Total population | |
---|---|
17,412 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
By 17th century in North Carolina; 21st century: New York, United States and Ontario, Canada | |
Languages | |
English, Tuscarora | |
Religion | |
Kai'hwi'io, Kanoh'hon'io, Kahni'kwi'io, Christianity, Longhouse, Handsome Lake, other Indigenous religions | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Haudenosaunee, Meherrin Nation, Nottoway (Cheroenhaka Nation), other Iroquoian peoples |
The Tuscarora ("hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian-language family, with members today in North Carolina, New York, and Ontario. They coalesced as a people around the Great Lakes, likely about the same time as the rise of the Five Nations of the historic Iroquois Confederacy, also Iroquoian-speaking and based then in present-day New York.
Well before the arrival of Europeans in North America, the Tuscarora had migrated south and settled in the region now known as Eastern Carolina. The most numerous indigenous people in the area, they lived along the Roanoke, Neuse, Tar (Torhunta or Narhontes), and Pamlico rivers. They first encountered European explorers and settlers in the colonies of North Carolina and Virginia.
After the 18th-century wars of 1711–1713 (known as the Tuscarora War) against English colonists and their Indian allies, most of the surviving Tuscarora left North Carolina and migrated north to Pennsylvania and New York, over a period of 90 years. They aligned with the Iroquois in New York, because of their ancestral linguistic and cultural connections. Sponsored by the Oneida, they were accepted in 1722 as the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois. After the American Revolution, in which they and the Oneida allied with the colonists, the Tuscarora shared reservation land with the Oneida before gaining their own. The Tuscarora Nation of New York is federally recognized.