Predating the settlements
of the early colonists the earliest inhabitants were the Tuscarora Indians.
They lived along the banks of the Trent River. Here they planted crops and
fished the river for small mouth bass, striped bass, and catfish. Deer,
muskrat and beaver were abundant in the area. It is reported that their
territory was huge covering the area between the Neuse River Basin and the Cape
Fear River from North Carolina's coastal areas to the Appalachian Mountains. The farm land that the Tuscarora's had developed was later taken over by the
colonists.
Although the Tuscarora
Indians were largely credited for the survival
of
the colonists who had settled on their land, the Indians had been abused by the
white settlers for many years. The colonists often sold them useless
rifles whose barrels were bent. Land was frequently purchased from the
Indians often at prices well below its value. Trading for furs and other
commodities was often one-sided. Worst of all was the raiding of the
Indian villages and capture of women and children to be brought back as
slaves to work the plantations. The sale of home brewed whiskey to the
Indians was further cause for much drunkenness and disturbances that took
place in the villages.
The Tuscarora War
Then it
happened, without warning, the Tuscarora Indians attacked all of the
settlements along the Neuse and Trent Rivers including all of their tributaries.
They began their rampage by sending scouts in among the settlers. As they
moved from settlement to settlement, the Tuscaroras in the homes serving as
slaves, also joined their brothers in the massacre of the settlers. No one
was spared. They applied torches to all of the buildings. Liquor
that the Tuscaroras found added to the fury of the bloodbath which continued on
for three days. After killing all the settlers they could find in a
settlement, they would proceed down to the next settlement. By the end of
the day, they had reached New Bern where they wiped out a third of the
population.
The
Indians had a about 260 fighting men between the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers in the
villages adjacent to the white settlements destined for destruction. The
settlers had approximately 1000 able to bear arms. According to
historians, the majority of the Tuscaroras did not participate in the attack on
the settlers. "Dr. Byrd, historian, said traditional North
Carolina history has given the Tuscaroras a "bad rap", depicting them
as blood thirsty murderers. It'd important that people understand the
abuses endured by the Indians at the hands of the settlers for a decade and the
events that led up to the massacre." The Indians were cheated in
trading and were not allowed to hunt near the settler' plantations and under
that pretense took away from them, their game, arms and ammunition. The
Indians were insulted in may ways by a few rough Carolinians more barbarous and
unkind than the Indians themselves. If the Indians were raiding the
settlements of the whites and carrying off their women and children to serve as
slaves, it is certain the settlers would have risen up to retaliate.
Some of
the Indians who attacked the settlers lived close by and knew the settlers well.
In fact, they liked some of them. During the two years that the war
continued, many of the settlers had gained many friends among the Indians and
considered themselves on good terms. It was the Indians they could thank
for their survival after arriving in the New World. It was these Indians
who taught them ho to raise crops which would grow in the area.
Teresa (Waterlily) Morris,
of Tuscarora whose ancestral roots are from Eastern North Carolina, serves as a
daily reminder of a people that have been ignored . Teresa is an educator
teaching courses on the American Indian "Unfortunately many have
passed on not knowing the whole truth about their ancestral roots. I am
answering my call as an educator outside the "traditional
classroom" by carefully planting seeds that not all Tuscarora moved away
after the Tuscarora War. The migration that took place so long ago did not
extinguish the ancestral fires within the people who left the only land they
knew as home."
To learn more about the
Tuscarora, read Teresa's book, "Families of the Neuse" and the web
page she maintains.
Tuscarora
Center (Home page of Turcarora Indians)
Teresa
(Waterlily) Morris - Native Indian
Tuscarora
Rebellion
Who
Collects NC Tuscarora Rent
Tuscarora
Slide Show
A few years ago Ms. Morris founded the Coastal Carolina Indian Center &
Association. Lots of information is on this site regarding local history for eastern and coastal North Carolina as well as folks interested in doing searches for Family History.
The website address for Coastal Carolina Indian Center & Association is
www.coastalcarolinaindians.com.
The website address for the Camp Croatan for Kids Nature Program is
www.campcroatan.com.
