The Croatan were a Native American tribe living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina in an area that is now Dare County, an encompasses the Alligator River, Croatan Sound, Roanoke Island, and parts of the Outer Banks including Hatteras Island. Now extinct, they were one of the Algonquian peoples. They were on good terms with English settlers of the Roanoke colony, and there has been speculation that the survivors of that disappeared colony joined the Croatan. The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research has excavated English artifacts within the territory of the Croatan tribe, and is conducting a DNA study. The modern Lumbee tribe has claimed descent from the Croatan.