The Chowanoc,[1] also Chowanoke, were an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe who historically lived near the Chowan River in North Carolina.

[1] Archaeologists explored the primary town also called Chowanoc in the 1980s and found that it was settled in the 10th century CE.

[3][2] Colonial Governor Ralph Lane encountered the tribe when they were led by the elderly Chief Menatonon (fl.

[5] In 1607 an English colonial expedition, in the area on orders from Captain John Smith of Jamestown, found that hardly any Chowanoc people were left along the Chowan River.

[citation needed] In 1607 an English colonial expedition, in the area on orders from Captain John Smith of Jamestown, found that few Chowanoc people were left along the Chowan River.

After these wars, in 1677 the settlers forced the Chowanoc to cede most of their territory and move to an Indian reservation on Bennett's Creek.

[6] Infectious diseases transmitted by contact with European explorers and colonists, such as measles and smallpox, likely caused high fatalities and considerably weakened the Chowanoc, as took place with other coastal Carolina Algonquian peoples.

"[2] In the early 21st century, people who claimed Chowanoc ancestry in the Bennett's Creek area formed an organization called the Chowanoke Indian Nation.