Tuscarora people
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2008) |
Skarù:ręˀ | |
---|---|
Total population | |
17,412 |
The Tuscarora (in
Prior to European contact, the Tuscarora lived in
After the
After the
Only the tribes in New York and Ontario have been recognized on a government-to-government basis by the respective national governments.
Name
The Tuscaroras'
History
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.
These affiliations continued to be active as independent groups after the tribe migrated to New York and, later, Ontario.[12] F.W. Hodge, an early 19th-century historian, wrote that the Tuscarora in North Carolina traditionally were said to occupy the "country lying between the sea shores and the mountains, which divide the Atlantic states," in which they had 24 large towns and could muster about 6,000 warriors, probably meaning persons.[3]
In late 17th and early 18th-century North Carolina, European colonists reported two primary branches of the Tuscarora: a northern group led by Chief Tom Blunt, and a southern group led by Chief Hancock. Varying accounts c. 1708 – 1710 estimated the number of Tuscarora warriors as from 1200 to 2000. Historians estimate their total population may have been three to four times that number.[3]
Chief Blunt occupied the area around what is present-day Bertie County, North Carolina, on the Roanoke River. Chief Hancock lived closer to present-day New Bern, occupying the area south of the Pamlico River. Chief Blunt became close friends with the colonial Blount family of the Bertie region and lived peacefully.
By contrast, Chief Hancock had to deal with more numerous colonists encroaching on his community. They raided his villages and kidnapped people to sell into
The southern Tuscarora collaborated with the Pamlico, the Cothechney, the Coree, the Mattamuskeet and the Matchepungoe nations to attack the settlers in a wide range of locations within a short time period. Their principal targets were against the planters on the Roanoke, Neuse and Trent rivers, as well as the city of Bath. They attacked on September 22, 1711, beginning the Tuscarora War. The allied Indian tribes killed hundreds of settlers, including several key political figures among the colonists.
Governor
The governor offered Chief Blunt leadership of the entire Tuscarora Nation if he would assist in defeating Chief Hancock. Blunt succeeded in capturing Hancock, who was tried and executed by North Carolina officials. In 1713 the Southern Tuscarora were defeated at their Fort Neoheroka (formerly spelled Neherooka), with 900 killed or captured in the battle.
After the defeat in the battle of 1713, about 1500 Tuscarora fled north to New York to join the
Under the leadership of Tom Blunt, the Tuscarora who remained in North Carolina signed a treaty with the colony in June 1718. It granted them a 56,000 acres (230 km2) tract of land on the Roanoke River in what is now Bertie County. This was the area occupied by Chief Blunt and his people. The colonies of Virginia and North Carolina both recognized Tom Blunt, who had taken the last name Blount, as "King Tom Blount" of the Tuscarora. Both colonies agreed to consider as friendly only those Tuscarora who accepted Blount's leadership.[14] The remaining Southern Tuscarora were forced to remove from their villages on the Pamlico River and relocate to the villages of Ooneroy and Resootskeh in Bertie County. In 1722, the Bertie County Reservation, which would officially become known as "Indian Woods," was chartered by the colony.
As colonial settlement surrounded Indian Woods, the Tuscarora suffered discrimination and other acts: they were overcharged or denied use of ferries, restricted in hunting, and cheated in trade; their timber was illegally logged, and their lands were continuously encroached upon by herders and squatters.[14] Over the next several decades, the colonial government continually reduced the Tuscarora tract, forcing cessions of land to the encroaching settlers. They sold off portions of the land in deals often designed to take advantage of the Tuscarora.
Many Tuscarora were not satisfied with the leadership of Tom Blount, and decided to leave the reservation. In 1722 300 fighting men; along with their wives, children, and the elderly, resided at Indian Woods. By 1731 there were 200 warriors, in 1755 there were 100, with a total population at Indian Woods of 301. When in 1752
In 1763 and 1766 additional Tuscarora migrated north to settle with other Iroquoian peoples in northern and western Pennsylvania and in New York. By 1767 only 104 persons were residing on the reservation in Bertie County. In 1804 the last band to leave North Carolina went to New York. By then, only "10 to 20 Old families" remained at Indian Woods.
In 1802 the last Indian Woods Tuscarora negotiated a treaty with the United States, by which land would be held for them that they could lease. As the government never ratified the treaty, the North Carolina Tuscarora viewed the treaty as null and void. In 1831 the Indian Woods Tuscarora sold the remaining rights to their lands. By this point their 56,000 acres (230 km2) had been reduced to 2,000 acres (8.1 km2).
Although without a reservation, some Tuscarora descendants remained in the southern regions of the state, intermarrying with European settlers. In 1971 the Tuscarora in Robeson County sought to get an accounting of their lands and rents due them under the unratified treaty of 1803.[15] At least three bands have organized in Robeson County. In 2010 they united as one group.
Migration north
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
The present area from Martinsburg,
During the
In 1803 a final contingent of southern Tuscarora migrated to New York to join the
During the
The Tuscarora have continued to struggle to protect their land in New York. In the mid-20th century, New York City commissioner Robert Moses generated controversy by negotiating with the Tuscarora Sachem council and purchasing 550 acres of the Tuscarora reservation for the reservoir of the new hydroelectric project along the Niagara River, downriver from Niagara Falls. (At the time of first power generation in February 1962, it was the largest project in the world.) The plant continues to generate cheap electricity for households located from the Niagara area to as far away as New York City.[23]
Language
Although the Nottoway language went extinct in the early 1900s, linguists have been able to determine that it was distinct, although closely related to Tuscarora.[24] In addition, the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Tribe has been working to revitalize the Nottoway Language in recent times. In historic times, the three tribes always identified as distinct and independent peoples.
Recognized Tuscarora nations
- Tuscarora Nation at Lewiston, New York
- Tuscarora at Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada
Tuscarora descendants in Oklahoma
Some Tuscarora descendants are part of the
Unrecognized groups in North Carolina
Numerous
They have included the following:
- Tuscarora Indian Nation of North Carolina, date organization: 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)[citation needed]
Tuscarora tribal officials in New York dispute claims that anyone in North Carolina has continuity as a tribe with the Tuscarora.[25] 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 might possibly have some Tuscarora ancestry.[citation needed]
Notable Tuscarora
- Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson (1927–1985), Native activist
- David Cusick, artist and author
- Dennis Cusick, painter
- Eric Gansworth, poet and visual artist
- John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, linguist and ethnographer
- Frank Mount Pleasant (1884–1937), athlete
- Clinton Rickard (1882–1971), Native activist
- Alicia Elliott, author
Iroquoian-speaking peoples
- Cherokee
- Chonnonton
- Erie
- Huron
- Iroquois
- Meherrin
- Nottoway
- Mohawk
- Petun (See also Protohistory of West Virginia )
- Conestoga)
See also
- Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation
- Christoph von Graffenried
- Native American tribes in Maryland
- Tuscarora First Nation
References
- ^ "Tuscarora Nation Demographics & Statistics — Employment, Education, Income Averages, Crime in Tuscarora Nation — Point2 Homes". Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ a b "TUSCARORA NATION". Archived from the original on 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
- ^ a b c F.W. Hodge, "Tuscarora", Handbook of American Indians, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906, at AccessGenealogy, accessed 28 Oct. 2009
- ^ American Anthropologist, American Anthropological Association, Anthropological Society of Washington (Washington, D.C.), American Ethnological Society.
- ^ Davi Cusick, Ancient History of the Six Nations, 1828
- ^ Recounted in Tuscarora oral tradition
- .
- ^ J.N.B. Hewitt, "Legend of the Founding of the Iroquois League", 1892, pp. 131-48.
- ^ Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1918, "A Constitutional League of Peace in the Stone Age of America", Washington, 1920, pp. 527-45
- .
- ^ "Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina - About Us". Archived from the original on 2014-09-08. Retrieved 2014-09-08.
- ^ Cusick, History of the Six Nations, 1828, pp. 31, 34
- ^ a b Bruce Trigger, ed., Handbook of American Indians; Volume 15, 1978, pp. 287–288
- ^ a b Bruce Trigger, ed., Handbook of American Indians; Volume 15, 1978, p. 287
- ^ Skaroreh Katenuaka Nation Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, (North Carolina) Official Website
- ^ Wayne E. Clark, "Indians in Maryland, an Overview", Maryland Online Encyclopedia, 2004–2005, accessed 22 Mar 2010
- ^ "Native American Project History of Berkeley County", Native American Project / Tuscarora, accessed 15 Mar 2019
- ^ "Those Tuscaroras who had supported America in the Revolution were compelled to leave their first residence in New York because of the hostility of Indians who had fought with the British against the Colonies. They migrated to the Village of Lewiston, New York, near Niagara Falls, and settled in that area as their new home." FPC v. Tuscarora Indians, 362 US 99 (1960) Justice Black's Dissent at 134 (reciting history of the Lewiston band as refugees)
- ISBN 978-1-932583-23-6, pp. 38, 49 (Noting "while most of the American militia deserted, the Tuscarora stood strong to save their American neighbors.")
- ^ William Pool, ed., History of Lewiston, New York, Landmarks of Niagara County NY, Chapter XVII, 1897 (citing account of a woman who managed to kill two "reds" who'd invaded her house and dashed her child's brain out against the corner of the house; "after washing the soot off their faces she recognized two of her neighbors who were Tories.")
- ^ Tuscorora Heroes, pp. 50 & 95–96.
- ^ Tuscarora Heroes, pp. 51–52 (Note: The Tuscarora understood that in defending the Americans, they were sacrificing their own village and winter supplies to destruction by the British Mohawks.)
- ^ "Niagara Falls History of Power". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- Blair Rudes, International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol 47 No. 1 (Jan 1981) pp. 27–49.
- ^ Gerald M. Sider, Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora people in North Carolina, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003
- ^ McIntyre, Mike. "Through Native Eyes: The Henry Berry Lowrie Story". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
Further reading
- Patrick Keith, Through Colonialism and Imperialism: The Struggle for Tuscarora Nationhood in Southeastern North Carolina, M.A. Thesis, 2005, University of Arizona
- John R. Swanton, "The Indians of the Southeastern United States", Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 137 (Washington, D.C., 1946)
- Bruce G. Trigger, ed., Northeast, vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978)
- Anthony F. C. Wallace, "The Modal Personality Structure of the Tuscarora Indians", Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 150 (Washington, D.C., 1952)
- Anthony F. C. Wallace, Tuscarora: A History (Albany: SUNY Press, 2012)
External links
- Tuscarora and Six Nations Websites, official website
- Six Nations Of The Grand River Territory, official website