Tuscarora Indian Tribe History

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.