Our History

We Are the Tuscarora Who Stayed

For more than 2,400 years, our ancestors lived along the rivers and coastal plains of the Carolinas, from the Roanoke south through the Neuse, Cape Fear, Lumber, and Pee Dee regions. Long before Europeans arrived, our towns, councils, and families thrived in this land we call Uhnawiyú·kye, the Place of the Great Swamps.

Archaeology reflects our pottery, villages, and earthworks; our language connects us to this land across 120 generations; our oral histories affirm the same truth. We did not appear here suddenly; we arose here and remained here.

TIOKT represents the culmination of a century of Tuscarora political organizing in the Carolinas. Beginning with the Brooks Settlement Longhouse in the early 20th century, additional longhouses (our spiritual centers) formed over subsequent decades. Because neither churches nor longhouses can engage in a government-to-government relationship, Tuscarora leaders established political bodies such as the Tuscaroras East of the Mountains and the Tuscarora One-Fire Council. Many members of these earlier councils now serve on the TIOKT Council.

The federal government once recognized a group of Tuscarora from the Brooks Settlement Longhouse under the Indian Reorganization Act. However, like many Native nations subjected to U.S. termination-era policies, the Tuscarora lost that recognition. After experiencing partial federal acknowledgment, our people remain unrecognized today.

Pre-Contact: 2,400+ Years Ago

Ancient Homeland in the Carolinas: Tuscarora ancestors establish villages along the Neuse, Roanoke, Cape Fear, Pee Dee, and Lumber rivers; ceramics, settlements, and linguistic evidence confirm continuous presence.
A Strong Confederation in Our Homeland

Our people developed a powerful Iroquoian nation with democratic structures, clan societies, and regional alliances. The Tuscarora included the Upper Skarù·ręʔ towns and the Lower Kahtehnuʔá·kaʔ towns, the People of the Cypress, whose territory extended deeply into what are now both North Carolina and South Carolina.
This lower-town homeland is the same region where our TIOKT citizens reside today; we are not exclusively Kahtehnuʔá·kaʔ, but our continuity in this territory affirms our ancient presence and sovereignty in the Carolinas.
We traded with other nations and Europeans; our language served as a diplomatic medium in the region.
Relations and Shared Territories with the Catawba

Our ancestors lived in proximity to, and interacted with, neighboring nations, including the Catawba. The territorial history of the Carolinas shows interwoven Indigenous landscapes; Tuscarora lands bordered Catawba lands in parts of the Piedmont and Pee Dee River regions. Our people traded, shared routes, and maintained distinct but connected Indigenous presences; evidence of this shared sphere appears in both oral and documentary history.
Tuscarora presence in the lower Carolina region is not an adoption or emergence, but an ancient territorial continuity; this is the homeland of the Kahtehnuʔá·kaʔ, one of our historic divisions, and it refer to our territories as such to honor them today.
1500s: Tuscarora Language Recorded by Spanish (1521)

Early European observers record Tuscarora words and diplomacy; our nation was already well-established and regionally influential.
Spanish records in 1521 documented Tuscarora words; proof of our nation long before England took interest in this land.
1600s: The Tuscarora Dominate the Region

Tuscarora govern through town councils and clan leadership; the Kahtehnuʔá·kaʔ (Kahtenuaka) Lower Towns thrive in the southern homeland, with hunting territories in and around the Pee Dee and Lumber River regions.
1709: Colonial Records Recognize Tuscarora Power

Europeans publicly acknowledge the Tuscarora as the most powerful Indigenous nation in the region.
1711–1713: Tuscarora War: Defense Against Enslavement and Land Theft

Tuscarora resist colonial enslavement of Native people and land seizure; massive attack at Neyuherú·kęʔ (Neoheroka) results in hundreds of deaths and captives; the struggle becomes one of the largest Indigenous defenses in Southeastern history.
By the late 1600s, enslavers targeted Native people in large numbers; colonists seized Tuscarora land, violated peace, and trafficked Indigenous families. In 1711, Tuscarora warriors united against these abuses. After two years of fighting, and the siege of Neyuherú·kęʔ (Neoheroka), hundreds were killed or enslaved; yet the war did not end the Tuscarora nation. It hardened our resolve to remain sovereign.
1717: Treaty Establishes the Indian Woods Reservation

Surviving Tuscarora remain in their homeland; Indian Woods reserved by treaty and governed by Tuscarora leadership.
Survival and Indian Woods
Hundreds of Tuscarora remained in the Carolinas. A treaty in 1717 created the Indian Woods Reservation, confirming our continued presence and political existence. Chiefs, clan leaders, and councils operated for generations, and local records show ongoing Tuscarora governance. Colonial authorities reclassified Native people as “free people of color” to try to erase our identity and open our lands to settlers; the nation survived regardless.
Population data and firsthand accounts indicate that the majority of Tuscarora people remained in the Carolinas, “scattered as the wind scatters smoke."
1700s–1800s: Southward into Ancestral Lands

Under pressure, Tuscarora families moved deeper into southern homelands around the Pee Dee and present-day Lumber Rivers; these areas had always been part of our seasonal range and territory. According to your historical record, Tuscarora migration into these southern Carolina communities created a regional population of over one-third Native people by the 1800s; a fact aligning with early federal reports and census observations.
A Century of Modern Tuscarora Organization

Tuscarora community organization in the Carolinas did not begin recently; it has been consistent for more than a century. NY Tuscarora Mad Bear Anderson, Tadadaho Leon Shenandoah, and other Haudenosaunee relatives spent time in our community to aid in organizing.
1800s: Documented Tuscarora Families & Intertribal Networks

Census rolls, deeds, militia rosters, and press accounts show Tuscarora identity persisting; Tuscarora remain politically active in their communities. Numerous records from the period documented the persistence of the Tuscarora people within Kahtenuaka Territories.
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1928: Brooks Settlement Longhouse Is Established

Tuscaroras build a longhouse in Kahtenuaka territory; this marks a formal cultural re-establishment and affirmation of traditional structure in the homeland. Through successive generations, Carolina Tuscarora leaders maintained councils, ceremonies, and leadership structures. Tuscarora in the Carolinas joined national movements for Indigenous rights, including participating in major events such as the Trail of Broken Treaties; they marched to Raleigh demanding recognition and protection of Indigenous rights.
Leadership, ceremonies, and clan structures continue; this becomes the foundation for modern Tuscarora organizing in the Carolinas.
1970s: Tuscarora Join National Indigenous Rights Movements

Carolina Tuscaroras march, petition state officials, and join national actions including the Trail of Broken Treaties; tribal leadership calls for recognition and protection of Indigenous rights.
1980s–2000s: Cultural Revival and Community Leadership

Longhouses remained active throughout this period, sustaining singing societies, language workshops, and ceremonial life. The cultural foundations upheld by the Brooks Settlement Longhouse and the longhouses that followed continued to shape community identity. Their work strengthened our ties to Haudenosaunee relatives and reaffirmed our commitment to preserving Tuscarora traditions, governance, and community cohesion.

During these decades, leaders from earlier political organizations, including the Tuscaroras East of the Mountains and the Tuscarora One-Fire Council, helped build a political structure for the next generation. TIOKT includes leadership and citizens from these prior efforts.
2020s: Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories (TIOKT)

TIOKT affirmed as the political body descending from early Tuscarora political organization at the Brooks Settlement, continuing governance and land presence in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
The Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories arose from this continuous historical presence and political lineage. TIOKT is not a new identity; it is the continuation of a century of organized Tuscarora governance descending from the Brooks Settlement Longhouse and subsequent Tuscarora councils in the region. TIOKT citizens include families in both North Carolina and South Carolina, reflecting the original geographic span of the Kahtehnuʔá·kaʔ and Tuscarora territories; our presence in both states is ancestral, legal, and unbroken.
Today: A Sovereign People in Our Ancestral Homeland

We maintain ceremonies, language, and councils; we govern ourselves; we honor our clans and our rivers; and we remain where our ancestors stood.
We never left the Carolinas; we never ceased to be a nation; sovereignty lives here.