Coree

"Cores" redirects here. For other uses, see Core (disambiguation).

For Korea, see Korea.

Coree

Total population
Extinct as a tribe
Regions with significant populations
North Carolina
Languages
Algonquian (estimate)
Religion
Native American
Related ethnic groups
Machapunga

This article is about the Native American tribe. For the rural community in New South Wales, see Coree, New South Wales.

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 of southeastern North Carolina in the area now covered by Carteret and Craven counties. Early 20th-century scholars were unsure of what language they spoke, ^[1] but the coastal areas were mostly populated by Carolina 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 Algonquian 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 settled in their single village of Mattamuskeet in present-day Hyde County.^[2] 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.

Although in the 20th century, some people claim individual descent from the historical Coree, no revival of the tribe has been accomplished. Some observers believe that current attempts to claim Coree descent are by people who were among what anthropologists called "tri-racial isolates", often of majority European and African descent.

Language

The ethnographer James Mooney speculated that the Coree were related to the Iroquoian Cherokee, but he did not have convincing evidence. According to limited colonial reports, they spoke a language that did not appear to be mutually intelligible with any of the three major language stocks: Carolina Algonquian, Iroquoian Tuscarora, or the Waccamaw Siouan (earlier called the Woccon tribe). This lack of mutual intelligibility was documented by John Lawson in 1709.

On the other hand, the Coree occupied territory that was historically mostly that of Carolina Algonquians, which suggests they were affiliated with these peoples. The name Coree may be the singular form of the Carolina Algonquian name Cwareuuoc.

References

1. ^ Coree Indian Tribe, in Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906, carried on Access Genealogy, accessed 18 Mar 2010
2. ^ Coree Indian Tribe, in Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906, carried on Access Genealogy, accessed 18 Mar 2010

External links

• Al Pate, "Who are the Coree", 1997

Bibliography

• Ives Goddard. (2005). "The indigenous languages of the Southeast", Anthropological Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.