While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Tuscarora (Skurū'rěn',
'hemp gatherers,' the Apocynum cunnabinum, or Indian hemp, being a
plant of many uses among the Carolina Tuscarora; the native form of this
appellative is impersonal, there being no expressed pronominal affix to
indicate person, number, or gender). Formerly an important confederation
of tribes, speaking languages cognate with those of the Iroquoian
linguistic group, and dwelling, when first encountered, on the Roanoke,
Neuse, Taw (Torhunta or Narhontes), and Pamlico rivers., N. C. The
evidence drawn from the testimony of writers contemporary with them,
confirmed in part by tradition, makes it appear that while occupying this
primitive habitat the Tuscarora league was composed of at least three
tribal constituent members, each bearing an independent and exclusive
appellation. The names of these component members still survive in the
traditions of the Tuscarora now dwelling in west New York and south
Ontario, Canada. The first of these tribal names is Kǎ'tě’nu'ā'kā',
i. e. 'People of the Submerged Pine-tree'; the second Akawěñtc'ākā'
(meaning doubtful) ; and the third, Skarū'ren',
'Hemp Gatherers.' Cusick (Hist. Six Nations, 34, 1828) wrote these tribal
appellations "Kautanohakau," "Kauwetseka, " and "Tuscarora" respectively,
and (p. 31) refers also to the "Esaurora, or Tuscarora," from which it may
be inferred that Esaurora is a synonym of Skarū'rěn’.
According to the same authority (p. 36), the Tuscarora, on traditionary
evidence, possessed in early times 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 6,000 warriors, probably meaning
persons. Lawson, a better authority, wrote that in 1708 the Tuscarora had
15 towns and about 1,200 warriors, perhaps a minimum estimate of the true
number of their fighting men; and Johnson (Legends, etc., of the Iroquois,
1881) says that the Tuscarora in North Carolina had 6 towns and 1,200
warriors, which was probably approximately true of the Tuscarora proper.
Col. Barnwell, the commander of the South Carolina forces in the war of
1711-12, said that the Tuscarora or "the enemy can't be less than 1,200 or
1,400 [warriors], which may be easily judged by their large settlements;"
but Gov. Spotswood of Virginia placed their fighting strength at 2,000 men
in 1711.
According to Barnwell the Tuscarora had 3 towns
on Pamlico river, of which one was Ucouhnerunt, but that most of their
towns were on Neuse river and its many affluents. Some indication of the
extent of the territory claimed by the Tuscarora may be obtained from the
terms of the truce declared between the Tuscarora and Col. Barnwell in
1712. It was agreed therein that the Tuscarora were "to plant only on
Neuse river, the creek the fort is on, quitting all claims to other lands.
To quit all pretensions to planting, fishing, hunting or ranging to all
lands lying between Neuse river and Cape Feare, that entirely to be left
to the South Carolina Indians, and to be treated as enemies if found in
those ranges without breach of peace, and the enemy's line shall be
between Neuse and Pamblico, fishing on both sides Bear river." This would
indicate that Cape Fear river was the southern boundary of the Tuscarora
territory.
History. The data for the
history of the Tuscarora are meager and fragmentary, hence while they were
at first an important people of North Carolina, little is definitely known
regarding them, and that little usually applies to only a part of the
people. The first authentic information concerning the Tuscarora is that
recorded by Lawson, the Surveyor General of North Carolina, who knew them
well, having lived in close contact with them for many years. His History
of Carolina, having been written about
1709 and published in 1718, contains nothing in regard to the Tuscarora
during the most eventful period of their history, namely, that covering
the years 1711 to 1713. During this time they fought two wars with the
colonists of North Carolina, who were effectively aided by those of South
Carolina and Virginia, re-enforced by their tributary Indian allies. The
first war began with the capture of Lawson and the Baron De Graffenried by
about 60 Tuscarora and the condemnation to death of the former in Sept.
1711. Immediately following, a portion of the Tuscarora under Hencock, the
Coree, Pamlico, Matamuskeet, Bear Rivers, and Machapungo, conspired to cut
off the whites, each one of the tribes agreeing to operate in its own
district whence they were being driven by the steady encroachment of the
colonists. This compact resulted in the massacre of about 130 of the
colonists on Sept. 22, 1711, on Trent and Pamlico rivers., by the tribes
mentioned. Col. Barnwell was sent by South Carolina to aid the
hard-pressed colonists of North Carolina, and succeeded in driving the
Tuscarora into one of their palisaded towns about 20 miles above Newbern,
N. C., where he defeated them and later induced them to accept terms of
peace; but Barnwell violated this treaty by seizing some of the Indians
and sending them away into slavery. This was the beginning of the second
war between the Tuscarora and their allies and the people of North
Carolina. Again an appeal was made to South Carolina for aid, which
responded by sending Col. James Moore with a small militia force and about
900 tributary Indians.
Of the Tuscarora, Lawson said that they possessed many
amiable qualities; that, in fact, they were "really better to us than we
have been to them, as they always freely give us of their victuals at
their quarters, while we let them walk by our doors hungry, and do not
often relieve them. We look upon them with disdain and scorn, and think
them little better than beasts in human form; while with all our religion
and education, we possess snore moral deformities and vices than these
people do." This attitude of the whites toward the Indians naturally led
to the troubles later, which ended in much bloodshed and cruelty on both
sides. Although the Tuscarora were regarded as mild, kind, peaceable,
ingenious, and industrious, they were speedily brutalized by the vices of
the colonists with whom they came in contact; their women were debauched
by the whites, and both men and women were kidnapped to be sold into
slavery. The colonists of North Carolina, like their Puritan brethren of
New England, did not recognize in the Indian any right to the soil, hence
the lands of
the Tuscarora and of their Indian neighbors and allies were appropriated
without thought of purchase. It is not strange, therefore, that such
conduct on the part of the whites should eventually have awakened distrust
and jealousy in the minds of the erstwhile amiable Tuscarora, which,
fomented by these and other grievances, finally ripened into a hatred
which led to resistance and reprisal.
Perhaps the most lucid and condensed statement of the
wrongs suffered by the Tuscarora before vainly attempting to right them is
contained in a petition made to the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania
in 1710. More than a year before the massacre of 1711 the Tuscarora had
officially formulated a number of proposals embodying their grievances and
their desire to have these adjusted or removed by the conclusion of peace,
and to this end they sent, through the Conestoga (Susquehanna), an embassy
with these pacific overtures to the people and government of Pennsylvania.
The governor and provincial council dispatched two commissioners to meet
this embassy at Conestoga on June 8, 1710, where, in addition to the
Tuscarora emissaries, they found Civility and four other Conestoga chiefs,
and Opessa, the head chief of the Shawnee. In the presence of these
officials the Tuscarora ambassadors delivered their proposals, attested by
eight wampum belts, at the same time informing the Pennsylvania
commissioners that these were sent as an overture for the purpose of
asking for a cessation of hostilities until the following spring, when
their chiefs and headmen would come in person "to sue for the peace they
so much desired." By the first belt, the elder women and the mothers
besought the friendship of the Christian people, the Indians and the
government of Pennsylvania, so they might fetch wood and water without
risk or danger. By the second, the children born and those about to be
born, implored for room to sport and play without the fear of death or
slavery. By the third, the young men asked for the privilege to leave
their towns without the fear of death or slavery to built for meat for
their mothers, their children, and the aged ones. By the fourth, the old
men, the elders of the people, asked for the consummation of a lasting
peace, so that the forest (the paths to other tribes) be as safe for them
as their palisaded towns. By the fifth, the entire tribe asked for a firm
peace. By the sixth, the chiefs asked for the establishment of a lasting
peace with the government, people, and Indians of Pennsylvania, whereby
they would be relieved from "those fearful apprehensions they have these
several years felt." By the seventh, the Tuscarora begged for a "cessation
from murdering and taking then," so that thereafter they would not fear "a
mouse, or anything that ruffles the leaves." By the eighth, the tribe,
being strangers to the people and government of Pennsylvania, asked for an
official path or means of communication between them.
Stripped of metaphor and the language of diplomacy, the
purport of this message is plain; it was the statement of a tribe at bay,
that in view of the large numbers of their people who were being kidnapped
to be sold into slavery or who were being killed while seeking to defend
their offspring and their friends and kindred, they desired to remove to a
more just and friendly government than that whence they came. At this time
there was no war between them and the white people; there had as yet been
no massacre by the Tuscarora, no threat of hostility on the part of the
Indians, yet to maintain peace and to avoid the impending shedding of
blood, they were even then willing to forsake their homes. The
commissioners of Pennsylvania, however, informed the delegates, among
other things, that "to confirm the sincerity of their past carriage toward
the English, and to raise in us a good opinion of them, it would be very
necessary to procure a certificate from the government they leave, to
this, of their good behavior, and then they might be assured of a
favorable reception" (Min. Prov. Coun. Pa., it, 511, 1852). The Conestoga
("Seneques") chiefs present at this conference stated that by the advice
of their council it had been determined to send these belts, brought by
the Tuscarora, to the Five Nations. It was the reception of the belts with
their pitiful messages by these Five Nations that moved the latter to take
steps to shield and protect the Tuscarora, which gave so much apprehension
to the northern colonies.
The rapid encroachment of the whites on the lands of
the Tuscarora and their Indian neighbors for a period of sixty years after
the first settlements, although there was an air of peace and harmony
between the two races, were wrongs which dwarfed in comparison with the
continued practice of kidnapping their young to be sold into slavery. This
was the true cause of the so-called Tuscarora war in 1711-13. This phase
of the question is overlooked or quite disregarded by most historians; but
years before the massacre of 1711, Tuscarora Indians were brought into
Pennsylvania and sold as slaves, a transaction that excited grave
apprehension in the minds of the resident Indian tribes. To allay as much
as possible this growing terror among there, the provincial council of
Pennsylvania enacted in 1705 that, " Whereas the importation of Indian
slaves from Carolina, or other places, hath been observed to give the
Indians of this province some umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction,"
such importation be prohibited after Mar. 25, 1706. This enactment was
based solely on expediency and self-interest, since it was evident that
the Indians to the southward were in a general commotion. During the
Tuscarora war an act was passed, June 7, 1712, forbidding the importation
of Indians, but providing for their sale as slaves to the highest bidder
in case any should be imported for that purpose. It is known that the
prisoners of Col. Barnwell and Col. Moore were all sold as slaves, even
the northern colonies being canvassed for a market for them; indeed, the
Boston News Letter of 1713 contained an advertisement offering these very
Indians for purchase.
According to De Graffenried, Surveyor-General Lawson in
1709-10 settled his people, the Swiss and Palatines, on the south bank of
Trent river, on a tongue of land called Chattawka, formed by the Trent and
the Neuse in North Carolina, in a hot and unhealthful situation. De
Graffenried bitterly complained that the Surveyor-General was dishonest
for having charged him a "heavy price" for it, and for the consequences of
his not knowing that Lawson had no title to the land and that the place
was still inhabited by the Indians, although the Surveyor-General had
attested that the land was free of encumbrance and unoccupied. This
encroachment on the Indian lands was one of the fundamental causes of the
so called Tuscarora war. It is well known that the Coree, together with
their close allies, the hostile Tuscarora, in 1711 took vengeance on the
Swiss and Palatines settled on Trent river, killing about 70 of them,
wounding many others, and destroying much of their property. De
Graffenried says that one of the several causes of the war was the "rough
treatment of some turbulent Carolinians, who cheated those Indians in
trading, and would not allow them to hunt near their plantations, and
under that pretense took away from them their game, arms, and ammunition,"
and that the despised Indians being "insulted, in many ways by a few rough
Carolinians, more barbarous and inhuman than the savages themselves, could
not stand such treatment any longer, and began to think of their safety
and of vengeance. What they did they did very secretly."
In a letter of Maj. Christopher Gale to his brother,
Nov. 2, 1711, he describes a condition, fairly representative of the
times, as to the relations between the whites and the Indians around them.
During an attack on one of the many small garrisons maintained for the
protection of the settlements, "a number of Indian prisoners of a certain
nation, which we did not know, whether they were friends or enemies, rose
in the garrison, but were soon cut to pieces, as those on the outside
repelled. In the garrison were killed 9 men, and soon after 39 women and
children sent off for slaves." This shows that for the purposes of slavery
little distinction, if any, was made between one tribe and another.
De Graffenried while a captive among the hostile
Tuscarora, negotiated, subsequent to the execution of the unfortunate
Lawson, a private treaty with them by offering to every one of the chiefs
of the 10 villages of the hostiles a cloth jerkin, 2 bottles of powder,
500 grains of small shot, 2 bottles of rum, and something more to the head
chief for his own ransom. Among other things he agreed to remain neutral
during the continuance of the war, and that he, the "said Governor of the
German colony promises to remain within his limits and to take no more
lands from them without due warning to the king [head chief] and his
nation." Thus De Graffenried admitted taking Indian lands without
consulting the Indians, although he says elsewhere, "It must be observed
that it was neither I, nor my colony, who were the cause of that terrible
slaughter or Indian war," apparently overlooking the fact that the
greatest massacre was among his own Swiss and Palatines, indicating that
the Indians thus resented the wrongs committed by him and his people.
In order to secure the aid of the Catawba ("Flatheads")
against the hostile Tuscarora, the Carolina authorities promised them that
in the event of success in the war the Indians were to obtain goods
"cheaper than formerly." But after faithfully aiding the Carolinians in
1711-13 in dispersing the hostile Tuscarora, the Catawba were deceived as
to the promised reduction in the price of goods sold to them, and from
this misunderstanding arose the troubles leading later to the Catawba war
in 1714-15 (N. Y. Doe. Col. Hist., v, 444, 1855).
The chiefs of the-Five Nations, in conference with Gov.
Hunter at Albany, Sept. 25, 1714, acquainted him with the fact that the
Tuscarora Indians are come to shelter themselves among the Five Nations;
they were of us and went from us long ago, and now are returned and
promise to live peaceably among us. And since there is peace now
everywhere, we have received there. Do give a belt of wampum. We desire
you to look upon the Tuscarora that are come to live among us as our
children, who shall obey our commands and live peaceably and orderly" (N.
Y. Doc. Col. Hist., v, 387, 1855). This proposal, for it was practically
such, was not yet accepted by the New York Government in 1715 (ibid.,
413).
On June 23, 1712, Gov. Hunter, of New York, wrote to
the Lords of Trade that "the war betwixt the people of North Carolina and
the Tuscarora Indians is like to embroil us all," and expressed the fear
that under French instigation the Five Nations would fulfill their threat
to join the Tuscarora (ibid., 343). Again, on Sept. 10, 1713, Hunter wrote
to Secretary Popple that "the Five Nations are hardly to be diswaded from
sheltering the Tuscaruro Indians, which would embroil us all," and
expressed regret that he had no funds with which to buy presents to be
employed in dissuading them from forming an alliance with the Tuscarora.
On Sept. 10, 1713, an Onondaga chief, in conference
with commissioners from Gov. Hunter at Onondaga, said: "Brother Corlaer
says the Queen's subjects towards the South are now at war with the tus
Carorase Indians. These Indians went out heretofore from us, and have
settled themselves there; now they have got into war and are dispersed.
They have abandoned their Castles and are scattered hither and thither;
let that suffice; and we request our Brother Corlaer to act as mediator
between the English of Carrelyna and the tuskaroras that they may no
longer be hunted down, and we assure that we will oblige them not to do
the English any more harm, for they are no longer a Nation with a name,
being once dispersed" (N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., v, 376, 1855).
In 1717 Gov. Hunter, of New York, informed the Five
Nations that there were Virginia traders who still bartered with the
Tuscarora, thus showing that, contrary to the common opinion, there were
still a part of these Indians in Carolina and south Virginia.
In a letter dated at Narhantes Fort, Feb. 4, 1712, Col.
Barnwell gives a list of the various tribes of Southern Indians who
composed his motley army. In his own spelling these were: the
Yamasses,
Hog Logees,
Apalatchees,
Corsaboy,
Watterees,
Sagarees,
Catawbas,
Suterees,
Waxams,
Congarees,
Sattees,
Pedees,
Weneaws,
Cape Feare,
Hoopengs,
Wareperes,
Saraws, and
Saxapahaws.
Ft Narhantes, according to Barnwell, was the largest
and most warlike town of the Tuscarora. It was situated about 27 miles
below a former settlement of the Saxapahaw or "Shacioe Indians," which
these Indians had been forced to abandon along with others at the
beginning of Feb. 1712, by the Narhantes Tuscarora who had fallen upon
them and had killed 16 persons, owing to the refusal of the Saxapahaw to
join the Tuscarora against the English. The Saxapahaw had just reached the
Wattomas when Barnwell arrived there. After reaching Neuse river Barnwell
numbered his men before crossing, and found that he had 498 Indians and 33
white men. He complained that there was a great desertion of the Indians;
that only 67 remained of Capt. Bull's 200. On taking Ft Narhantes, "head
Town of ye Tuscaruros," on Jan. 30, 1712, he and his men were greatly
surprised and puzzled to find within two log houses much stronger than the
outer fort. After gaining an entrance, he says, while "we were putting the
men to the sword, our Indians got all the slaves and the plunder, only one
girl we gott." This was the strongest fort in that part of the country.
His loss was 7 white men killed and at least 32 wounded; the Indian loss
was 6 killed and 28 wounded; the Tuscarora loss was 52 men killed and at
least 10 women, and 30 prisoners. Barnwell was much chagrined at his great
loss, "with no greater execution of ye enemy." De Graffenried, in speaking
of this encounter, says he "marched against a great Indian village, called
Core, about 30 miles distant from Newbern, drove out the King and his
forces, and carried the day with such fury, that, after they had killed a
great many, in order to stimulate themselves still more, they cooked the
flesh of an Indian 'in good condition' and ate it." So it appears that
Narhantes was a Coree village, whose King was called Cor Tom. Barnwell
then advanced on Catechna, or King Hencock's town, in which had taken
refuge a medley of Indians from the Weetock, Bay, Neuse, Cor, Pamlico, and
a portion of the Tuscarora tribe. After two assaults, which the Indians
successfully repulsed, Barnwell, in order to save from massacre the white
prisoners within the fort, induced the Indians to enter into a truce with
him on condition that the white prisoners be liberated; and he returned to
Newbern with his small army for refreshment. Barnwell had hoped for great
honors and gifts from North Carolina, but being disappointed in this hope,
and wishing to return home with his forces with some profit, he lured,
under pretence of peace, a large number of the Indians to the neighborhood
of Cor village and then broke the truce by capturing them and carrying
them away to be sold into slavery. This naturally incensed the Tuscarora
and other Carolina Indians, and caused them to lose all confidence in the
word of a white man. This change of affairs resulted in repeated raids by
the Indians along Neuse and
Pamlico rivers., and "the last troubles were worse than the first."
Solicitations by the North Carolina authorities were
made to the Government of South Carolina for new aid, which was granted,
under Colonel Moore, with a body of 33 white men and more than 900 Indian
allies, who were probably re-enforced by North Carolina recruits. His
objective point was the palisaded town of Catechna, or Hencock's village.
In a letter dated Mar. 27, 1713, to President Pollock of North Carolina,
just after he had taken the palisaded town of "Neoheroka" in Greene
county, N. C., which lay on his route to Catechna, he reported that the
attack was begun on the 20th and that on the morning of the 23d "wee had
gott ye fort to ye ground." He states that the prisoners taken were 392,
that the scalps taken in the fort numbered 192, that there were 200 killed
and burned in the fort, and 166 persons killed and taken out of ye fort on
ye Scout," a total of 950. His own loss was 22 white men killed and 36
wounded; the loss of his Indians was 35 killed and 58 wounded. This severe
loss so awed the Tuscarora that they abandoned fort "Cohunche," situated
at Hencock's town, and migrated northward toward the territory of the Five
Nations.
Prior to the arrival of Col. Moore, President Pollock
had entered into an arrangement with Tom Blunt, the leading chief of the
"Northern Tuscarora," to seize chief Hencock, who was the reputed head of
the hostile Tuscarora, and to bring him alive to the President for the
purpose of adjusting their mutual difficulties and to negotiate peace.
Blunt's Tuscarora were to destroy the hostiles who had taken part in the
massacre and to deliver hostages for their own good behavior-this
arrangement was to continue only until the new year. After the defeat of
the Tuscarora by Moore, another treaty was made with Tom Blunt and his
Tuscarora, thus leaving as hostile only the small tribes of the Coree,
Matamuskeet, and Catechna. All of Moore's Indians except about 180
returned to South Carolina to sell their captives into slavery. With the
remaining forces Moore soon reduced and drove away the few remaining
hostiles.
The date of the adoption of the Tuscarora into the
council board of the League of the Iroquois, through the Oneida, their
political sponsors, is indefinite, judging from the differing dates,
ranging from 1712 to 1715, given by various well informed writers. In
their forced migration northward the Tuscarora did not all decamp at once.
The hostiles and their most apprehensive sympathizers were most probably
the first to leave their ancient homes in North Carolina. On the total
defeat and dispersion of the hostile Tuscarora and their allies in 1713,
the scattered fragments of tribes fled and sought an asylum with other
tribes, among whom their identity was not always maintained. Although the
Five Nations gave asylum to the fugitive Tuscarora, there is also abundant
evidence that, for political reasons perhaps, the Tuscarora were not for
many years after their flight from North Carolina formally admitted into
the Council Board of the League of the Five Nations as a constitutive
member. The fact is that the Tuscarora were 90 years in removing from
their North Carolina home to more friendly dwelling places in the north,
and there is no evidence that they were formally incorporated into the
confederation of the Five Nations, as a coequal member, before Sept. 1722.
On Sept. 6, 1722, Gov. Burnet held a conference with the Five Nations at
Albany, at which Governor Spotswood of Virginia was present. For the
purpose of preventing forays between the Five Nations and their allies on
the one hand, and the Southern Indians on the other, Spotswood induced the
Five Nations to consent to the running of a dividing line along the
Potomac and the high ridge of the Allegany mountains. This agreement was
made in the name of the Five Nations and the Tuscarora, indicating that
the latter had become a factor in the councils of the League of the
Iroquois. In closing the conference, it is stated that the Indians "gave
six shouts-five for the Five Nations and one for the castle of Tuscarora,
lately seated between the Oneidas and Onondagas." The record continues
that at the conclusion of this conference, on Sept. 13, the Five Nations
sought a special interview with the Governor of Pennsylvania, and that on
Sept. 14 the governor received "the ten chiefs of the Five Nations, being
two from each, together with two others, said to be of the Tuscororoes."
This appears to be the first official mention of the Tuscarora as taking
part in the management of the public affairs of the League. The Tuscarora
mentioned here, however, did not include those who dwelt on the Juniata
and on the Susquehanna at Oquaga and its environs, nor those still in
North Carolina.
In a petition of John Armstrong for land lying in
Tuscarora valley on Juniata river, Pa., about 6 miles from the mouth of
Tuscarora creek, the Indians living there at that time are called Lakens;
this land was taken up by Armstrong on Feb. 3, 1755. On the same day,
George Armstrong obtained a warrant for land situated on the south side of
Tuscarora creek, "opposite to the settlement of the Indians called Lackens."
It would thus appear that at this date this band of Tuscarora were known,
at least locally, as Lakens or Lackens.
Elias Johnson, in his Legends, says that it was the
Seneca who first adopted the Tuscarora as a constituent member of the
League. This, however, is at variance with the common but authentic
traditions of all the tribes and with the official statement of Col.
(afterward Sir) William Johnson to the Oneida, made at Mt Johnson, Sept.
8, 1753. He said, "Brethren of Oneida. My best advice is to have your
castles as near together as you conveniently can with the Tuscarora, who
belong to you as children, and the Scanihaderadighroones lately come into
your alliance or families, which makes it necessary for me to fix a new
string to the cradle which was hung up by your forefathers when they
received the Tuscarora, to feed and protect."
After the close of the war of 1711-13 in North
Carolina, the neutral Tuscarora, with remnants of allied tribes still
remaining in that country, were placed under the rule of chief Tom Blunt,
or Blount, by treaty with the provincial government of North Carolina.
From an act of the general assembly of North Carolina, in 1778, it is
learned that Withmell Tuffdick was then the ruling chief; but the last
ruling chief of the North Carolina Tuscarora was Samuel Smith, who died in
1802.
In 1767, the renown of the Moravian mission station at
Friedenshuetten (q. v. ) in Pennsylvania was so great that many Indians
from various tribes, including the Tuscarora, probably from Oquaga,
Ingaren, and vicinity, were constantly stopping there. Many passed through
it merely to see a place so famous for its hospitality. In May, 1766, 75
Tuscarora, according to Loskiel, on their way from North Carolina, halted
here and remained for some weeks. They are described as lazy and" refuse
to hear religion." During their stay the Tuscarora were so alarmed at the
sight of the first snow that they left their huts down by the river and
took refuge with the missionaries. A number of Tuscarora arrived at the
mission to remain there; these had planted their crops during 1766 at the
mouth of Tuscarora creek, Wyoming county, Pa.
On Dec. 16, 1766, Sir William Johnson received at Mt
Johnson, N. Y., 160 Tuscarora who had just arrived from North Carolina.
They complained to him that on their way thither they had been robbed at
Paxtang, in Pennsylvania, of their horses and other property to the value
of about $300.
Later the Tuscarora on the Susquehanna, dwelling at
Oquaga and in its Vicinity, had lands assigned them by the Oneida, their
political sponsors. These lands were bounded on the east by Unadilla
river, on the west by the Chenango, and on the south by the Susquehanna.
In the northern part of this allotment were situated the towns of
Ganasaraga, on the site of Sullivan, Madison co., N. Y., and
Kaunehsuntahkeh. A number of the Tuscarora lived with the Oneida in their
chief village. On these lands a large portion of the Tuscarora remained
until the events of the Revolution displaced them. By the terms of the
treaty of Ft Herkimer in 1785 with the state of New York, to which the
Tuscarora were nominal parties, the Oneida, the original proprietors of
the lands then occupied by the Tuscarora, conveyed to New York the lands
of the Tuscarora and retained the proceeds of the sale; thus the Tuscarora
were again without a home. Thereafter they became dispersed. Later they
had a village, called Junastriyo (Tcunästri'io')
in the Genessee valley, below Avon, N. Y.; another, called Jutaneaga (Tcutäněñ’'ki‘),
at the fork of Chittenango creek; and another called Kanhato (Kǎ'n‘ha‘'nŭ’).
According to Johnson (Legends, etc.) a part of the
fugitive Tuscarora settled at a point about 2 miles west of Tamaqua,
Schuylkill county, Pa., where they planted apple trees and lived for a
number of years. It is probable that it was these Tuscarora who later
removed to Oquaga, in the vicinity of which they had three other towns in
1778. Another band of fugitives settled in Tuscarora valley (as it, was
called later from them), on Juniata river, Pa. They remained here at least
as late as 1762. In a minute of a conference held at Lancaster, Pa., Aug.
11, 1762, between Lieut. Gov. Hamilton of Pennsylvania and delegates from
the Ohio Delawares, the Tuscarora of Oquaga and Lower Tuscarora, the
Shawnee, the Kickapoo, the Wea, and the Miami, it is stated that six
Tuscarora were present, of whom three were chiefs, who brought from their
people a letter in which they asked the Governor to furnish them with a
pass, saying, "We should be glad to be informed of the state and behavior
of our brethren in Tuscarora valley, and to have some directions about the
way, as we propose to make them a visit, and also should be glad of a pass
or recommendation in writing, that we may be friendly received on our way
to and at the valley."
Major portions of the Oneida and the Tuscarora, in accordance with
standing agreements with the United Colonies, remained faithful to the
American cause during the Revolution. When the Indian allies of the
British, even some of their brethren of the Six Nations, learned that a
majority of the Tuscarora had cast their lot with the Colonies, they
invaded the Tuscarora country, burned their lodges, and destroyed their
crops and other property. Thus again by the fortunes of war the Tuscarora
were scattered and homeless. A large party of these settled at a place
called Oyonwayea, or Johnson's Landing, in Niagara county, N. Y., about 4
miles east of the outlet of Niagara river, at the mouth of Four Mile
creek, in order not to be directly among the many Indians friendly to the
British cause camped around Ft Niagara. At the close of the war, two
families, probably clans, of Tuscarora from Oyonwayea made their way to
the north east limits of their present reservation, where they found many
walnuts and butternut, and a fine stream. Here they decided to winter.
Being missed from Oyonwayea, scouts were sent out, who found them in their
newly chosen settlement, a situation so favorable that, after the
gratuitous cession of their former home among the Oneida, Oyonwayea was
abandoned and all the families removed to the new site. Although the
Tuscarora had only a tacit permission from the Seneca to reside at this
place, the last settlement became the foundation of the present Tuscarora
reservation in New York. At the treaty held at Genessee, Sept. 15, 1797,
between Robert Morris and the Seneca tribe, the Tuscarora chiefs
complained, for the first time since their admission to the councils of
the League, that the Five Nations had from time to time allotted lands to
their people, but that each time these lands had been included in a
subsequent cession to the whites, and that the Tuscarora had received
nothing in return for their right of occupancy or for their improvements.
The justice and merits of their complaint having been acknowledged by the
Five Nations, Morris reserved to the Tuscarora, by grant, two square
miles, covering their settlement on the ridge mentioned above, and the
Seneca thereupon granted them an adjoining square mile. About 1800-02 a
deputation was sent to North Carolina to learn whether they could obtain
funds in payment for the lands they formerly occupied there, with the
result that, by aid of the North Carolina legislature, they were able to
lease the Carolina lands, which yielded a fund of $13,722. This sum
enabled the Secretary of War in 1804, under authority of Congress, to
purchase 4,329 acres for the Tuscarora from the Holland Land Co.,
adjoining the three square miles already occupied by them.
Such is the origin of the land holdings of the New York Tuscarora.
It was while the Tuscarora deputation was in North
Carolina that the remnant of the tribe still residing there was brought to
the north and joined their brethren in New York state.
The Tuscarora in sympathy with those of the Six
Nations that adhered to the cause of Great Britain in the Revolution were
granted lands in severalty on Grand River reservation, Ontario.
The evangelizing work of Christian missionaries began
among the Tuscarora in west New York as early as 1805 under the patronage
of the New York Missionary Society. At first there were only six persons
among the Tuscarora willing to abjure their ancient faith and customs, at
least in name and appearance, and join in the missionary work; the
remainder were generally strongly averse to the work of the missionaries.
So violent were the struggles between the two unequal parties that in the
spring of 1820 the "pagans" succeeded in inducing about 70 persons to
emigrate to Canada, where they settled among the pagans of the Six Nations
on the Grand River reservation, Ontario. The church membership at this
time was 16 persons. Little progress was apparent in the education of the
Tuscarora, although the New York Society had maintained a school among
them. Treaties. The Tuscarora have taken
part in the following treaties between the United States and the Six
Nations:
Ft Stanwix, N. Y., Oct. 22, 1784;
Ft Harmar, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1789;
Canandaigua (Konondaigua), N.Y., Nov. 11, 1794;
Oneida, N. Y., Dec. 2, 1794; Buffalo Creek, N. Y., Jan. 15, 1838.
For further information consult
Elias Johnson (native Tuscarora), Legends, Traditions and Laws of the
Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians, 1881;
Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York, i-xi, 1855-61;
Documentary History of New York, i-iv, 1849-51; Pennsylvania Archives,
i-xii, 1852-56; Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania
(Colonial Records), i-xvi, 1852-53; South Carolina Historical and
Genealogical Magazine, I-x, especially ix and x; Virginia Magazine, I-xv,
1893-1908; Lawson, History of Carolina, 1714, repr. 1860; Publications of
the Buffalo Hist. Soc. especially vol. VI.
