Tuscarora

The Tuscarora are an Iroquoian-related Native American tribe with current members in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada (in Tuscarora Skarù:r, "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People"). They came together as a group of people along the Great Lakes, most likely around the same time as the Five Nations of the historic Iroquois Confederacy, who spoke Iroquoian and were located in what is now New York. The Tuscarora traveled south and made their home in what is now known as Eastern Carolina long before European explorers ever set foot on North American soil. They resided along the Roanoke, Neuse, Tar, and Pamlico rivers and were the most populous indigenous people in the region.

The majority of the Tuscarora who survived the 1711–1713 Tuscarora War against English colonists and their Indian allies departed North Carolina and moved north over a 90-year span to Pennsylvania and New York. Due to their same language and cultural ancestry, they joined forces with the Iroquois in New York. They were recognized as the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, in 1722 after being encouraged by the Oneida. The Tuscarora once shared reservation property with the Oneida after the American Revolution, when they and the Oneida sided with the colonists, until eventually acquiring their own. Federal recognition is granted to the Tuscarora Nation of New York.

The Tuscarora in New York no longer regarded individuals who remained in North Carolina as tribe members when the migration was finished in the early 18th century. Some North Carolina residents of Tuscarora heritage have created bands that they identify with since the late 20th century. As of 2010, a number of Robeson County bands have temporarily banded together under the name Tuscarora Nation One Fire Council.