PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release | August 12, 2024 Media Contact: Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians Email: administrator@tuscarorabandindians-govtribe.co
THE TUSCARORA TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, CHIEF WAYNE E. CHEW, BEAVER CLAN OF TUSCARORA BAND OF SIX NATIONS INDIANS STATEMENT
Fayetteville, North Carolina. August 12, 2024 - The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians appoints Chief Wayne Eric Chew, Beaver Clan as the Tuscarora Tribal Chairman. The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians are Haudenosaunee - People of the Longhouse.
Čwé:ʔn Ahskě:nę hę. We Are Skarù·ręʔ Chief Wayne Eric Chew, Beaver Clan, is privileged and honored to address you as the appointed Tribal Chairman of the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians. Chairman Chew was born and raised in Tuscarora Territory of Niagara Falls, New York, but has lived in North Carolina for decades with his wife, children, and grandchildren; moreover, the Tribal Chairman still has many Six Nations relatives, on and off the reserve, who primarily live in Canada, New York, and North Carolina.
Tribal Chairman Chew says, “His father, the late honorable Haudenosaunee Tuscarora Chief Hibert Chew, Beaver Clan taught him a great deal about Haudenosaunee Diplomacy and Tuscarora leadership, while his mother, Marion Staats-Chew, Six Nations Tuscarora/Mohawk/Oneida, provided a balance of peace between the two worlds, with keeping a good mind, respect, and nurturing as way of life.”
Chew further states, “My father, Tuscarora Chief Hibert Chew was chosen by the Clan Mother and was condolenced as a New York Tuscarora Chief in 1946, with other Haudenosaunee Tuscarora Chiefs who also was on the Tuscarora Council of Chiefs together for the Tuscarora Nation, as like my paternal Grandfather, Tuscarora Chief Jefferson Chew, Bear Clan, of Lewiston, Tuscarora Reservation of New York. The continued Tuscarora Diplomacy in my family dates back well before my Grandfather, Tuscarora Chief Jefferson Chew, which was extended from my Great Grandfather Ozias Chew, a Civil War Veteran, Onoñda’gegá’/ Tuscarora, and before him, by my Great-Great Grandfather, the Haudenosaunee Tuscarora Chief William “Sacharissa” Chew, Turtle Clan, who was a Treaty Title Holder and Signatory who signed Tuscarora Treaties and Agreements before the United States Government and the State of North Carolina. Historically, the evolution of my leadership also consists of noted Haudenosaunee Chiefs who were also Mohawk and Onondaga who led their people for centuries.”
Chairman Chew, now applies those ancient teachings and valuable lessons to his leadership for the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians to maintain and build upon relationships with the State of North Carolina, First Nations, and the United States Government.
Tribal Chairman, Chief Wayne E. Chew comes with over 40 years of professional leadership and is deeply committed to maintaining and building upon the diplomat legacy of Tribal Sovereignty, peace, leadership, and unification in keeping a good mind and heart for the future Seven Generations yet unborn, solidified by generations of Tuscaroras and Haudenosaunee Treaty Title Holders and Signers. The Seventh Generation Principle by the Peacemaker is integral to the life of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations People. It intensifies the bond of community, promotes stability, and it continues to provide concrete values based upon the practices of Haudenosaunee ancient traditions and original instructions equally focused on the Iroquois diplomacy and survival of the future Seven Generations.
The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians is a Sovereign Tribal Government First Nations Band Office in North Carolina which serves the needs of their Tuscarora Citizens as Haudenosaunee - People of the Longhouse with a Tribal-Governing Council whose direct Haudenosaunee Ancestors signed the historic NC Tuscarora Land Leases identified on November 11, 1831, before North Carolina General Assembly and the federal government as the “Tuscarora Treaty Title Holders” who were Chief William “Sacharissa” Chew (1796-1857), Chief Nicholas “Kaghnatsho” Cusick (1756-1840), Chief Issac Miller, Chief George Warchief, Johnathan “Sagowitha” Printup (1796-1848), Chief Matthew Jack, and Chief William Johnson. Thereafter, on January 15, 1838, our ancestral Tuscarora Chiefs also signed the Buffalo Creek Indian Treaty before the State of New York, U.S. Congress, and other Treaties with the United States Government on behalf of the inherent sovereignty of Tuscaroras.
The mission of the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians is to maintain Tribal Sovereignty, build prosperity, unification of peace, and resilience for all Tuscarora First Nation Citizens. The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians endeavors toward this vision to ensure Treaty obligations are upheld and to build allied working relations through an collaborative inter-agency government approach before Tribal Nations, North Carolina, General Assembly, Executive Branch Offices, United Nations, and Government Agencies with regular and meaningful Tribal State-Federal engagement, by implementing the standards of government to government trust relations approach to sustain our Treaty Rights obligations are upheld and that our Haudenosaunee Ancestors are protected executively.
As Haudenosaunee Longhouse People, the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians have a responsibility to the land and an obligation to do what’s right for our Haudenosaunee Ancestors. We stand in Solidarity, with our Tuscarora Brethren and allied First Nations to protect our Haudenosaunee Ancestor remains, historical village sites, wampum, funerary, and all sacred ceremonial cultural items of importance belonging to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy have returned. The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians will contact the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee, Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee, and the Oneida Nation of Thames for assistance in regard to the proper protocol in this matter.
As such, the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians will ensure the federal law is upheld with the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA; 25 U.S.C. 32; 3001et seq) which requires the United States to legally repatriate all Indigenous remains and sacred cultural items by federal law. As Tuscaroras, the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians have an obligation to our Haudenosaunee Ancestors to ensure they are protected and taken care of with ceremonies to give them strength and peace.
The Haudenosaunee ancient teachings of “one dish, one spoon,” to share equally – and these words that go with it, “Nobody owns the woods, but everybody is responsible,” has guided us in keeping a good mind and heart for generations.
Here, in North Carolina many documented Haudenosaunee Six Nations’ families have been in North Carolina for decades living on the historic traditional homelands of the Tuscarora Nation who come from the surname descendancy bloodlines of the Iroquois Confederacy as Anderson, Chew, Cusick, Dubuc, Gansworth, Garlow, Henry, Hill, Jack, Jacobs, Johnson, Maracle, Miller, Mt. Pleasant, Printup, Staats, Smith, Thompson, and Williams, which all descend from Tuscarora Clan Mothers and Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs.
Many of the Six Nations’ Tuscarora Haudenosaunee families and individuals who live throughout North Carolina maintain their ancient teachings, Original Instructions, and the Great Law of Peace. As such, the Citizens of the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians have other combined Haudenosaunee bloodlines from the Tuscarora, Mohawk, Oneida, and Onondaga from the State of New York and Six Nations Grand River - Ontario, Canada.
Since time immemorial, for over a thousand years, we have existed as Haudenosaunee People on this land as we were given the Original Instructions. These Original Instructions told us who we are, why we were given life, what our responsibilities are as human beings, our way of life, and how we are to go about on Mother Earth across Turtle Island. These lands in North Carolina are originally Six Nations lands and have always been the homelands of the Tuscarora Six Nations People for countless generations.
The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians are the direct tribal descendants of the first inhabitants of the ancient Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederation born on the land in the Carolinas, where our ancestors accepted peace and formed a democracy with Chiefs, Clanmothers, and Faithkeepers, which was placed as our original government leaders that worked with the colonial government to build North Carolina and other states before the U.S. Constitution was created, for it to stand today. The Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians will continue the efforts of their Haudenosaunee ancestors to protect their inherent Sovereignty, language, culture, unification, and to create economic stability for Tuscarora Citizens.
The Tribal Chairman of the Tuscarora Band of Six Nations Indians looks forward to building state and federal trust relations as a Tribal Leader with the allied Tribal Nations, the U.S. President of the United States, State of North Carolina, and the federal government for the equality and to reaffirm the status of Tuscarora Indians in the State of North Carolina. Nya:wëh.
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