The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

TUSCARORA.

The Tuscarora, or Skarù:ręˀ, are an indigenous group with descendants presently in New York, Canada, and Oklahoma. The Tuscarora speak a dialect within the Iroquoian language family. A federally recognized tribe, the Tuscarora Nation has a reservation in New York. The Tuscarora also comprise a part of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. In Oklahoma, descendants of the Tuscarora Nation are enrolled within the broader Seneca-Cayuga Nation.

Some records indicate that the Tuscarora originally lived in the Great Lakes region, but by the time of initial European encounter they resided in present North Carolina and Virginia. Early conflicts with British colonists led to the outbreak of the Tuscarora War, waged between 1711 and 1713. After suffering defeat, many surviving Tuscarora fled north to Pennsylvania and New York. There in 1722 they became the sixth member of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, transforming themselves from refugees into the power brokers of eighteenth-century colonial North America.

The decline of Haudenosaunee influence began with the American Revolution. Although the Tuscarora and Oneida allied with the Americans, the fledgling country enacted punitive measures against the other members of the Six Nations at the revolution’s conclusion. As a result, small segments of the Seneca, Cayuga, and other Haudenosaunee peoples, including some Tuscarora, migrated westward, forming new settlements or joining existing communities at Lewistown and Sandusky, Ohio.

These descendants of the Six Nations would be among the first indigenous nations subjected to Indian Removal after signing their 1831 treaty with the United States. They received land in present Ottawa and Delaware Counties, Oklahoma. In 1838 the United States negotiated a treaty with another segment of “New York Indians,” including several Tuscarora. Initially bound for lands in Wisconsin, the small removing party was diverted to Indian Territory.

In 1867, in the wake of the Civil War, the expansive Omnibus Treaty provided for the unification of all Haudenosaunee peoples within Indian Territory onto a single Seneca reservation. Under the purview of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, these comingled Haudenosaunee incorporated under the name the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma. Since they arrived, they have maintained a longhouse where they continue to hold numerous ceremonies, festivals, and dances. The nation also offers youth programs and language courses to enrolled citizens. The Seneca-Cayuga Nation is headquartered in Grove, Oklahoma, and holds a population of more than five thousand citizens.

Sheldon Yeakley