The Meherrin Nation (autonym: Kauwets'a:ka, "People of the Water") is one of seven state-recognized nations of Native Americans in North Carolina. They reside in rural northeastern North Carolina, near the river of the same name on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Historically the Iroquoian tribe had lived in the Piedmont of Virginia but moved south in the early 18th century under pressure from the encroachment of British colonists on their traditional homelands.