Tuscarora

Tuscarora is a sovereign nation in the Niagara region of upstate New York and a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Tuscarora were the first native people to be dispossessed of their land during the colonization of the United States. The certainty of their future was at stake as they walked north, beginning in 1713, to join their Haudenosaunee relatives. Now, almost 300 years after this hardship, they are prospering as a people. Tuscarora Nation depicts their culture and traditions, the height of their agricultural success, the rich heritage of lacrosse, the unique fishing culture along the Niagara River, and their traditional government of chiefs and clanmothers.

The first dictionary of the Tuscarora language ever published, containing some 4, 000 main entries for particles, roots, and stems, which are illustrated by more than 20, 000 Tuscarora words.

The autobiography of Chief Rickard, who fought for the recognition of his Tuscarora nation throughout his life. He led his people in the Indian resistance to federal policies, and founded the Indian Defense League of America.

At dawn on September 22, 1711, more than 500 Tuscarora, Core, Neuse, Pamlico, Weetock, Machapunga, and Bear River Indian warriors swept down on the unsuspecting European settlers living along the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers of North Carolina. Over the following days, they destroyed hundreds of farms, killed at least 140 men, women, and children, and took about 40 captives. So began the Tuscarora War, North Carolina's bloodiest colonial war and surely one of its most brutal. In his gripping account, David La Vere examines the war through the lens of key players in the conflict, reveals the events that led to it, and traces its far-reaching consequences. La Vere details the innovative fortifications produced by the Tuscaroras, chronicles the colony's new practice of enslaving all captives and selling them out of country, and shows how both sides drew support from forces far outside the colony's borders. In these ways and others, La Vere concludes, this merciless war pointed a new direction in the development of the future state of North Carolina.

Tuscarora is the comprehensive history of the small Iroquois Indian reservation community just north of Niagara Falls in western New York. The Tuscaroras consider themselves to be a sovereign nation, independent of the United States and the State of New York. They have preserved a system of social organization and ideal public values, along with the Tonawanda Seneca and the Onondagas that retains matrilineal clans, and a Council of Chiefs nominated by the clan matrons. Over the course of their existence, however, the Tuscarora have faced many struggles. Stemming from over sixty years of research, Anthony F. C. Wallace follows their story of overcoming war and loss of population, migration from North Carolina in the 1700s, the emotional trauma and social disorders resulting from discrimination and abusive conditions in residential boarding schools, and successful adaption to urban industrial society. Wallace weaves together historical detail, ethnography, and his own personal reflections to offer a unique and sweeping look at this fascinating group of people.

The thirty-six texts analysed in these two volumes deal mainly with three aspects of Tuscarora culture: cosmological and traditional religious beliefs, medical practices and mythology.