Coharie is the name for the Great Coharie Creek and its tributary the Little Coharie Creek, both in

Sampson County, North Carolina Sampson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 59,036 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its county seat is Clinton, North Carolina, Clinton. History Sampson County was established in Apr ...

. The Great Coharie Creek is a tributary of the Black River that joins the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of ...

that flows into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Coharie also refers to the Coharie Formation, named for the creeks, a terrace, and shoreline at about 215 feet above sea level on the mid- to southern East Coast. The name ''Coharie'' was adopted by the Coharie Intra-tribal Council, Inc., a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by state government through laws, governor's executive orders ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The tribe claims "descent from certain tribes of Indians originally inhabiting the coastal regions of North Carolina." In 1910, residents of Herrings Township along the Coharie creeks identified as being of

Croatan The Croatan were a small Native Americans in the United States, Native American ethnic group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They might have been a branch of the larger Roanoke (tribe), Roanoke people or allied with t ...

descent.

Etymology

''Coharie'' could be an

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages () are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving I ...

, perhaps

Tuscarora language Tuscarora, sometimes called , is the Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people, spoken in southern Ontario in Canada, as well as North Carolina and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls in the United States, before becoming dormant in late ...

, word that translates as ''driftwood''.

References

Sampson County, North Carolina Rivers of North Carolina Names of places in the Americas {{SampsonCountyNC-geo-stub