As a result of England’s colonizing efforts in the late sixteenth century, the Native American cultures of the North Carolina coastal region (Figure 1) are particularly well documented. This has long made them attractive to archaeologists as subjects for "direct historical approach" projects. The Pomeiooc Archaeological Project, a co-operative effort of the East Carolina University Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Friends of North Carolina Archaeology, Inc., the Hyde County Historical Society and the Office of State Archaeology, is the latest such endeavor. The project aimed to locate and identify the archaeological remains of the Native American town of Pomeiooc.

Pomeiooc, probably a typical "chiefly" village of the Carolina Algonquians, was visited by a group of Englishmen in 1585 during the period of Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated attempt to establish an English colony on nearby Roanoke Island. Among the visitors to Pomeiooc was John White, an accomplished artist and future governor of the "Lost Colony". White produced a famous set of watercolors (Hulton 1984) on New World subjects. Included among them is a view of Pomeiooc and a map of the Carolina Sounds region that locates Pomeiooc between Lake Mattamuskeet and the Pamlico Sound.

During the period 1984 to 1989 archaeologists from East Carolina University and the Office of State Archaeology (Cook 1984; Lautzenheiser 1984; Green 1985) carried out archaeological reconnaissance in the this region, focusing particularly on the area near Engelhard in eastern Hyde County (Figure 2). Over 6200 acres were surveyed but only one significant prehistoric site was located. This site, 31Hy43, named the Amity site after a nearby Methodist church, was excavated from 1985 to 1989 and determined to be a mid-seventeenth century hamlet or farmstead. The results of the excavations are reported here.

Hyde County comprises the southeastern section of the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula and Ocracoke Island, a component of the Outer Banks barrier island chain. The climate is generally mild. Rainfall averages 51 inches yearly, and is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year but is somewhat greater in the summer (Heath 1975). Summers are hot and humid, but Winters are mild. The last frost usually occurs in late March and the first frost in mid-November creating a frost-free period of about 230 to 270 days (Kopec and Clay 1975).

The environment of mainland Hyde county is characterized by low elevations (typically less than five feet), poorly integrated coastal streams, extensive swamps, marshes and evergreen wetlands, deep organic soils and a low astronomical tidal range (Lukin and Mauger 1983).

Aquatic and Marsh Communities: Estuarine environments are particularly common in Hyde County. The county’s western border is formed by the Pungo River and part of its northern border by the Alligator River. Both are large, embayed estuarine rivers. Mainland Hyde fronts the Pamlico Sound estuary to the south and east. Its banks are almost everywhere low (Bellis et al. 1975), and irregularly flooded saltmarsh is extensive (Holland and Weeden 1981).

[Page 4] The Pamlico Sound is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by only three inlets. Astronomical tides are thus greatly dampened. The mean periodic tide in the sound is only 0.2 feet but wind-induced tidal fluctuations are often greater (Lukin and Mauger 1983). The salinity of the sound varies seasonally due to the effects of freshwater runoff, and spatially with proximity to the inlets. Salinity in the vicinity of the Hyde County mainland ranges from about 10 ppt (parts per thousand) to 17 ppt in April to 11 ppt to 17 ppt in December (Heath 1975). Salinities are thus suitable for oysters (see Appendix A for scientific nomenclature) (Holland and Weeden 1981), although oyster harvests from the Pamlico Sound have recently been depressed due to increased freshwater runoff (Ash et al. 1983). Oysters were likely more abundant in the past, but the low tidal range of the Pamlico Sound probably militated against the presence of extensive intertidal oyster beds.

Hyde County’s estuaries are important nursery areas for anadromous fish. Shad, croakers, and spot traverse the Carolina Sounds in large numbers during their spring spawning runs. During the winters, the estuaries are frequented by large numbers of migratory waterfowl. At least 19 species frequent the Pamlico River estuary with ruddy duck, canvasback and scaups being most numerous (Copeland et al. 1984).

Freshwater habitats are also notable features of the Hyde County landscape. Lake Mattamuskeet with an area of approximately 65 square miles is the most obvious example, but included as well are New Lake, Swan Lake and the upper reaches of the Pungo and Alligator Rivers. These are important wintering grounds for swans, geese and numerous species of ducks and contain significant populations of fish. Their associated freshwater marshes contain plants with edible rootstocks such as cattail and flags.

The forests of Hyde County can be divided into three principal community types: Pocosin, Cypress-Gum-Cedar Swamp Forest, and Mixed Hardwood Flats (Lynch and Peacock 1982).

Pocosin is the most common general habitat type in Hyde County (Lynch and Peacock 1982). Pocosin is an Algonquian term for "swamp on a hill" and refers to a fire-adapted, shrubby wetland plant community (Ash et al. 1983). It has been defined as "...extensive, flat, damp, sandy or peaty areas usually remote from large streams, supporting a scattered growth of pine and a very dense growth of shrubs, mostly evergreen..." (Ash et al. 1983:5, citing Harper 1907). They have perched water tables and do not receive nutrient inflow from surrounding areas. Unlike most wetlands, pocosins, due to their low standing crop, impenetrable vegetation and lack of natural open water, have a depauperate vertebrate fauna (Ash et al. 1983). Ground foragers are particularly rare. Modern conditions are misleading in this regard. Large scale agricultural development has led to the conversion of more desirable wildlife habitat into farmland, while pocosins have been left isolated as "habitat islands". These now serve as refuge areas of last resort for many species, notably the black bear (Ash et al. 1983). Pocosins probably were not significant resources for Native Americans.

The Cypress-Gum-Cedar Swamp Forest has been much reduced by timber cutting and agricultural conversion but remains one of the most extensive palustrine plant communities in the county (Lynch and Peacock 1982). It is primarily found in the northeastern section of the county on deep peat soils subject to occasional flooding. The dominant trees are all valuable timber species, but do not produce fruits edible by humans, nor do the plants most typically found in the sub-canopy, shrub and herb levels of this forest community. Hence, it is likely that this community would have seemed a less attractive resource to Native Americans than to modern foresters. On the other hand, bear are common in this community type today, and deer are plentiful at least along forest edges. Raccoon, marsh rabbit and grey squirrel are fairly common (Lynch and Peacock 1982). The faunal component of this forest community may have been of some importance to Native Americans.

[Page 5] The third forest community in Hyde County is the Mixed Hardwoods Flats (Lynch and Peacock 1982). Dominant tree species in this community are primarily oaks, especially swamp chestnut oak, laurel oak, and cherrybark oak. Loblolly pine is common, and numerous additional species of hardwoods, including shagbark hickory are also present. The Mixed Hardwood Flats community is a bottomland forest that is not associated with an alluvial valley. Rather, it occurs along the borders of cypress and gum swamps on damp or moist deep loams that are often inundated in the spring (Lynch and Peacock 1982). The wide bands of mineral soils that occur around Lake Mattamuskeet probably supported Mixed Hardwood Flats Forest before they were converted to agricultural production (Lynch and Peacock 1982). Of the Hyde County forest communities, the Mixed Hardwoods Flats was probably the most attractive to Native Americans. Not only did the hardwoods provide acorns and hickory nuts, two of their staple foodstuffs, but they also support exceptional populations of deer, their principal game animal. In addition, small game including raccoons, cottontails and squirrels are common in the community today, and in the past bears and wild turkeys would have been common as well.

Soils: Hyde County lacks a modern soil map, although a soil survey of the county is currently underway (John Gagnon, Soil Conservation Service, personal communication 1989). Generalized soil data are available from work done prior to World War I (Hearn 1910). The soils of Hyde County are divided into two classes: organic soils and mineral soils (Heath 1975). The organic soils are commonly known as peats or mucks, and as the name suggests, these are comprised mostly of organic material, i.e. peat, with only small amounts of inorganic matter. Organic soils are highly fertile but are invariably poorly drained in their natural state. Their conversion to agricultural use has taken place largely within this century (Heath 1975).

Mineral soils are made up of sand, silt and clay in varying proportions. They are derived from ancient deltas of the ancestral Tar and Roanoke Rivers and in Hyde County are found along the eastern shore of the Pungo River and south and east of Lake Mattamuskeet (Figure 3). Mineral soils occupy the highest and best naturally drained elevations in the county, including the ridge around Lake Mattamuskeet on which the Amity site is found. These soils likely have been cultivated since colonial times (Emmons 1860; Hearn 1910; Heath 1975), and were presumably the soils worked by Native American agriculturalists.

The Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula is part of the Pamlico Terrace, the remnant of a Pleistocene sea floor formed during a period of increased sea level prior to 75,000 years ago. During the Wisconsin glacial stage, sea levels fell as increasing amounts of water were incorporated into glacial ice fields. At the time of maximal glacial extent circa 18,000 years ago, sea level was approximately 400 feet lower than today. At this time the Carolina coastline would have stood several miles east of Cape Hatteras, the ancestral Tar and Roanoke Rivers would have occupied broad, rather flat valleys (Lukin and Mauger 1983), and the landscape would have been dominated by boreal forest (Delcourt and Delcourt 1985).

As the climate warmed during the Late Pleistocene - Early Holocene period (16,500 B.P. to 8500 B.P.), sea level rose and drowned the valleys of the ancestral Tar and Roanoke Rivers forming the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds (Lukin and Mauger 1983). Concurrently, deciduous forests would have expanded across the region, as boreal species retreated northward (Delcourt and Delcourt 1985).

During the Middle Holocene period (8500 B.P. to 4000 B.P.) the environment of the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula began to take on its modem characteristics. In particular, as sea level continued to rise, shallow lakes, freshwater bogs and eventually swamp forests began to form in the drowned drainage systems of the lower Coastal Plain. During this period peat began to accumulate, transforming the swamp forest into pocosin and initiating the formation of the [Page 7] peninsula’s characteristic deep organic soils (Otte 1981; Lukin and Mauger 1983). Also during this period, the Southern Evergreen Forest became established as the dominant forest community of the Coastal Plain, as southern pines largely replaced the formerly prevalent deciduous species (Delcourt and Delcourt 1985).

During the Late Holocene period (4000 B.P. to the Present), there have been minor climatic variations (Delcourt and Delcourt 1985) and sea level continues to rise at rates averaging one foot per century (Kaye and Stuckey 1973). The greatest changes in the landscape during this period, however, are the result of human activities. Native Americans undoubtedly created small scale disturbances by burning and agricultural clearance, but these have been dwarfed by the magnitude of the environmental transformations that have marked the period of Euro-American settlement. Particularly notable examples of these transformations include the elimination of upland forest communities by agricultural clearance, the widespread conversion of pocosin and swamp habitats to agricultural and silvicultural use, and the reduction in size of Lake Mattamuskeet following failed attempts to completely drain it (Lynch and Peacock 1982).

People have occupied the Carolina Sounds region for millennia. The early periods of occupation are not well represented by archaeological sites, are generally poorly understood and have received comparatively little study compared to the later periods. Nonetheless, a general cultural sequence for the region can be outlined, although it is in most details based more on analogy to neighboring areas than to direct archaeological evidence.

Paleoindian Period: Radiocarbon dated archaeological sites from other states establish that humans were resident in eastern North America by the late Pleistocene, circa 10,000 B.C. to 8000 B.C. (Goodyear 1982). Although dated sites from this early time, termed the Paleoindian period, are rare, the distinctive fluted projectile points which are its hallmark are widespread across the Southeast. Two fluted points have been recovered from the Albemarle- Pamlico peninsula, one from Beaufort County and one from Tyrrell County (Perkinson 1973). During this time, the present Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula was a broad upland, far from the coast, and dominated by boreal forest. By analogy to recent populations of boreal forest-forest dwelling Native Americans (Helm 1981), we can assume the Paleoindians were organized into small, relatively mobile bands of hunter-fisher-gatherers. The scarcity of artifacts dating from this time period suggests Paleoindian population density was low, but little else can be inferred about them.

Archaic Period: The following Archaic period (8500 B.C. to 1000 B.C.) corresponds grossly to the Early and Middle Holocene geologic periods. Archaic period peoples maintained the general hunting-fishing-gathering orientation of the Paleoindians, but as the environment assumed its modern characteristics, they no doubt made corresponding adaptive adjustments. For example, as the temperate forest became established in the Southeast, plant foods likely became a more important part of the diet. Sites of this period are greatly more numerous than those of the Paleoindian period, reflecting in part an increased population size. Archaic period sites are common in the lower Coastal Plain (Tippett 1988). From the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula, Lake Phelps has produced substantial amounts of Archaic period material, including a canoe dated to the third millennium B.C. (Phelps 1989). During the closing stages of the Archaic period, at least some Native Americans seemed to have adopted a more settled lifestyle. In the Midwest, gardening began to take on some importance, as native plants long collected from the wild were deliberately cultivated and eventually domesticated (Asch and Asch 1985). In the Southeast (Stoltman 1966) and Mid-Atlantic (Egloff and Potter 1982), the first pottery was manufactured.

[Page 8] Early Woodland Period: The trend to a more settled life seems to have accelerated during the Early Woodland period (1000 B.C. to 300 B.C.). Unfortunately, on the outer Coastal Plain this time period is very poorly understood. Lake Phelps has yielded some Early Woodland period material, including two canoes (Phelps 1989), and early pottery, circa 900 B.C., has been recovered from a site in Currituck County (Painter 1978).

Middle Woodland Period: The Middle Woodland period (300 B.C. to AD 800) is better known from the outer Coastal Plain. Archaeological sites, especially shell middens located along the major streams and estuaries, are comparatively common (Phelps 1983). Small scale excavations reveal a continued reliance on hunting-fishing- gathering (Phelps 1981a, 1984), but based on the evidence from other regions (Yarnell and Black 1985) it seems safe to conclude gardening was practiced as well, although not necessarily at the shell midden sites. The earliest occupation of the ridge surrounding Lake Mattamuskeet dates from this time (Cook 1984; Lautzenheiser 1984), and the relatively well drained mineral soils of the ridge would have been an attractive resource for early gardeners. Maize pollen has been reported from the Great Dismal Swamp from this time period (Whitehead 1972), but the existence of Middle Woodland corn agriculture on the Coastal Plain remains far from established.

Late Woodland Period: Sites of the Late Woodland period (AD 800 to AD 1584) are by far the best represented on the outer Coastal Plain. This reflects not only an increased population density, but also the fact that a disproportionate number of sites of earlier periods have been lost to rising sea level. Site distributions and archaeological excavations (Loftfield 1975, 1985; Phelps 1981 a, 1983) indicate that the Native Americans of the latest prehistoric period were strongly oriented to the exploitation of the estuarine environment. Shell middens remain the most common site type, and aquatic resources (fish, shellfish, waterfowl, aquatic turtles etc.) along with deer are the most commonly recovered subsistence remains from excavations. There is some evidence of corn agriculture in the coastal region during this period (Glazier 1986). Life was sufficiently sedentary that longhouses were built (Loftfield 1979,1985). Overall, archaeological evidence indicates that the culture pattern of the Late Woodland period was comparable -- if not identical -- to that of historic period Algonquins observed by English colonists in 1584.

From 1584 to 1587 England attempted to found a colony in the Carolina Sounds region of North Carolina. Throughout its existence, this colony was dependent on the tolerance, and indeed, the support of the local Native Americans. Accordingly, Native Americans figure prominently in many of the records left by the Colonists (Quinn 1955). Further, two particularly astute observers of Native American life, Thomas Hariot and John White, have left us respectively a written (Quinn 1955:317-387) and pictorial record (Hulton 1984) devoted largely to illuminating the native cultures of the Carolina Sounds region. Because of this record, the culture of the Algonquians of the Carolina Sounds in the late sixteenth century is one the best known of any Native American society (Kupperman 1984:44).

When the English arrived in the Carolina Sounds region in 1584 they found the land settled by Native Americans who spoke languages of the Algonquian language family and whose economy was based on agriculture combined with fishing, hunting and gathering wild plants (Feest 1978a).

Their crops included corn, squash and pumpkins, beans, sunflower and lambsquarters, called by Hariot "melden" (Quinn 1955:340; 1985:160). Their agriculture was quite productive. They began planting in mid-March (Quinn 1955:343) and staggered the corn planting so as to receive three harvests (Quinn 1955:105). Harlot reports they were able to reap two crops from the same ground (Quinn 1955:343). As the region has a growing season of about 250 days [Page 9] (Kopec and Clay 1975) and aboriginal corn seems to have required about 120 days or less (Yarnell 1964:149), this seems feasible especially if one crop was harvested in the milk stage.

Notwithstanding the productivity of their agriculture, the coastal Algonquians exploited numerous naturally occurring wild plants including walnuts, hickories, acorns, persimmons, prickly pears (Quinn 1955:51) and several varieties of roots (Quinn 1955:346-350). Deer (Quinn 1955:331), bear, rabbits and other small mammals were hunted (Quinn 1955:355-356) as were various species of fowl (Quinn 1955:358). Fishing seems to have been a particularly important activity (Quinn 1955:360). Apparently following the spring planting and prior to the first corn harvest in July, the coastal Algonquians left their towns and dispersed along the shores to live off shellfish and the catch from their fish weirs (Quinn 1955:283). This does not seem to be a response to a true seasonal "starving time" following the consumption of the previous fall’s harvest, as there is indication that an agricultural surplus still remained in the spring (Quinn 1955:282 note 6). More likely it was an opportunistic response to the yearly arrival of large schools of anadromous fish (Quinn 1955:359).

The Carolina Algonquians were a chiefdom level society (Feest 1978a). Broadly speaking this means the society was divided into two classes of people, commoners and nobility (Service 1971). The majority of people would have been commoners but would have suffered no particular economic disadvantage due to that fact. The nobility’s privileges were mostly symbolic. They were set apart by sumptuary laws allowing them alone to wear certain badges of rank, such as copper gorgets (Quinn 1955:103), to be treated deferentially by the commoners (Quinn 1955:99) and to receive more elaborate burial treatment (Quinn 1955:425-427). At the apex of the society was the werowance or chief. A werowance might have as his dominion from one to eighteen towns (Quinn 1955:370), but his power to compel obedience from his subjects was apparently less than absolute (Quinn 1955:284 note 3).

Hariot provides us with an excellent description of their towns (Quinn 1955:369):

"Their townes are but small, & neere the sea coast but fewe, some containing but 10 or 12 houses, some 20. The greatest that we have seen have bene but 30 houses. If they be walled it is only done with barks of trees made last to stakes, or els with poles onely, fixed upright and close by another."

Hariot reported that the houses were 12 to 24 yards long and only one-half as wide (Quinn 1955:370), a shape that has led to their being termed "longhouses".

The population size of coastal Algonquian towns is problematic. Hariot stated that the greatest werowance in the Carolina Sounds region commanded 18 towns and could field an army of about 700 to 800 men (Quinn 1955:370). This is about 39 to 44 men per town. Harlot does not reveal what proportion of the total population was composed of fighting men, but estimates of 1:3 to 1:4 are commonly used (Potter 1982:49). Thirty-nine to 44 bowmen might then indicate a population of about 117 to 176 people per town. Hariot also failed to reveal how many people commonly resided in a longhouse. John Smith stated that in Virginia the range was from six to 20 people (Barbour 1986:162). Ten people per household is a commonly used rule of thumb (Potter 1982:49). Applying this to the above calculations suggests an "average" Carolina Algonquian town to have about 12 to 18 houses. This meshes nicely with Harlot’s description of town size above, and with White’s painting of the town of Pomeiooc which shows 18 structures (Hulton 1984, plate 32 and see below chapter 2).

After the abandonment of the English colony in 1587, the Carolina Sounds region was not reoccupied by Euroamericans until the mid-seventeenth century. Settlers from the James [Page 10] River area of Virginia pushed southward into the lands north of the Albemarle Sound in the 1650’s, but settlement along the Pamlico Sound and River did not begin before 1680 (Merrens 1962; Paschal 1955). By 1696 population in the Pamlico region was sufficiently large that it was denoted Bath County and its inhabitants authorized to send two representatives to the Colonial Assembly. In 1705 increasing population justified dividing Bath County into three precincts, each electing two representatives to the Colonial Assembly (Merrens 1962; Paschal 1955).

During the period of early Euro-American settlement in the Carolina Sounds region, we have almost no information concerning its Native American inhabitants. Population losses among them must have been dramatic during the Fort Raleigh period -- Hariot reports as many as 120 people dying in a single town (Quinn 1955:378). Depopulation continued in the seventeenth century. In 1696, it was reported that a "great mortality" had struck the Pamlico Indians (Mook 1944:220). In 1709 Lawson reported that five-sixths of the Indians within 200 miles of the Euroamencan settlements had died from the effects of smallpox and rum in the preceding 50 years (Lefler 1967).

By the seventeenth century the town and societal names recorded by the Roanoke colonists were no longer in use (Mook 1944; Rights 1957). The eastern portion of the Albemarle­Pamlico peninsula, including the Pomeiooc area, was held in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century by a group called first, Machapungos, and later, Mattamuskeets (Feest 1978a). The first mention of them is in 1686 when Governor John Archdale reported that

"...the great fat king of the Tuscarora ... was very desirous to cut off a nation of Indians called the Matchepungoes." (cited in Rights 1957:43-44).

In 1701 the North Carolina Executive Council ordered men to visit the Machapungo to investigate an assault upon a white settler (Cain 1984:386). A few years later the settlers of the Pungo River region petitioned the council to restrain "the insolency and continued abuses of the Matchapung Indians" (Cain 1984:397). The petition charged the Machapungo with killing hogs, threatening and assaulting the settlers and that they did "in all things rather desire a war with us than peace" (Cain 1984:397-398). Further, the petitioners reported that the Machapungo were situated "nigh a wilderness whereupon the least [threat] they can easily repair without being pursued" (Cain 1984:398).

In 1709 John Lawson reported that the Machapungo had but one town, Maramiskeet, with but 30 fighting men (Lefler 1967:242). Using Lawson’s own estimation of three non­combatants for every two fighting men (Lefler 1967:243), we can calculate a total Machapungo population of about 75 people. Maramiskeet likely comprised about seven or so longhouses, assuming ten people per longhouse and providing longhouses were still in use. Lawson tells us little else about the Machapungo. He notes that two Machapungo families practiced male circumcision (Lefler 1967:211), and that a Bear River Indian who committed suicide was the "son of the politick king of the Machapungo" (Lefler 1967:209). Finally Lawson tells of the Machapungo treacherously murdering some Coranine Indians at a time in the past when neither side had guns (Lefler 1967:209). This is noteworthy for its implication that the coastal Native Americans had acquired guns by 1709.

At the outbreak of the Tuscarora War in 1711, the Machapungo allied themselves with the Tuscarora, Coree, Pamlico, Neusioc and Bear River Indians against the Euro-American settlers. At this time the Native Americans were well armed with guns and reputedly better supplied with ammunition than the colonial settlers (Lee 1963:24).

Whereas the Tuscarora were relatively quickly and decisively defeated in two pitched battles and sued for peace in 1713, the Machapungo held out for another two years. Their relative success was owned in part to their use of guerrilla tactics. The colonists complained that [Page 11]

"they rove from place to place, cut off two or three families today and within two or three days do the like a hundred miles off from the former. They are like deer - there is no finding them" (cited in Paschal 1955:32).

The Machapungo were further aided by the inhospitable terrain of their homeland. James Moore, leader of the colonial army against them, lamented:

"between Matchapungo River and Roanoke Island which is 100 miles in length and of considerable breadth, all in a manner lakes, quagmires and cane swamps and is ...one of the greatest deserts in the world, where it is almost impossible for white men to follow them" (Saunders 1968:45).

When the Tuscarora War finally ended in 1715, the Machapungo were granted a reservation (Figure 4) in modern Hyde County extending from north of present Engelhard south to below Wyesocking Bay and from the Pamlico Sound to Lake Mattamuskeet (Garrow 1975 :20). The formal grant from the Executive Council was not conveyed until 1727, but Machapungo Indians were selling reservation land by 1717 (Garrow 1975:21). Settlements were of homesteads dispersed along the major creeks, and population on the reservation was apparently always small (Garrow 1975:24). In 1731 about 20 Machapungo families resided on the reservation. In 1755 only eight to ten Machapungo lived there. In 1761 the reservation was sold with only six Machapungo men, presumably family heads, signing the deed (Garrow 1975:22). In 1763 the Reverend Alexander Steward of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel visited Hyde County and noted that:

"The remains of the Attamuskeet [viz. Mattamuskeet], Roanoke, and Hatteras Indians live mostly along the coast, mixed with the white inhabitants, many of these attended the places of Public Worship (Rights 1957:32).

[Page 12] The final mention of "Mattamuskeets" is in a deed from 1792 whereby six "Indians of Mattamuskeet" sold their reservation for the second time (Garrow 1975:30). After 1804 no Hyde County records mention "Indians, although some" Free Persons of Color have recognizable Mattamuskeet surnames (Garrow 1975:45). Presumably any final vestiges of Native American culture retained by the surviving Machapungos were lost during the early nineteenth century as a result of the mass apprenticeship of children of "Free Persons of Color" to white families (Garrow 1975:46).