Manteo (Native American leader)

Manteo (c. 1564 – c. 1590) was a Croatan Native American, and was a member of the local tribe that befriended the English explorers who landed at Roanoke Island in 1584.

In 1585 the English returned to Roanoke, arriving too late in the year to plant crops and harvest food, and Manteo helped the colonists make it through the harsh winter.

On Sunday, August 13, 1587, Manteo was christened on Roanoke Island, making him the first Native American to be baptized into the Church of England.

He was born into the Croatan tribe, a small Native American group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina.

He assigned the scientist Thomas Harriot the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language,[4]: 70  using a phonetic alphabet of his own invention in order to effect the translation.

[4]: 73  In addition, he recorded the sense of awe with which the Native Americans viewed European technology: Many things they sawe with us...as mathematical instruments, sea compasses...[and] spring clocks that seemed to goe of themselves – and many other things we had – were so strange unto them, and so farre exceeded their capacities to comprehend the reason and meanes how they should be made and done, that they thought they were rather the works of gods than men.

[4]: 98  The expedition was led by Sir Ralph Lane, and was accompanied by Harriot who, having mastered Carolina Algonquian, would act as translator between the local tribes and the English settlers.

[2]: 373 [6]: 79 In 1587, Manteo returned to Roanoke along with Governor John White's ill-fated expedition to plant a permanent English colony in the New World.

Because of his status among the English people and his peaceful communication with them, some of the Croatan considered Manteo to be disloyal to them and a traitor at times of conflict.

[2]: 351  In 2008, the 125th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina approved the commemoration of the Baptism of Manteo, along with that of Virginia Dare, to be kept on August 17 of each year.