Long before European colonization began on Turtle Island, the original peoples occupied the rivers, streams, swamps, and forests of what is today North Carolina. The Tuscarora Nation has occupied the lands surrounding the Roanoke, Pamlico, Tar, Neuse, and Cape Fear rivers for thousands of years.
Our tribal neighbors, the Saponi, the Occaneechi, the Tsalagi, the Catawba, and many others have also occupied the state since time immemorial.
Like our extended kin and tribal neighbors, our ancestors lived all over the coastal plains, piedmont, and sandhill regions along the rivers and tributaries. Not only are our ancestral remains present in burial mounds and ossuaries, but pottery sherds, projectile points, and other cultural belongings are still occupying these lands. Studies on ceramic phases exemplify Tuscarora cultural occupation of the land and rivers from 1000 BC to the present.
The taking of lands belonging to the original peoples, such as the Tuscarora, has terribly affected the environment and ecosystems, making up the lifeblood of the rivers and forests winding through our mother country.
Before Congress passed the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act in 1990, there was no universal standard for consulting with tribal nations or repatriating ancestral remains and cultural belongings. Ancestral remains and artifacts not looted or destroyed often made it into private collections, medical institutions and museums.
Cultural artifacts and ancestral remains belonging to the Tuscarora and other local tribes continue to be kept by major educational institutions in the state of North Carolina without being offered for repatriation. Possible Tuscarora ancestral burials are being identified right now in the town of Cedar Point in Carteret County. Harker’s Island, Morehead City, Cape Lookout, and other areas of Carteret County are well known for previous Tuscarora occupation in the region.
Recent construction in Carteret has exposed a growing concern that legislators and home construction agencies are attempting to avoid reviewing sites for cultural belongings to increase profit margins. Multiple media reports confirm that construction projects in Carteret continue to unearth bones and ceramics.
The NC Home Builders Association actively promotes provisions in House Bill 385 that would diminish protections for burial mounds and cultural belongings unearthed at construction sites. Allowing any provision that weakens the tribal consultation process, protections for burials and mounds, safeguards for cultural belongings, and a path to repatriation and reconciliation should be repealed from any legislation, past, current, or future. This provision harms all North Carolina native tribes, risks future archaeological and cultural findings, and undermines the tribal consultation process.
By passing HB 385 in its current form, state lawmakers would weaken their relationships and responsibilities to all North Carolina tribal communities. The Tuscarora people call upon the collective unity of all state tribes, the General Assembly, the leaders of counties that our ancestors once occupied, and the great people of the state of North Carolina to stop this ongoing erasure of important historical sites, ancestral burial grounds and remains.
Nya-we. (I am thankful you are well.)
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