The
Roanoke, also spelled
Roanoac, tribe were a Carolina
Algonquian-speaking people whose territory comprised present-day
Dare County,
Roanoke Island and part of the mainland at the time of English exploration and
colonization. They were one of the numerous
Carolina Algonquian tribes, which may have numbered 5,000-10,000 people in total in eastern North Carolina at the time of English encounter.