Regional Culture History
Human occupation in North Carolina stretches from over 12,000 B.P. to the present. The prehistoric cultural sequence includes the Paleo (12,000?-9,500 B.P.), Archaic (9,500-4,000 B.P.), Woodland (4,000-400 B.P.), and Mississippian (700-250 B.P.) cultures (NCAS, 1984) (Figure 6). European contact began with the expedition of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto (1540s) in the western part of the state, and the establishment of the "lost colony' (1587) on Roanoke Island by the English. The first permanent European settlement in 1607 in nearby Jamestown, Virginia began the process of gradual displacement of native peoples. The last organized group of Native peoples, the Cherokees in the mountains, were forcefully removed to Oklahoma in the 1830's. Today, some 65,000 people of native ancestry live in the state, the largest such population east of the Mississippi River, and the fifth largest in the U.S.
The early European settlers were of varied origin, with some 33% being of African origin in 1790 (compared with some 22% today). Settlers arrived from Virginia, Philadelphia and down the Great Wagon Road into the Piedmont. North Carolina was also the site of important Revolutionary and Civil war activities, and is rich in important historical sites and districts.
© North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1983
