Chawanoac

Chawanoac was probably the primary town of the Chowanoke. According to English explorer Ralph Lane, the Chowanoke had a total of 19 towns, making them one of the largest and most powerful of the Algonkian tribes in North Carolina. The Chowanoac were affiliated with the Powhatan Indians in Virginia, although they were not directly controlled by the Powhatan. As pointed out by the National Park Service, the village name of Ohaunoock on this map may be a composite of Chowanoke, which would have been the capital of the Chowanoke, and one of the tribe’s subject towns, Ohanoak, meaning “the blind towne.” Without any maps that show the location of Ohanoak it is hard to know where it may have been located, although Ralph Lane specifies that it was south of Chowanoke on the same side of the Chowan River.