HISTORY OF THE TUSCARORA

«

The

Tuscarora Indians,

when

Raleigh's colonists first settled in the

new-found

land of Virginia, were discovered inhabiting a large part of the

piedmont and

coastal plain of

what

is

now

the State of

North

Carolina, Theirtowns, saidto

number

as

many

as 24, shelter- ing perhaps 6,000 souls, were scattered along the Neuse, Tar,

and Eoanoke

Rivers,

and were

^{united in} a loose military league. Their subsistence base

was

agriculture, eked out

by

hunting. Like their Iroquoian

kinsmen

to the north, the matrilineal Tuscarora in Caro- lina were

famous

warriors, their raiding parties being the scourge of surrounding

Algonkian and

Siouan tribes; and, like the Five Nations, the Tuscarora, too, evidently

had

leanings

toward

confed- eracy, their"nation" being

welded

out ofseveral tribalgroups.

The

Tuscarora

—

^{once again like the northern Iroquois}

—

^{early en-}

tered into commercial relations with white settlers

on

the coast

and became

ruthless

middlemen

ⁱⁿ the lucrative trade in skins

and

furs, exchanging

rum

forpeltrieswithinlandtribes

many

miles

from

^their

own

towns. This symbiotic relationship of the Wliites

on

the coast

and

the Tuscarora in the interior

was

mutually satisfactory during

most

of the seventeenth century.

But toward

the

end

of that period the

Whites began

seriously topress inland.

The

earlyCarolinasettlers

were not careful to arrange formal land cessions with the Indians;

and

furthermore, they were

imprudent enough

to

kidnap

Tuscarora childrentosellas slaves

—

aproceedingwell calculatedtoarousebitter resentment,

and remembered

eventoday asthe

prime

emotional cause of thesanguinary Tuscarora

War.

The

Tuscarora

War

(1711-13) began with analmost-successfulsur- prise assault

by

the Indians

which aimed

at annihilating all the en- croaching white settlements. Reinforcements, largely consisting of Indian warriorshostile totheTuscarora,were

summoned from South

Carolina.

The

relief armies destroyed several of the Tuscarora's

main

forts

and

villagesalong the

Neuse

River. Thesecostly defeats, together with the fact that the Tuscarora themselves were split into pro-

and

anti-English factions,

and

a general confusion over the

whole

situation, shattered the already uncertain unity of Tuscarora

*Thefollowing narrativeisquoted, withminorchanges,fromWallace, 1949,pp.159-162.

Reprinted by permission of the American Philosophical Society. The sources employed are De Graflfenried, ca. 1713; Hewitt, 1910^; Lawson, 1714; Society of Friends, 18.38, 1866;andthe writer'sownfieldnotesandwire recordings.

WallaceJ

MODAL PERSONALITY

OF

TUSCARORA

INDIANS

15

society.

Many

Tuscaroratrekked

northward

tojointheir

kinsmen

of theFive Nationsasearly as1713;others,underthe heel of theWliites, remained in

North

Carolina

and

Virginia,

whence

straggling bands

moved

north

from

time to time during the next 90 years.

The

last

community

of Carolina Indians conscious of itself as Tuscarora

marched

north to

New York

about 1803; but even today there are legends of Tuscarora tribal remnants, largely assimilated

by

the negroidpopulation,stilllingeringintheSouth.

Meanwhile

the Tuscarora

who had moved northward underwent

further political disintegration.

Some

settled along the Juniata in Pennsylvania,othersalongthe

Susquehanna

at

Wyoming

(the region about

what

is

now

Wilkes-Barre,Pa.)

and

near

Oquaga

inthe

Oneida

country (near present

Binghamton,

N. Y.), others in the

Onon- daga

country,between present Syracuse

and Oneida

Lake,N. Y.,

and

various

minor

bands were strewn along other rivers

and

valleys in Pennsylvania

and New

York.

As

a

group

they were "adopted"

by

theFiveNations

—

^i.e.,given permission to stay inFive Nations coun- try

—

^{about 1722,}

^and

henceforth the

New York

Iroquois were called the Six Nations. This adoption didnot extend tothe Tuscarora the rightofanequal voice

and

^{a tribalvoteintheGreatCouncil.}

During

the

French and

Indian wars,

and

Pontiac's

War,

the Tuscarora,along with the

Mohawk and

Oneida, wereas a vrholehearty in theEnglish

interest.

But

the continuing pressure of

European

settlements

and

trade continued to sap the strength of the already disbanded

and

shattered nation.

With

the opening ofthe Revolutionary

War,

the criticaldissolutionof the old culture

was

imminent.

The

Tuscarora nation (if the

word

"nation" can be applied to the

members

of a

number

of conmiunities scattered

among

alien peoples) splitinto

two

factions duringthe Revolution: an activelypro-British faction

and

a neutral, pro-Americanone.

Both

factions

were

swept asidebythenotorious

punishment

expeditionsin 1779 of

Van

Schaick

and

Sullivan.

Some

of the refugees continued

northward

tothe Six Nations Reserveat

Grand

River,Ontario,

where

theirdescendantsare

now

;othersin 1781 planted a

town

on theescarpment overlookingthe NiagaraRiver.

The

present 10-square-mile reserve includesthisorig- inal tract,althoughthevillageisno more, having been

burned

during the

War

of 1812.

The

close of the Revolutionary

War marked

the nadir of Tuscarora fortunes. Politically dispersed, landless, deci-

mated

in numbers, they

had

lost

many

of the customs

and

traditions of their forefathers without taking over a functional core of Euro-

pean-American

culture.

They had

almost

abandoned

their

own

^horti-

cultural

economy

;eventheirancientreligiousobservancesseemtohave beenlargely forgotten.

The

depressed condition of the Iroquois (in- cluding the Tuscarora) in 1796

was

described

by Thomas

^Wistar,

16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

[Bull. 130 clerk of the Friends'

Committee

for the gradual civilization of the Indiannatives

:

. . . when the committee commenced its labors, scarcely a trace of civilization

wasdiscernableamongthe aborigines.

From

the erratic anduncertainpursuits of the chase, they gleaned a scanty and hard-earned subsistence; often pinched with hunger,andmiserablyclad,while a rudeandcomfortlesscabinformedtheir onlyandinadequateshelteragainstthe violence of the elementsand thevicissi- tudesoftheseasons, [Society of Friends, 1838.]

The

next

two

generations of theTuscarora onthe

Niagara

Frontier

(who

henceforth willbe our

main

concern)

saw

a cultural revolution

which

tended in

some

respects to

make

the Indians live like white people. Presbyterian

and

Baptistmission-churches

were

established

;

apublic school

was

built;the

Temperance

Society (amutual-improve-

ment

group)

was

organized.

During

the

War

of 1812 (in

which

the Tuscarora fought for the

United

States) the oldvillageof log cabins

on

the northwest corner of the reserve

was

burned;

and when

the refugees trickled back, they built

new homes

scattered about the re- serve, close to the cornfields.

These new homes

were, as often as not,

frame

dwellings in

European-American

style.

Orchards were

laid out;horses,cattle,

and

swinewerekept.

In

theeconomicsphere,Tus- carora

became

a "Wliite" rural

community

within the space of

two

generations

— an

achievement in cultural

metamorphosis

of

no mean

proportions.

In

the satisfied

words

of the Friends' Committee, the habitations in caves,flimsy shacks,

and

barkcabins

had by

1865 been replacedwith

—

comfortable frame or log houses, often two storied, with window shutters, and some of them painted, with the yards neatly inclosed; suitable furniture has been introducedwherebefore therewas ^littleornone

—

meals areregularly and decently cookedand served up, and disgusting filth of personand dwelling has disappeared, while foodandclothingare procured by theirownindustry.

Many

read andwriteandunderstand otherelementary branchesof [European] learn- ing, andsomeofbothsexes havetaught withcredit schools intheneighborhoods wheretheyreside,atwhichwhiteas well as Indianchildrenareeducated. [So- ciety ofFriends, 1866.]

The

next80 years

—

roughly

from

1865 to 1948

— saw

the consolida- tion of theeconomic adjustment sosuccessfullymade. Furthersocial integration with the surrounding

Whites

has been necessary,; This has accelerated the declineof the nativelanguage

and

its progressive replacement

by

English;ithasalso tendedtoatomize Tuscarorasoci- ety

by

breaking

down

such centripetal interests as the lineage

and

kinship usages,offering

them no

function exceptwithinthe geogi'aphi- cal boundaries of the reserve.

Few

aboriginal institutions have re- mained, except the sibs

and

the Chiefs' Council; the Tuscarora lan-

guage

is

now

spoken

by

preference only

by

the older people,

and

scarcelyatall

by

theyoungsters;and,withtheriseof industry

around

Wallace]

MODAL PERSONALITY

OF

TUSCARORA

INDIANS

17

NiagaraFalls,eventhe agricultural patternisbeingbroken

up by

the daily

commuting

of Indianlabor to

work

for local Wliite industrial concerns.

But

theseobservationsshouldnot betaken to

imply any more

than the fact that the Tuscarora Indians

have

adapted their subsistence techniques,

and

^relevant social order, to

new

economic

and

political circumstances. Inareas of culture notimmediatelyaffected

by

changes intheeconomic

and

politicalenvironment,traits of presumably great antiquity

may

be found thriving cheerfully in their

new

soil.

The

socialization techniques of today correspond in a

number

of general features,nottosurrounding'Whitetradition,buttopatternsrecorded for Tuscarora

and

Iroquois in general in the early Contact periods.

The mythology

survives,or pails ofit, atleast,inbothTuscarora

and

Englishvei-sions,

and

thelatterare

known

totheyoungestgeneration, children of 3

and

4years ofage being able torepeatin English ghost

and

witch stories already recorded in Tuscarora

from

their elders.

Herbal remedies,

handed down

ⁱⁿ family tradition

from

the remote past,are

known

^toprofessionalherbalists (of

whom

thewriters host,

Mr.

Daniel Smith,

was

one) of considerable local distinction. Basic ethical values

—

^attitudes

^toward

^{sex, marriage,}

^communal

^responsi-

bility,dissipation,etc.

—

^aresuggestive of ancienttradition.

The

Tus- carora have been able to preserve, without

undue damage, many

of the

more

intimate aspects of their culture, while actively

revamping

virtuallytheentire institutional superstructure so asto

conform

with therequirementsoflifein a ^Miiteeconomy.

A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL POSITION OF