Tuscarora - Skarù:ręˀ

Shirt Wearing People

The Tuscarora peoples are an Indigenous group in the Iroquoian language family. This nation had its origins in what is now the state of North Carolina, but they migrated north to New York and Pennsylvania in the 18th century. The word Tuscarora is derived from their extensive use of hemp for cloth, rope, and other materials, and it means "hemp gatherers."

After a migration northward, the Tuscarora aligned with the five nations in the Iroquois Confederacy, also called the Haudenosaunee. Sponsored by the Oneida nation, they became the sixth nation of the confederacy sometime around 1722. The other nations in the confederation are the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga and Mohawk. Today, some have resettled in the Canadian province of Ontario. Most of the Tuscarora people are English-speaking, though efforts to preserve and revive the language are ongoing. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-tuscarora-people-native-cul...

History

North Carolina
The Tuscarora were a Coastal Plain tribe that thrived in the North Carolina colony at the time of European settlement in the late sixteenth century. They resembled the Algonquian tribe in their habits and lifestyle but the Tuscarora spoke a different version of the Iroquoian language. Although the Tuscarora were defeated in the Tuscarora War (1711-1713), according to historian William S. Powell they were “considered the most powerful and highly developed tribe in what is now eastern North Carolina” ( p. 1140 -“Tuscarora Indians.” William S. Powell, ed. Encyclopedia of North Carolina (University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC 2006).

The Tuscarora established their primary towns on or near the Pamlico, Neuse, Roanoke, and Tar Rivers. The villages were organized into a type of plantation system. Several houses dotted the cityscape as the villages were located fairly near to one another. Every town had a chief, or teethha, that held political power of their respective communities. The villages were organized into confederacies and the most prominent included the Upper Town and Lower Town confederacies.

Known for migrating with the seasons, the Tuscarora lived in “squat, round houses with circular floors and domed roofs” made of bark and cyprus/cedar wood during the summer months (Northeast Indians). The thick bark provided protection from the rain and sun. As winter approached, the Tuscarora migrated to camping spots where they built houses close to each other with pits for small fires to stay warm. The tribe was known as “hemp gatherers,” using the wild plant to insulate their houses.

The tribe ate a variety of foods including fish, large game such as deer and bears, as well as crops from their plantations. Corn proved to be the most vital crop of the Tuscarora, and tribe members specifically enjoyed crayfish. In addition, baby wasps, picked from their combs, were popular candy snacks for all tribe members, especially the young Tuscarora. For clothing, the tribe wore animal furs with copper accessories such as bracelets and necklaces. Oftentimes, tribe members used the bloodroot plant to dye their hair a deep red color to add to remain different from other neighboring tribes.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Tuscarora and northern Virginian settlers started a fur trade. Chief Tom Blount, a leader of the Upper Towns of the Tuscarora, saw the situation as beneficial to the Upper Tribe, but the leader of the Lower Towns, Chief Hancock, had a different outlook of the trade. At the request of several smaller Indian tribes on the coast who were distressed by colonists in Bath and New Bern, Chief Hancock decided to warn the European settlers for their boldness.

In 1711, Chief Hancock and the Lower Tuscarora tribe led an attack against the North Carolina colonists in September 1711, initiating the Tuscarora War. Ultimately, the Tuscarora were defeated after their clash with colonists, and the tribe moved to New York and joined the League of the Iroquois or the Six Nations. However, nearly 650 Tuscarora families continued to live in North Carolina and parts of Virginia and South Carolina. Presently, some Tuscarora descendants live in Robeson County in the communities such as the Tuscarora Nation East of the Mountain, The Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe, and the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina. By 1831, the Tuscarora had relinquished their land and titles to North Carolina, and the state does not officially recognize any of the present Tuscarora communities. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/the-tuscarora/

The historic nation encountered by Europeans in North Carolina had three tribes:

• Kǎ'tě’nu'ā'kā', Katenuaka, Ga-te-no-wah-ga, or Kautanohakau ("People of the Submerged Pine-tree"),
• Akawěñtc'ākā', Akawenteaka, Akawenchaka, Ag-wan-te-ga, Kauwetsaka, Kauwetseka or Cauwintch-AAga ("People of the Water", this was also the autonym of the Kauwets'a:ka or Meherrin.)
• Skarū'ren', Skuarureaka or Sca-ru-re-ah-ga ("Hemp Gatherers"), today better known as Tuscarora.

New York
The Iroquois Five Nations of New York had penetrated as far as the Tuscarora homeland in North Carolina by 1701, and nominally controlled the entire frontier territory lying in between. Following their discovery of a linguistically related tribe living beyond Virginia, they were more than happy to accommodate their distant cousins within the Iroquois Constitution as the "Sixth Nation", and to resettle them in safer grounds to the north. (The Iroquois had driven tribes of rival Indians out of Western New York to South Carolina during the Beaver Wars several decades earlier, not far from where the Tuscarora resided.)

Beginning about 1713 after the war, contingents of Tuscarora began leaving North Carolina for the north. They established a main village at present-day Martinsburg, West Virginia, on what is still known as Tuscarora Creek. Another group stopped in 1719–1721 in present-day Maryland along the Monocacy River, on the way to join the Oneida nation in western New York. After white settlers began to pour into what is now the Martinsburg area from around 1730, the Tuscarora continued northward to join those in western New York. Other Tuscarora bands sojourned in the Juniata River valley of Pennsylvania, before reaching New York.

During the American Revolutionary War, part of the Tuscarora and Oneida nations in New York allied with the rebel colonists. Most of the warriors of the other four Iroquois nations supported Great Britain, and many participated in battles throughout New York. They were the main forces that attacked frontier settlements of the central Mohawk and Cherry valleys. Late in the war, the pro-British Tuscarora followed Chief Joseph Brant of the Mohawk, other British-allied tribes, and Loyalists north to Ontario, then called Upper Canada by the British. They took part in establishing the reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in what became Ontario, Canada.

In 1803 a final contingent of southern Tuscarora migrated to New York to join the reservation of their tribe in Niagara County. After that, the Tuscarora in New York no longer considered southern remnants as part of their nation. Some descendants of the southern remnants have continued to identify as Tuscarora and have organized some bands. Through the generations they had intermarried with neighbors but identify culturally as Tuscarora.

During the War of 1812 in the British attack on Lewiston, New York on December 19, 1813, a band of Tuscarora living in a village on an escarpment just above the town fought to save Americans fleeing the invasion force. The British were accompanied by allied Mohawk and some American Tories disguised as Mohawk. The American militia fled, leaving only the Tuscarora—outnumbered 30 to one—to fight a delaying action that allowed some townspeople to escape. The Tuscarora sent a party of braves to blow horns along the escarpment and suggest a larger force, while another party attacked downhill with war whoops, to give an exaggerated impression of their numbers. The British force burned Lewiston, as well as the Tuscarora village, then undefended. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscarora_people

Today

National government-recognized Tuscarora tribes:

• Tuscarora Nation at Lewiston, New York
• Tuscarora at Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada

Tuscarora bands in North Carolina:

Several bands, groups, and organizations with members claiming Tuscarora descent reside in North Carolina. Since the late 20th century, they have organized and reformed in various configurations. None has state or federal recognition.

They have included the following:

• Tuscarora Indian Nation of North Carolina, org. date: per Sec. of State, NC 05/08/1972, Robeson Co.
• Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe, Windsor;
• Tuscarora Tribe of Indians Maxton (1979) effective date per Sec. of State NC, 08/20/1990,
• Tuscarora Nation One Fire Council at Robeson County, North Carolina (formed in 2010 from several bands in Robeson County)
• Tosneoc Tuscarora Community, Wilson County, original Homeland, Stantonsburg/Contentnea Creek area, North Carolina
• Skaroreh Katenuaka Nation
• Cape Fear Band of Skarure Woccon (located mainly in Brunswick, Bladen, Columbus, and Pender Counties and also South Carolina)

Tuscarora tribal officials in New York dispute claims that anyone in North Carolina has continuity as a tribe with the Tuscarora. The Tuscarora Nation of New York, says that the great majority of the tribe moved north to New York. New York leaders consider any individuals remaining in North Carolina as no longer having tribal status, although they have Tuscarora genetic ancestry.

Both the New York Tuscarora and the North Carolina Tuscarora bands claim the historical name of the tribe.

Oklahoma
Some Tuscarora descendants live in Oklahoma. They are primarily descendants of Tuscarora groups absorbed in the early decades of the nineteenth century in Ohio by relocated Iroquois Seneca and Cayuga bands from New York. They became known as Mingo while in the Midwest, coalescing as a group in Ohio. The Mingo were later forced in Indian Removals to Indian Territory in present-day Kansas, and lastly, in Oklahoma. In 1937 descendants reorganized and were federally recognized as the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma. The nation occupies territory in the northeast corner of the former Indian Territory. A band of Tuscarora also moved to Oberlin, Fremont, and Elmore, Ohio in the mid 1800s from New Bern, North Carolina and participated in the Underground Railroad.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscarora_people

https://tuscaroranationnc.com/
http://www.tuscaroras.com/
https://www.ncpedia.org/american-indians/tuscarora
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tuscarora

Notable Tuscarora

• Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson (1927–1985), Native activist
• Sachem Tom Blount, "King of the Tuscarora", chief of the northern band of the Tuscarora in North Carolina
• Chief William 'Sacharissa' Chew, II, of the Tuscarora Nation, Rakuwa:nen - a first chief of the Tuscarora; signed the Treaty of Buffalo Creek
• David Cusick -artist, author, physician, painter, and student of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) oral tradition.
• Dennis Cusick, painter - one of the founders of the Iroquois Realist Style of painting.
• Eric Gansworth, poet and visual artist
• John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, linguist and ethnographer
• Henry Berry Lowrie, led a resistance in North Carolina during and after the American Civil War.
• Franklin Pierce Mt. Pleasant, Jr. (1884–1937), athlete - 1st Lieutenant Infantry US Army WWI; 29th American Division in France
• Chief William P. "Ga-Rhme-Da-Wa-Gne" Mt. Pleasant, Tuscarora Chief and Football Star
• Chief Eleazer Williams -Hereditary Chief of the Tuscarora Nation's Turtle Clan; Rakuwa:nen, a First Chief of the Tuscarora; herbalist and healer
• Chief Thomas 'Te-ker-yer-ter' Williams -Chief Sachem of the Tuscaroras, 1887-1927; President of the Tuscarora Nation, 1890
• Clinton Rickard (1882–1971), Native activist
• Alicia Elliott, author

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Photograph: Chief Eleazer Williams -Hereditary Chief of the Tuscarora Nation's Turtle Clan; Rakuwa:nen, a First Chief of the Tuscarora; herbalist and healer