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The Lost Colony Research Group

Genealogy ~ DNA ~ Archaeology

Newsletter

February 2001

1804

The migration from NC to NY is finally concluded. By then, approx. 20 "Old families" remained on the Indian Woods, NC. reservation. 

1940 

There were 400 Tuscaroras living on the 6,249 acre NY Tuscarora Reservation. Also about 400 Tuscaroras living among the Six Nations of Grand River, Ontario. Today the Six Nations territory covers about 44,000 acres in Tuscarora Township in the County of Brant. 

2000 

Tuscarora Reservation, Lewiston ,NY population was 1,138 at the 2000 census. 

2011

Six Nations of Grand River, Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Members now stand at approx. 20,000 with at least half of the tribal members living within the community. Six Nations now has a land base of about 45,000 acres.

Tuscarora Tribe of Southern US, eastern NC/SC border lands. These are bands, groups, and organizations without federal recognition, but with continuous ancestry dating back prior to the Tuscarora War and European Contact:

Tuscarora Nation of the Carolinas, Maxton, NC and McColl, SC

Southern Band Tuscarora Indian Tribe, Windsor, NC

Hatteras Tuscarora, Cape Fear, NC

Skaroreh Katenuaka Nation at Robeson Co, NC'

Skaroreh Katenuaka,Tosneoc Village, Elm City, NC 

American Indian Populations in NC Past and Present 

Tuscarora:

1600: 5000

1709: 1,200 warriors and 15 towns

1752 - 1761: 300

1766: 220-230

1767: 105 on the Roanoke, Neuse, Tar and Pamlico Rivers in N.C

2000: Lumbee (descendants of the Tuscarora) 56,000 in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland Counties

Many migrated steadily to N.Y. and other northern states from 1713 (end of Tuscarora War) to 1802 (closing of Bertie County reservation). With a substantial number of descendants remaining in the Carolinas and merged with various eastern NC/SC tribes

Other Tribes:

Cheraw: 1,000 in 1,600; 510 in 1715. Traditionally found in Northwest SC, western NC, central NC, central SC. Some may have merged with Catawba and Saponi. Descendants among many of today's state-recognized tribes, including Haliwa-Saponi, Sappony, Lumbee, and Occaneechi-Saponi.

Chowanoc: 700 warriors in 1584–1585;1,500 in 1600; 240 in 1713; 20 families in 1731; 5 in Chowan River, north central N.C. The tribe is thought extinct, but members of Meherrin tribe trace ancestry to Chowanoc.

Coree: 1,000 with the Neusiok in 1600; 75 in 1709 Neuse River in N.C. Thought extinct. Some may have merged with Tuscarora following the Tuscarora War.

Keyauwee: 500 in 1600 near current High Point, N.C., Albemarle Sound in NC, Pee Dee River in SC. Merged with Catawba and possibly Robeson Co. Indians.

Meherrin: 700 in 1600;180 in 1669; 7–8 warriors in 1755; 20 warriors in 1761. Found on the Meherrin River along NC - VA border. Following the Tuscarora War, many Meherrin moved to the Tuscarora reservation in Bertie County. When the reservation closed in 1802, some moved to N.Y. Descendants of those who remained live in Northampton County and surrounding counties. Present day Meherrin claim Iroquois, both Tuscarora and Algonquin ancestry. NC population in 2000: Meherrin 800 in Hertford, Bertie, Gates Counties, NC .

Nottaway or Notowega: 1,500 in 1600; 300 in 1715; 47 in 1825; 300 in Va. in 1827. Found in western NC. Some may have merged with the Meherrin or Tuscarora.

Waccamaw: 610 in 1715. Found on the Waccamaw River in NC and the Lower Pee Dee River in SC. Some may have moved to Lumber River and Green Swamp areas of N.C., with descendants among the Tuscarora, Lumbee and Waccamaw-Siouan. Population in 2000 was Waccamaw-Siouan 2,000 in Columbus, Bladen Counties, NC . 

Sources

Access Genealogy, "Tuscarora Indian Tribe History", 2011

Blakistone, Teresa and John Herr, et al. "American Indian Population in NC,

Past and Present," NC Museum of History, 2011.

Chavis, George L., Research and Traditions of the Tuscarora of the Carolinas, SC, 1971-2011

Clark, Wayne E., "Indians in Maryland, an Overview", Maryland Online Encyclopedia, 2004-2005, accessed 22 Mar 2010

Cusick, David , "History of the Six Nations," NY 1828

Fenn, Elizabeth, "Natives & Newcomers: The Way We Lived in North Carolina Before 1770, " UNC Press, 1983.

Hodge, F.W. "Tuscarora", Handbook of American Indians, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906, Access Geneaology, 2009

Johnson, Elias, "Native Tuscarora: Legends, Traditions and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians," 1881

Johnson, F.Roy, "The Tuscaroras, Vol. 2: Death of a Nation", Murfreesboro Historical Assoc,

Murfreesboro, NC. Reprinted Coastal Carolina Indian Center, Emerald Isle, NC, 2010.

Jones, Elaine, “The Ones that Stayed Behind: Tuscarora Ancestors of the Carolinas,” Generations, Sierra Home, Horseshoe, NC 2006.

Kelsay, Isabel, "Joseph Brant 1743-1780 Man of Two Worlds," Syracuse University Press, NY, 1984.

Mejorado-Livingston, Marilyn, Southern Band Tuscarora Tribe, "Onkwehonweh-the first people-Tuscarora", Windsor , NC, 2011.

New World Encyclopedia, Editors and Contributors, "Tuscarora (tribe).", World Wide Web, Oct, 2008

Pottmyer,Alice Allred, editor, et al, "1700's Timeline," Allred Family Newsletter, Allred Family Organization,1989-2011.

Rights, Douglas L., ”The American Indian in North Carolina," Duke University Press, 1947, Durham, NC, Reprinted: John F. Blair Publisher, Winston-Salem, NC: 1957 and 1988. Reprinted: Carolina Algonkian Project, 2001.

Six Nations Writers, "Our Community: The Six Nations of the Grand River," Ohsweken, ON, 2011

Staats, Sheila, Working World New Media/GoodMinds.com, "The Great Peace...The Gathering of Good Minds", 1997

Trigger, Bruce ed., "Handbook of American Indians;" Volume 15, 1978, pp. 287-288

Valentine Wallace

Roberta Estes with Baylus Brooks 

For some time, I've wondered what part Valentine Wallace had to play on early Hatteras Island. He is mentioned in conjunction with a 1740 land sale, as follows:

Currituck Co deed [635] DB3, p. 24: 2 Apr 1740, 1 Apr 1740, 22 Aug 1740; Jacob Farrow to Charles Squires, Indian of Arromuskeet in Currituck, consideration of 100 pounds, 200 acres on Hatteras Banks, beg. at the north side of Cutting Sedge Marsh, by a house that Valentine Wallis built, the sound side, Callises Dreen, Sea Side; wit: Cornelius Jones, Thos. Dudley; signed: Jacob Farrow.

A second connection to Hatteras is found in December of 1748 when Habakkuk Russell sells to Valentine Wallis Jr. 180 acres in Carteret County. (Carteret County Deeds)

It's not much of a hint, but since Wallace is mentioned in conjunction with a land sale to Charles Squires, an Indian, what, if anything, does Valentine Wallace have to do with Native people? Why was he on Hatteras anyway? Who is he related to?

Baylus Brooks stumbled across this information while researching something else. The Wallace family, it appears, made their way to Hatteras from upper Currituck County, taking the same route and following the same pattern as the Midgett (Midyett), the Whedbee family and the Blounts.

Although it sounds like Valentine might be living on land with the Native people in a small shack, the truth of the matter is that he was a wealthy man. Many of the early Hatteras residents had economic interests there, whaling and rendering the oil of both whales and porpoises. It appears the Wallace family indeed followed suit. We also know that historically, in Nantucket, the Algonquian natives there participated extensively in the whaling industry. They may well have done so on Hatteras as well. In fact, some of the sea captains were one and the same, in both locations, such as the Pinkham family who was involved with the Native Elks family on Hatteras Island, so it's quite likely that the pattern was the same.

Valentine Wallace Jr. died and his estate was probated in 1784 in Pasquotank County. His father, Valentine Wallace Sr. had died in about 1747 in Carteret County. We can tell by this transcription (thanks Baylus) that Valentine Jr. was indeed a wealthy man for that time period, so he certainly wasn't living in a shack in an Indian town. Although, the 1740 transaction says Valentine Wallace built the house, not that he lived there. Th reference to "Callises Dreen" is probably "Wallis' Drain" just mis-transcribed. It was right beside his house on the Buxton end of Hatteras. Job Carr lived in the same house which he sold to Hezekiah Farrow in 1764. But back to Valentine Wallace's estate:

An Inventory of all the Goods and Chattles belonging to the Estate of Vallentine Wallis Deceased ? follows Viz ............

· One Desk

· Twelve Beds & Chairs

· 4 Chests

· Sundry Earthen Wares [Slact?]

· Two Looking Glasses

· Two Gunns

· five [Posts?] Iron

· Two Griddles Iron

· Two Tea [Shettles?]

· four Cases With Bottles

· One Emty Do five Eight Bedstead

· four Woolen Wheels

· four Linnen Do Two Loombs

· Two frying Panns & four fire Tongs

· 6 five pewter Dishes & 8 pewter Plates

· Eleven Bosons pewter 4

· One pewter Perring

· Two cass pott Tramels

· One Casse mills

· One Grid Iron

· One Tresell

· One Slate

· 2 Glass

· Hammers Sundry Blacksmiths Tooles

· Sundry Coopers Tooles

· Shoe Makers Tooles

· Two Plows & harrow

· One [Ox?] Chain

· 4 axes & Chipping [hatthe?]

· Sundry Wooden Ware

· 3 Tables

· Ten [Slais?}

· 6 Harnes Waring of Hors --

· 1 Cloths Bench

· Two Int. Stands

· Sundry Chunk Bottles

· Two metal Seves

· One Casse

· Pott & Pott Hooks

· Sundry Old Barrels

· 6 Barrels Tar

Copyright, Roberta Estes 2012 Page 25

· Some Leather

· 4 Sadles

· 4 Bridles old

· 5 Lanecits Two Raizors

· 2 ? money Scales

· 3 pair of Steelyards

· 78 head of Neet Cattle

· 14 Horses

· Sundry Hoggs

· three Candle Sticks

· Sundry Knives & forks and pewter Spoon

· Sundry old Bolts

· Sundry Waring apperal

· Sundry old Books.

· 11 Crown Peices

· 29 Round Dollars

· 4 h? Joes

· Guinies 1 ?? 28 of a Soc ---

· Sundry Notes to the amount L25, 5 ---

· 28 [pines?] 2/4 in small ? peices of Silver

From this list, Valentine Wallis would appear to be a Blacksmith and/or a Cooper by trade. He also had shoemaker's equipment. Maybe he was none of the above and employed all of the above. The looking glasses might indicate a familiarity with the sea as well, as in spyglasses, or they could have been mirrors for his lady-love. He had a large home and was most certainly well-off. Aside from his business, he had a great deal of stock in cattle, horses, and hogs. The “Scales” meant that he was familiar with his trade and conducted a lot of business.

Twelve beds is a huge number and the most I've ever seen in any personal inventory from this timeframe. Remember that many people didn't sleep in beds, and those who did thought nothing of sharing a bed with several other people, even in the inns of the time. But, all of this and only 3 candlesticks?

The following estate sale states the he was deceased and the sale was held on April 7, 1784. The items in the sale match those in the inventory. Sales to Asa Wallis, Sarah Wallis, Abigail Wallis, Widow (Ann Elliot) Wallis, William Eageston/Eagerton, David Russell, Armisted Hassel, William Marston?, William Dennis, Henery Boone, Henery Garmon, Thomas Wise, Habicock Russell, Isaac Eastlick/Eastwick, Ross Bruce/Breen, Williby Capps, Jonathan Reigs?, Owen Owens, John Osteen, William Heath

Signed: William Dennis Shff.

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