Do you know where the word Croatoan came from?

1) "The standard history text tells us that no one knows what "Croatan" means, that the settlers disappeared. But other accounts claim that everyone knew Croatan was the name of a local tribe, and the message quite clearly stipulated that the settlers had gone to join it; the official suppression of this fact is only a sign of the sort of racism that was as likely to execute people who had lived with Indians as it was to "rehabilitate" them"
Source:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1306459


2) "The Croatan were a Native American tribe living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina in an area that is now rural Dare County, and 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."
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatan

Further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatoan_Island

Croatoan may refer to:

Croatoan Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
"Croatoan" (Ellison), a 1976 short story by Harlan Ellison
An alternate spelling of the Croatan tribe
the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree on Roanoke Island at the site of the Lost Colony in 1590
"Croatoan", a 2006 episode of the TV series Supernatural

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatoan

Croatoan, unexplained letters found (1590) carved on a tree on Roanoke Island off North Carolina by Governor John White when he returned to the colony from England and discovered the colonists gone. White took the letters to mean that the settlers had moved to Croatoan Island some 50 mi (80 km) away, but no trace of them was ever found. The name, in the form Croatan, is popular in the region and is perhaps best known in the name of Croatan Sound, which connects Pamlico Sound with Albemarle Sound.

http://www.answers.com/Croatoan