Pamlico

The Pamlico (or Pomouik) were a Native American people of North Carolina. They spoke an Algonquian language also known as Pamlico or Carolina Algonquian.

Geography

The Pamlico Indians lived on the Pamlico River in North Carolina. Named after them were Pamlico Sound, the largest sound in North Carolina, and Pamlico County. They are one of the most southerly Algonquian tribes on the Atlantic seaboard, and the most southerly one for which scholars collected a vocabulary.

History

The Raleigh colonists referred to the Pamlico in 1585-86 by the name Pomoui.

17th century history

In 1695, smallpox, called "A great Mortality", devastated the Pamlico and neighboring Algonquian communities and reduced their populations. In 1701 the explorer John Lawson noted their Algonquian language and vocabulary (Lawson, 1860). By 1710 the Pamlico people were so limited that they lived in a single small village.

By 1709 the total North Carolina Algonquian population was down to some 600 from at least several thousand at the time of English encounter. The Tuscarora War, 1711-1713, claimed more fatalities among the Algonquian allies than of the Tuscarora. In the late stages, the Tuscarora turned on some of their allies. They likely incorporated some of the Pamlico as slaves. By the end of the century, only a handful of Algonkians remained.