Tags: Ethnic Group.
The Chowanoke also spelled Chowanoc was an Algonquian-language American Indian tribe. They were the largest and most powerful Algonquian tribe in present-day North Carolina occupying most or all of the coastal banks of the Chowan River in the northeastern part of the state at time of the first English contacts in 1585/6. Their peoples had occupied their main town for 800 years and earlier indigenous cultures in the area have been dated to 4500 BC.