Tuscarora were the most powerful and highly developed Native American tribe in Eastern NC

American Indians account for just 0.4% of Craven County’s population, having fallen from 504 residents in 2010 to 413.

In 2020, they made up the county’s second smallest percentage by race, just behind Pacific Islanders.

Those numbers would have astonished early European settlers in Craven County, who experienced a far different reality. At the time of the Roanoke Island Colonies in the 1580s, the Tuscarora were the most powerful and highly developed Native American tribe in what is now eastern North Carolina.

An Iroquoian-speaking people, the Tuscarora had lived in the area for several hundred years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. While Tuscarora villages along the upper Neuse River maintained sufficiently profitable relations with the whites to accept their encroachment, on the lower Neuse conflict was more common.

Though white settlers fought sporadically with the Tuscarora from 1664 to 1667, the wanderings of land speculator Christopher De Graffenried and surveyor John Lawson in Tuscarora territory on the lower Neuse River proved to be a flash point.

Conflict leads to war

De Graffenried, a leader of Swiss and German Protestant settlers, established New Bern in 1710 at the junction of the Trent and Neuse Rivers, displacing an American Indian town named Chattoka. An influx of settlers arrived after de Graffenried and Lawson developed a plan with the Lords Proprietors in England to transport groups of poor German refugees and Swiss paupers to populate the shores of the Neuse River near New Bern.

In June of 1710, Tuscarora Indians on the Roanoke and Tar-Pamlico Rivers sent a petition to the government of Pennsylvania protesting the seizure of their lands and enslavement of their people by Carolina settlers.

In September 1711, the Tuscarora captured Lawson, von Graffenried, and two African slaves. Though it remains unclear what precipitated the action, Lawson was subsequently put to death, while von Graffenried and the slaves were released.

What would be known as the Tuscarora War soon followed, as Catechna Creek Tuscaroras attacked colonial settlements near New Bern and Bath. Tuscarora, Neuse, Bear River, Machapunga, and other tribe members killed more than 130 whites.

The response from the English was swift and brutal, with successive expeditions of whites and non-Tuscarora tribes from South Carolina in 1712 and 1713 taking on the forces of Tuscarora Chief Hancock’s forces. In response, Chief Hancock and his people began building forts as a defensive strategy to protect their families, their crops, and their animals.

In late December 1711, Col. John ‘‘Jack’’ Barnwell, with 366 Native Americans and 30 white militia, marched from South Carolina to the aid of the North Carolinians fighting the Tuscarora.

The following month, his command captured Fort Narhantes, located on the Neuse River, 20 miles from New Bern. Barnwell then moved against the larger and better-prepared Fort Hancock on Catechna Creek. After 10 days of battle, the Tuscarora signed a truce, agreeing to end the war.

After 10 days of battle, the Tuscarora signed a truce, agreeing to stop the war. But hostilities were far from over. Battles ensued with members of the Yamassee tribe, who remained in the area looting and pillaging. The Tuscarora also fought against the continued expansion of white settlement.

Nearly a year after Barnwell's attack, James Moore was sent from South Carolina another to command another mixed race militia with the goal of quelling the Tuscarora uprising. One of the tribe’s final battles took place on March 20-23 at Fort Neoheroka. Approximately 950 Tuscarora were killed or captured and sold into slavery. The defeat left the tribe with few resources to carry on the battle and opened the area even further to white settlement.

A legacy nearly forgotten

Although a few members fought on until 1715, most surviving Tuscarora migrated to New York, where they became the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. A treaty with the remaining North Carolina Tuscarora was signed and they were placed on a reservation along the Pamlico River.

In 1831, the Tuscarora signed a deed relinquishing the remaining rights to their lands.

Approximately 654 Tuscarora families remained in the South, with many relocating to South Carolina, Virginia and other areas of North Carolina. Their descendants would leave a a lasting legacy as part of four communities established near Robeson County - the Tuscarora Nation East of the Mountain, the Tuscarora Tribe of North Carolina, the Southern Band Tuscarora Tribe, and the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina.

Although the circumstances leading up to the war were numerous, John Lawson himself seemed to view the situation with unusually unbiased eyes. Writing in his journal, Lawson gave his thoughts on relations between the Tuscarora and the English settlers.

"They are really better to us than we are to them; they always give us Victuals at their Quarters, and take care we are arm'd against Hunger and Thirst,' he wrote. "We do not do so by them (generally speaking) but let them walk by our Doors Hungry, and do not often relieve them."

Five local landmarks that bear the stamp of Native American history

Fort Barnwell

Fort Barnwell was founded by Col. John Barnwell of the South Carolina militia in 1712, and was abandoned in 1715. The fort, which was used in the Tuscarora War, is now an archeological site and a National Historic Landmark. The present-day town of Fort Barnwell is located 18 miles east of Kinston and 22 miles west of New Bern along NC Hwy. 55 near Dover.

Neuse River

The Neuse River was named by English explorer Arthur Barlowe in 1584 for the Neusiok (meaning ''peace'') tribe. The Tuscarora called it Gow-ta-no, or ''pine in water.”

Lawson Creek Park

New Bern’s popular 140-acre park on the Trent River is named for the English explorer and surveyor John Lawson, who played a major role in the founding of two of North Carolina's earliest permanent European settlements: Bath and New Bern. While ascending the Neuse River in Sept. 1711, Lawson was captured and eventually killed by the Tuscarora.

Degraffenreid Park

The historical New Bern neighborhood of Degraffenreid Park is named in honor of Baron Christoph von Graffenried, the Swiss baron that led settlers to New Bern in 1710 and was subsequently captured by the Tuscarora. Built between 1930-1973 north of the Ghent subdivision, the community spans both sides of Broad Street and is connected to the Colonial Heights subdivision.

Tuscarora Rhems Road

One of the most obvious references to Craven County’s Native American past, Tuscarora Rhems Road is located between New Bern and Cove City on Old US Hwy. 70. The small community encompasses the Tuscarora Landfill as well as the Tuscarora Hunting Club.

Historical information for this story comes from the Tuscarora North Carolina History Project as well as ncpedia.org.

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: Tuscarora War's bloody history still echoes in New Bern landmarks