<P> The Roanoke People of the Tillett site had a semi-seasonal life style inhabiting the area from early Spring to early Fall, primarily the village existed for fishing . Shellfish was the main diet of the inhabitants with oysters and clams being the most common food source . Plants including acorns and hackberry nuts . Ronaoke Indians had smoking pipes and used plants such as Cleaver and Plaintain seeds for medicinal purposes . Four burials of Roanoke Indians of various social positions have been found at the site . Roanoke believed that their great warriors and kings lived on in the afterlife but commoners lived only a mortal existence . </P> <P> There were other villages on Roanoke Island prior to European Contact as indicated by English maps and written accounts . Englishman Arthur Barlowe described a palisaded town with nine houses made of Cedar bark on the far north end of Roanoke Island . This second village according to historian David Stick was based on hunting of land animals . All Ronaoke Island villages were likely outlying tributaries of the Sectoan's capital, Dasamonguepeuk, located on the western shore of the Croatan Sound in the modern day mainland of Dare County . Upon contact with the English the Ronaoke Tribe had anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 members . The Roanoke Tribe, like many other tribes in the area were loyal to the Secotan . In 1584 WIngina was their king . </P> <P> Roanoke Island was the site of the 16th - century Roanoke Colony, the first English colony in the New World . It was located in what was then called Virginia, named in honor of England's ruling monarch and "Virgin Queen", Elizabeth I. From 1584 to 1590 there were six expeditions to the area and two groups of colonists who attempted to establish a colony there, both groups failed . </P> <P> When the English first arrived in 1584, they were accompanied by a Croatoan native and a Roanoke native respectively called Manteo and Wanchese . The two men make history as the first two Native Americans to visit the Kingdom of England as distinguished guests . For over a year they resided in London . On the return journey the two natives witnessed English piracy plunder the Spanish West Indies . </P>

The roanoke colony was in what present day state