LEARNING LONGHOUSE

  

The Tuscarora Nation (Ska-Ruh-Reh), meaning the Shirt-Wearing People, joined the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy in 1722. After the Tuscarora War in 1712, most members of the Tuscarora nation moved from North Carolina to New York.  They joined the Haudenosaunee and settled near their sponsors, the Oneidas. The migration period took approximately 90 years to complete. The Tuscaroras who stayed in North Carolina signed a treaty in June of 1718 granting them a tract of land on the Roanoke River in what is now Bertie County, North Carolina.  In 1722, the Bertie County reservation was chartered, and over the next several decades the Tuscarora lands were continually diminished as they were sold off in deals that were frequently designed to take advantage of the Tuscarora. The Haudenosaunee decided to remain neutral during the American Revolutionary War. However, some members of the Tuscarora and Oneida nations sided against the rest of the Iroquois Confederacy by fighting with the colonists. After the war was over, those that fought with Britain followed Joseph Brant into Ontario to settle at Six Nations of the Grand River.  In 1803, more Tuscaroras migrated to New York from North Carolina.  They reunited with the Tuscaroras who were living in Niagara County, New York.  In 1831 the Tuscaroras sold the remaining rights to their lands in North Carolina. However, despite not having a reservation in North Carolina, many Tuscaroras remained there.