|
©2004-2008 Coastal Carolina Indian Center. All
Rights Reserved. To contact the webmaster,
click here. All other site inquiries should be
submitted using the "Contact Us" link found above.
| |
News
Bulletin
Preserving
Tuscarora sites
KATIE MARSHALL
April 10, 2007 - 12:00AM
SNOW HILL - The Town of Snow Hill voted unanimously to support the preservation
of Tuscarora settlements and the Fort Neoheroka site.
"It will be good for the town to send a signal of support for the overall
effort," said Mayor Don Davis.
The resolution states efforts should be made to properly preserve all artifacts
and human remains should be reburied.
Despite the recent controversy involving a group of Tuscarora natives from
Roberson County who protested in Greene County in November, the town just wants
to see the sites preserved properly.
"Everyone is saying the same thing," Davis said.
Privately-owned farmland known as Fort Neoheroka, was the site of the last
battle of the Tuscarora War in the early 18th century.
The site has always been known as Nehucky Farm until East Carolina University
conducted a 10-year excavation project from the late 1980s to the early 1990s
confirming the farmland was the site of the last battle of the Tuscarora War.
"Several efforts are already underway," Davis said.
During the excavation, skeletal remains and artifacts such as pottery and
jewelry were discovered and are currently being stored at ECU.
ECU has been working with the Tuscarora Nation in New York since the dig, but
the federally recognized tribe asked the university to keep the remains until a
better place is found. The university is able to do this under the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law passed in 1990.
The law provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain
items - human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural
patrimony - to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes and
Native Hawaiian organizations.
Katie Marshall can be reached at
(252) 527-3191, Ext. 251, or
kmarshall@freedomenc.com
Article reprinted with permission of The
Free Press. Originally appeared in The Free Press 10 April 2007.
| |
|
