OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITE OF THE TUSCARORA NATION OF INDIANS

Absorption period

 

Pre Tuscarora War- Bear River Indians, Cores, Neuse/Nusioks, Weetocks are identified as being Tuscarora Towns despite some dialogue that spoke of them as separate tribes (Tuscarora War cite, 15) 1713- Woccon, which had already been under the protection and confederation of the Tuscarora, absorb into the Tuscarora, they had previously served alongside Tuscarora against the colonist during the war. SC originally attempted to get the Lower Town Woccon to fight against the Tuscarora however upon meeting the upper town Woccon, the Lower Towns switched sides against the colonist. 1733- NC Government authorized a petition by the Saponis to live with and absorb into the Tuscaroras on the reservation. (Johnson Tuscaroras book page 178) 1733- NC Government authorized a petition by the Chowanoke to live with and absorb into the Tuscaroras on the reservation. (Johnson Tuscaroras book page 22) 1761- Meherrin tribe Incorporated into the Tuscarora Nation of Indians many of which migrate to the reservation of Indian Woods. Report by Arthur Dobbs concerning general conditions in North Carolina 1761. In this report, Arthur Dobbs is questioned about all that remains of tribal populations within his district. He is questioned on population numbers and treaties and their conditions. Arthur Dobbs responded to these questions with, "The only Tribes or remains of Tribes of Indians residing in this Province are the Tuskerora Sapona Meherin and Maramuskito Indians." He further goes on into South Carolina, all the way to the Mississippi describing the Catawba and how greatly reduced they were. Shawnees, Creeks, and Chickasaws, Cherokee etc. Throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s, you start to see John, James, Benjamin, and William Cain, three names that consistently show up on Tuscarora records and land deeds, as Chiefs or Powers of Attorney, presiding over the cessions and sales of lands of the Chowanoke, Yeopim, and others who had been so demised, that the colony no longer took interest in them as separate Nations. You eventually find them staying temporarily amongst their Nottoway relatives to the north, listed on the census as Indians, and eventually around the former reservation lands of Fort Christianna, a land that was occupied by many eastern Siouan people, and was once also offered to the Nottoway, Tuscarora, and Meherrin who had all refused to live under Siouan dominated law. Also around this time, you start to see a James, John, and William Cain receive multiple land grants between the Lumber river and South river along with other Tuscarora headmen. Elders of the Cain family assert that a Blount, would meet with the Cains and Smiths whose land grants were adjacent to each other to discuss “family business”. However, these Cains and Smiths show no relationship to any Blounts or Blunts. Exile and migrations Time and time again, our ancestors on Indian Woods were constantly being harassed by our non-native neighbors. Numerous letters were written throughout the years to the North Carolina Colony, in an attempt to get them to intervene on our behalf. Sometimes the call was answered, sometimes it was not which caused some our people to look for other remedies. In some instances, some of our people moved onto lands adjacent to the reservation to be closer to their kin, but in other instances they would move to other parts of the Colony not yet inhabited by non-natives. Others would leave the reservation here to join our cousins up in New York. As you see from previous sections of this narrative, land leases were a constant battle as well, and with each new lease, more and more of our people were forced off Indian Woods. Soon after asking the Colony to help keep non-natives off of our lands, Chief James Blount is found in the Bladen County region, along with dozens of other families, where they would become the nucleus of the Tuscarora community in present day Robeson County. Other leaders, such as James Mitchell and John Rogers also left Indian Woods along with others who created the nucleus of other Tuscarora groups today, scattered like smoke in the wind throughout eastern North Carolina. Revisionist Era The Civil War brought new problems for our people who were living in Robeson County. The Robeson County Home Guard would constantly shanghai Tuscarora people for the purpose of building fortifications such as Ft. Fisher near Wilmington. Many times, our people would escape to the swamps where they would hide out to keep from being sent back to the forts. The home guard on one occasion caught two young Lowrie boys who were hiding and beat them to death with a cypress knee. When news of this spread throughout the Tuscarora community, numerous people took up arms against those who were responsible for their cousin’s murders. One of those men who swore vengeance was named Henry Berry Lowrie, and he and his cohorts were written about in dozens of newspapers, magazines and books throughout the US, which featured their escapades during what many called the Lowrie War. Every publication stated that the Indian blood within those who were part of the gang was Tuscarora, and many times would state where their ancestors had lived prior to the Robeson area. Today, many history books about our people’s heritage have been rewritten to make people believe that Henry was Lumbee, and not Tuscarora. The word Lumbee was 1st penned in 1888 by the man responsible for the 1st name forced upon our people as you will see in the following paragraphs. In 1885, the State of North Carolina renamed our people from the Tuscarora Nation to a newly fabricated Tribe called Croatan, designed to distance our people from our Sovereignty and Rights as Tuscarora. The man responsible for this pernicious act was named Hamilton McMillan; a State politician who thought of himself as a local authority on Native history, though our people beg to differ. The Croatan Act was passed on February 10, 1885, and the language within the Act failed to even mention our Tuscarora ancestry. Instead, the very vague language of the Act spoke of the Croatan Tribe as though it was a historic entity, but that could not be further from the truth. Mr. McMillan was quoted by a State Newspaper well in advance of the passage of the Croatan Act, saying that Croatan was merely a village, and that our people were Tuscarora. A few years after the passage of the Croatan Act, our people attempted to regain our Sovereignty by applying to the OIA (Office of Indian Affairs) in Washington. The OIA office could find no reference to the name Croatan, and since Mr. McMillan created the name, he was asked to provide a history of our people. The OIA specifically asked Mr. McMillan if our people had been party to any Treaties with the U.S. and given the fact that we were now mislabeled as Croatan, his answer to their question was a resounding “No”. As Tuscarora, our people had been party to at least two prior Treaties, but because of Mr. McMillan’s capricious actions, our birthrights were taken from us, and we have been fighting to regain them ever since. It must be noted that within the response to the OIA, Mr. McMillan first penned the word Lumbee, a word he erroneously attributed to our people’s pronunciation of the local River. As you will see the further you read, the word Lumbee has become an albatross around the neck of our Tuscarora people who settled within the Lumber River basin. The name Croatan remained as a designation for the Tuscarora in and around the Robeson County area until the beginning of the 20th century, and it was changed only a few years prior to the long term leases were to expire in 1916 on the Tuscarora Reservation in Bertie County. The next name pushed upon our people was chosen with the intent of removing any inkling of a claim to the lands in Bertie, which was accomplished by naming our people “Cherokee of Robeson County” in 1913. By doing this, the State of NC was able to completely change our history again in an attempt to shield any land claims by remaining Tuscarora in the State. Cherokee territory is 400 miles west of the Tuscarora Reservation and of our people’s migration routes. The Cherokee name would remain in place for the people in Robeson County until the year 1953, when, yet another name was pushed. This time it was Lumbee, and with less than 10% of the people voting, it was passed at the State level, and only 3 years later, the now infamous Lumbee Act of 1956 was passed, casting a wide net that engulfed the Tuscarora people, which has lived on till today. Time and time again, the Tuscarora people have attempted to remove themselves from the Lumbee umbrella, only to be told that we are now a splinter group of the Lumbee, a designation with a history of only 70 years, versus a history that spans thousands of years as Tuscarora. Recent History Two decades prior to the Lumbee name coming about, the US Government passed the Indian Re-organization Act, better known as the IRA. Soon after its action, the Tuscarora people in Robeson County inquired as to whether we could take part and benefit from the IRA, which prompted various questions between the Government and the IRA’s architect, Felix Cohen. Mr. Cohen responded with several letters addressing whether our people would be eligible to take part. His answer was yes, which prompted the eventual testing of several hundred individuals. We will not get into the arbitrary and embarrassing testing techniques used, but there were however, 22 individuals accepted as half or more Indian. This should have been the path back to full recognition for our people, but as it turns out, our people would continue to be lied to and mistreated by both the Federal Government and State governments. For decades after the 22 were accepted in 1938, our people would continually attempt to organize as a recognized group, only to be denied repeatedly. By 1970, there were only 8 surviving of the original 22, and they tried again to get the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to allow their organization as a reformed Nation. The BIA by this time began the practice of using the Lumbee Act as a reason for inaction and denial. This led to a Federal Lawsuit known today as “Maynor vs. Morton”. The case began in 1973 and attempted to get the Federal Government to finally give full recognition back to the Tuscarora people. The case was dismissed, but immediately appealed, where it overturned the lower court’s decision in 1975. Within a few months, the BIA had sent down a task force to finally begin the process of recognizing the Tuscarora people, but that too was short lived. The BIA arbitrarily began to hold a negative stance towards our people, and once again used the Lumbee Act as a reason not to recognize the Tuscarora Nation. Since that time, various Tuscarora towns in NC have made other attempts at regaining full recognition but have been met with similar outcomes. There have been several petitions submitted to the BIA, but again, those too were denied and or ignored with the Lumbee Act as basis for the denials, and as of today, still sit in the BIA in a state of limbo.. Beginning in 2003, Skarorah Katenuaka Nation (SKN) filed a series of other federal lawsuits, all to regain our inherent Sovereignty taken from us so long ago. Even in the federal courts of today, they too seem to have forgotten about the Maynor vs. Morton case, and have consistently used the Lumbee Act as a basis for dismissing the various suits. SKN was however, able to gain standing in a 2009 case, but that case was, once again, dismissed since the SKN government was at that time, still located within the Lumbee Act area. For generations, our people have had to endure constant name changes and scrutiny that have only served to cast uncertainty as to our people’s history by outsiders. Generations of our people have also fought to regain our Sovereignty, and have done so using every method available, only to be turned down due to circumstances not of our own doing. Since the dismissal of the 2009 case, SKN has repatriated back to our lands on the Indian woods Reservation. We are a people no longer in exile and are working daily to rebuild our infrastructure on the lands of our forefathers. We are preparing the foundation for and re-establishing the Tuscarora Confederacy, which will include all Tuscarora towns and allies located in N.C. We are prepared to re-establish our government to government relationship with the United States of America, and we ask that you help us in these endeavors which will reaffirm our Sovereignty