Coree

The Coree (also Connamox, Cores, Corennines, Connamocksocks, Coranine Indians, Neuse River Indians) were a very small Native American tribe, who once occupied a coastal area south of the Neuse River in southeastern North Carolina in the area now covered by Carteret and Craven counties. Early 20th-century scholars were unsure of what language they spoke, but the coastal areas were mostly populated by Iroquois and Algonquian peoples.

History

The Coree were not described by English colonists until 1701, by which time their population had already been reduced to as few as 125 members, likely due to epidemics of infectious disease and warfare. In the early 18th century, the Coree and several other tribes were allied with the Iroquoian Tuscarora against the colonists. In 1711, they participated in the Tuscarora War, trying to drive out the English settlers. The Native Americans were unsuccessful and suffered many fatalities.

By 1715, some Coree merged with the remaining members of the nearby Algonquian Machapunga and Tuscarora people and settled in their single village of Mattamuskeet in present-day Hyde County. This was on the shore of Lake Mattamuskeet. Other Coree remained in Carteret county (especially in isolated areas such as Indian Beach, Atlantic Beach, Harkers Island- formerly known as Craney Island, Core Creek, and swamp lands). Descendants gradually married and assimilated into the European-American and African-American populations.