| Total population | |
|---|---|
| extinct as a tribe[1] (18th century) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| EasternNorth Carolina | |
| Languages | |
| Carolina Algonquian language | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Secotan,[2] other North Carolina Algonquians |
TheMachapunga were a smallAlgonquian language–speakingNative American tribe from coastal northeastern North Carolina.[2] They were part of theSecotan people.[3] They were a group from thePowhatan Confederacy who migrated from present-dayVirginia.
Machpunga is also the name of an early 16th-century village on thePotomac River and of an 18th-centuryPowhatan Confederacy village inNorthampton County, Virginia.[4]
AnthropologistJohn Reed Swanton wrote thatMachapunga meant "bad dust" or "much dirt" in their Algonquian language.[2]
The spoke anCarolina Algonquian language which became extinct.[5]
The Machapunga lived in what is nowHyde County, North Carolina. Their lands may have extended into present-dayBeaufort, North Carolina, as well as Washington, Tyrrell, and Dare counties.[2]
In 1700 and 1701, the Machapunga maintained a village named Mattamuskeet.[6] It held 30 warriors and was likely located on the shore ofMattamuskeet Lake in present-dayHyde County.[6][2]
Early 20th-centuryethnographerFrank Speck believed that the historical Machapunga and other Algonquian tribes in North Carolina had probably been earlier connected to the larger population based in coastal Virginia. He believed the tribes in North Carolina were part of an early and large Algonquian migration south after European contact. He noted the presence of Algonquian-speaking tribes on the Northeast coast and in eastern and central Canada.[7]
When the British founded their colonist onRoanoke Island that lasted from 1586 to 1685, displacedSecotan people moved in with the Machapunga.[2]
EthnographerJames Mooney estimated in 1600 there were 1,200 Machapunga and related tribes.[2]
By 1701, the Machapunga consolidated into a single village named Mattamuskeet.[2][6] In 1701, English explorerJohn Lawson wrote that the tribe had about 100 members.[2]
In 1711 they participated in theTuscarora War against the colonists.[1] By 1715, the English colonists assigned a tract of land on Mattamuskeet Lake to the surviving Machapunga andCoree, who lived in a single village.[1] The Coree soon left and joined theTuscaroras.[8]
From 1718 to 1746, John Squires emerged as a leader on the tract, or Mattamuskeetreservation.[8] John Mackey and Long Tom served as his advisors.[8] His son Charles Squires followed him as a leader; however, his influence declined from 1752 to 1760.[8] A deed to the Mattamuskeet reservation was signed by six Machapunga men in 1761.[8] Even before 1727, Machapunga residents began selling their land until 1761, which the land had all been sold.[8]
Scattered Machapunga families still resided in North Carolina in 1761.[2] Then missionary Rev. Alexander Stewart founded a school for eightNative children and two African-American children.[8] Roanoke and Hatteras people moved into the area.[8] Stewart wrote that he had baptized seven "Attamuskeet, Hatteras, and Roanoke" adults and children. In 1763, he baptized 21 moreNative people from that region.[2]
The Machapunga ultimately became extinct as a tribe[1] in the 18th century.