"Tuscarora Adoption"

The Tuscarora Adoption Ceremony

In late 17th and early 18th-century North Carolina, colonists reported two primary branches of the Tuscarora. Varying accounts circa 1708-1710 estimated the number of Tuscarora warriors as from 1200-2000.

The Tuscarora had to deal with more numerous colonists’ encroaching on his community. They raided his villages, kidnapped the people to be sold into slavery, suffered substantial population losses after exposure to the infectious diseases of the Europeans. By 1711, the Tuscarora Chief Hancock believed he had to attack the settlers to fight back. The Indian tribes attacked, killing hundreds of settlers, including several key political figures among the colonists.

The North Carolina militia, and allied Native Americans, attacked the Tuscarora in 1712 and 1713.the Tuscaroras were defeated in the battle of 1713, and 1500 Tuscarora fled to New York to join the Iroquois Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Five Nations of New York were more than happy to accommodate their distant cousins as the “Sixth Nation”, and in 1722 adopted them into their Confederacy.

This is the premise around which the “Tuscarora Adoption Ceremony” was created.

The size of the original is 36 X 40 and is painted on stretched canvas.

$1500