiming many of the surnames included were those of Croatan Indians. Sociolinguist
Walt Wolfram suggests that identifying with the prestige of Roanoke settler origin served to elevate their sense of privilege though association with European rather than African lineage, while simultaneously maintaining a Native American claim to identity.
Research Researchers from the
University of Bristol, United Kingdom, have also been excavating on Hatteras Island in conjunction with the Croatoan Archaeological Society. Roberta Estes founded the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research which excavated English artifacts within the territory of the former Croatan tribe. The artifacts may also be evidence of trade with the tribe or of Natives finding them at the former colony site. The center conducted the Lost Colony DNA Project to try to determine if there are European lines among Croatan descendants. However, no bones from the Lost Colony have been found to sequence DNA, and, as of 2019, the project had not identified any living descendants. == Modern claimants ==