The Copper People

• Modern Names: The Eno, the Mandoag
• Language: Siouan
• Location: Randolph County, North Carolina

The Copper People controlled the copper trade in North Carolina, relying on the Occaneechi as their primary trade outlet. They held the metal in great regard, both as a trade item and in its own right. Besides copper, they also had a reputation as slave traders, contributing to their almost universally bad reputation. Their neighbors almost always called them something akin to “the Treacherous People,” including “the Contemptible People,” “the Mean People,” and “the Stealthy People.” They spoke a Siouan language, and allied themselves closely with the Shakori. They had a dispersed network of spies, and kept slaves for mining and working copper.

After the Roanoke colonists fled to Little Turtle Island, the colonists’ metallurgical skill and possessions attracted their attention. They attacked the Southern People who hosted them, and took them as slaves. Some they sold to other tribes, but most they kept for their own, to work their mines and their copper.

Settlements

• Burned Place

Sources

• Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. Arcade Publishing, 2001.