Indian Heritage Overview

Welcome to the Indian Heritage portion of the Ancient NC website. This section is focused on American Indian sites in North Carolina; while many of the sites date prior to sustained European contact, it also includes historic American Indian sites. You can access information about individual sites in two ways: By Region or By Time. The information for each site is exactly the same – these two entry points simply represent two of the most common ways that archaeologists think about and organize archaeological sites in order to find commonalities and differences.

The third section of Indian Heritage is By Modern Tribe. Although many people don’t realize it, North Carolina is home to the largest population of American Indians east of the Mississippi River. While we often think of American Indians when it comes to archaeological sites in the past, it is incredibly important to recognize the contributions of American Indians through to the present and into the future. By Modern Tribe attempts to do this by providing information about each of the eight state and federally recognized American Indian tribes in North Carolina, as well as four North Carolina Urban Indian organizations.

Note: Above image created by Chip Holton and used with permission of the Davidson County Historical Museum.