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Pamilco

  

 

Ethnie: PAMILCO
Language: Powhatan
Family: Eastern Algonquian
Stock: Algonquian
Phylum: Algic
Macro-Culture: Eastern Woodlands
Speakers None
       The Pamilco were a sedentary hunter/farmer tribe. They lived along the Pamilco River in North Carolina. They were almost destroyed by smallpox only to suffer from attacks by the Tuscarora, who had contracted with the English against them. Descendants of the tribe are now among the Lumbee and Tuscarora.
Aboriginal Locations: Subdivisions (Villages)
NC (1)
Present Locations
Confederated into the Lumbee in NC, other enslaved and eventually absorbed by the Tuscarora now in NY
Year History
1585 Mentioned by Raleigh colonists under name of Pomouik
1670 Smallpox sometime after this year
1698 Almost destroyed by smallpox
1701 Lawson recorded vocabulary
1710 Lived in a single small village of 75
1712 Took part in Tuscarora War
1713 English contracted Tuscarora to destroy Pamilco, some may have become slaves, a few survived to join the Lumbee
Year Total NC Pop. Source
1600 1,000   Mooney estimate
1700 100 NAHDB calculation
1800 50 NAHDB calculation
1900 0 NAHDB calculation 
2000 0 NAHDB calculation 
Other speakers of the same language:
Chowanoc, Hatteras, Machapunga, Moratok, Powhatan, Weapemeoc
Pamilco Sites:
Indian Trader John Lawson's Journal  http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6379
Powhatan Dictionary  http://www.wicocomico-indian-nation.com/pages/dictionary.html
Powhatan Language  http://www.native-languages.org/powhatan.htm
Powhatan Language  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pim
Powhatan Linguistic Lineage  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_lang_family.asp?code=pim

Last updated 10/10/05  Copyright © 2005 by Four Directions Press