This is a message posted at the Tuscaroras.com discussion forum by Teresa Morris on February 25, 1998.

I'm curious how the Tuscarora Slide Show supper went this past week-end at the gymnasium. I believe it was scheduled for the 21st?

It will be interesting to see what "story" is being passed around/down/shared about the 96 year migration. I wonder if it is the same slide show offered by an archaeologist (Dr. David Phelps) at ECU (East Carolina University) in Greenville, NC who has spent several years excavating and studying the Tuscarora ancestral remains. He recently has retired from ECU but is still the contact for Tuscarora Ancestral Remains. East Carolina University is a state supported school. This means it gets state and federal funds. A lab has been built in honor of his name.

Some of you are probably aware that this past fall Kenny Patterson and others from the Tuscarora Reservation in NY came to NC and met at Snow Hill....along with Dr. Phelps for a meeting to discuss NC Tuscarora ancestral remains and the Ft. Neorooka Site in Snow Hill, NC (Greene County) where the last leg of the war was fought.

For those of you doing your "homework" you probably recall this... The WAR did not start in Greene County but Craven County. Craven County is where my people call home. The Cartuka and surrounding(New Bern area).

Does the Bear Hole Road ring a bell with any of you? Does the area Tuscarora which is on a state marker on state traveled road ring a bell with any of you?

After the war, some Tuscarora scattered to different parts of NC just to survive. Some were bred with blacks to work on plantations which is why you see some Tuscarora with very dark skin. This is where the Matchupunga-Tuscarora name comes from. Matchupunga representing dark-skinned.

After the war Over 800 Tuscarora women and children were sold off as slaves in Charleston, S.C. because at the time NC would not allow slaves to be sold but would allow them to be rounded up. This is not the Matchupunga Tuscarora line. Does anybody care about what happened to these 800 women and children? What were their "official" Tuscarora names before they got lost in the translation?

I understand for generations man including Indian men and later Indian men and women has played GOD as to who is and is not TUSCARORA based on skin colors as well as the name game. For those that continue to subscribe to this "tradition", I say... do your outside homework....consider your sources and why this is really being said.

BOTTOM LINE: names on the Tuscarora Reservation in NY can also be seen in church cemetaries and present day schools with children sitting at desks in Craven County and surrounding counties and I would be happy to show you where these sites are as well as where we are. Come and visit and see for yourself what is here....really here.

I also would be happy to share with you how some of the names came about...where they came from.

Getting back to the Tuscarora Ancestral Remains:

I for one would like to go on record as being very concerned about this park project because I firmly believe it smells. I believe that these ancestral remains will be "watched over" by the National Parks Service which we all know is housed in the Department of Interior in Washington, DC which also houses the BIA...Bureau of Indian Affairs. Need I say more?

I feel in my gut that these remains will be "used" to lure tourists. It would not surprise me if tickets were sold at the gate for folks to come and see where the last leg of the war was fought and the Tuscarora Ancestral Remains have been laid to rest. (I HOPE I AM WRONG and please pray that I am wrong BUT TIME WILL TELL).

I believe they should be laid to rest here in NC but I believe they should be honored...not peddled. It is time they spiritually be laid to rest as the Creator would have it and simply left alone.

I know at the time of the meeting the Greene County Economic Council/Develpment/Manager recognized he was pleased if this site will be honored historically and that if it can give a healthy shot in the arm to help boost the economy in that part of the state Greene County...that this will be good too.

Those of you just tuning into this forum....stay alert. and BEAR with me. I know some of you think she is a long winded woman but at the present time this link has been a priceless lifeline to connecting with you and you with some of us...for obvious reasons that some have wanted to keep us "forever" apart. Trouble for some and the happiness for others is...when the Spirit says move....no man stands in the way. The lies start melting away, things start to really happen... be re-born...flourish..thrive. We do not stop being Tuscarora regardless of where we call home. I will be forever thankful to Loren Greene for creating the Tuscarora.Com forum.

The Indian Theme is being played/pumped all over this country to lure tourism because the colonial theme is wearing thin. It usually will have a government connection or attachment. And of course...there are always the traditional Indian Agents. History speaks for itself and so do their proven track records. My question to you is , How is this honoring our ancestors and really helping the children grow up to be educated,strong, healthy, self-reliant,?

Our children are going to be adults someday. Will they be the leaders someday? Let's focus our energies on teaching them the whole truth not just the bits and pieces be it spun here or there. Let's provide for them a priceless way to connect with one another. Let's not deny them the right to get to know where some of their ancestors may have walked the land and fished the waters.

What are some of you so afraid of when it comes to moving forward and making it happen for yourselves. Some of you from NY have been so afraid to connect with folks here in NC...Why? I for one don't want your land in NY. We have ours here. I for one don't want your problems. We have fruitful seeds growing among us. I for one don't want your water. The Creator blessed us with water here. What I would like is for you and your children and their children to feel the freedom of movement back and forth, to let the spirit guide them to be who they were created to be and if this means coming here to NC for a visit this is good. If this means coming to NC to move this too is good. Let's give our children what many of us were not afforded because of man including Indian men and Indian women playing GOD generation after generation. Let's give them the real deal...not slide shows. Let's give them The face-to-face chance to see and feel and work for themselves with what is real and to serve as a reminder that WE ARE HERE....wherever one calls home.

I'm sure some of you are saying what the he_ _ or who do you think you are coming off life this. My response is I am 1 voice and I am singing. I welcome your voice and your children's voice. Together let's write some new songs.

WE ARE THE VOICES OF OUR ANCESTORS.....are we not? Does their strength and courage move within our veins? Let's dare move forward. We know a lot of what is happening these days with some of the "official" power brokers is wrong. It is draining the spirit of nation after nation.

My question is so what are we really going to do about it? What are the children learning by the sit and wait and wait and wait and wait?

It's probably a good thing a lot of Indian Nations these days are trying to get a museum up and going and stuff it with all kinds of _________.

Because after all, with the way a lot of these nations are being "handled", thrown away, whitewashed away not by just the government but by Indian doing it to Indian the only way some will know what it means to be Indian any more will be by visiting a museum or watching some slide show or documentary.

I know some of you following this forum do not "buy into certain traditional stories that have been passed down from generation to generation such as no more Tuscarora live in NC." Why? Because you are moving forward. You are doing your own outside investigative homework and digging beneath the archaeologist picks and some of the same old lies that have been passed down.

I for one welcome anyone searching to "connect" with Tuscarora NC LIVING HISTORY to contact me at 919-354-4187 which is in NC anytime. You will be WELCOMED and for those of you that have never visited the homeland of the Tuscarora before the bloody war and what still remains the homeland of the Tuscarora from NC, I believe once you have the chance to visit.....you will understand why we love calling O-nah-we-yun-ka( NC) home.

Where I live is on the coast. We have beautiful land and people. Some of our Mohawk brothers have recently moved to NC. They are working and we are so glad they are here.

I know there are some serious problems going on at Tuscarora in NY. For any of you that wish to come to NC, I know there are those of us who will try to help you find work, a place to live, etc.

Bottom line, you will be welcomed here. You will be welcomed here. We have Tuscarora folks living in different parts of NC but we are family and this is what matters.

Being a mom, and a single mom at that, I know I want to provide my children now ages 9 and 22 with a good education, a healthy place to grow, roots and wings. Free to be who the Creator would have them to be. Whereever they travel they know they are TUSCARORA. This is not something they leave behind. No man or woman, no generational or geographical boundary erases who they are....nor will manmade religions, manmade lies, be it Indian or non-Indian.

Again, I'd like to reiterate a point that I am witnessing as the director for a national think tank, ONE NATION working very hard to build an educational bridge because of a lot of the lies that have been passed down not just by the whitewashing but by INDIANS selling away their own.

In Indian Country, regardless of the nation we are moving in 2 camps....one focuses on weaving a blanket made out of dollar bill paper trails (the sell-outs or government buy outs) the other is weaving a spiritual blanket. A time when in the beginning there was no paper. Therefore no paper trails.