THE SCOOP - Newspaper article links The Lost Colony to Robeson County, NC Tuscaroras

August 29, 2020

This historic newspaper article was printed Mar. 2, 1916 by The Asheville Times in North Carolina.

Author A.H. McCormick wrote many respectable articles for the newspaper.

BACKSTORY

Name issue –

The erasure of the NC Tuscarora name began in 1885 under the influence of lawyer and General Assembly member – Hamilton McMillan. This man promised the Robeson County, NC Tuscarora a school for their Indian children if they officially changed their name to Croatan and thusly erased their Native name.

The Federally Recognized Tuscarora living in New York, originating from NC, who were previously exiled to New York in the 1700s because they were not “friendly” like the others who had remained, were already recognized as being due reparations.

Changing the NC Tuscaroras’ name saved the state and Federal government much money and land in reparations.

So, is Hamilton McMillan the conniving conman really statue worthy?

Read about McMillan's defaced statue at that school he helped form by conning them out of their ancestry.

Many Robeson County, NC Tuscaroras (Croatans) became known as Lumbees in 1956 when the white Democrats used legislation to further erase their ancestry under The Lumbee Act.

Population issue –

The problem with A.H. McCormick’s 4009 population is that in 1916, the consensus of who and how many of any race had been askew for generations. For example, the 1850 census instructions do not tell the enumerator how to determine which category a person falls into, so it was up to the enumerator or their assistant to make that determination. If a person was not entirely white, or entirely black, the person was marked as mulatto.

Thusly, there may have been twice, triple or quadruple the population of Tuscaroras in Robeson County in 1916.

The “curious trail” – I found one of several maps which backs up McCormick’s article.

The “most curious trail” as mentioned in the newspaper article is partially exemplified on page 64 in Margaret M. Hoffman’s book Abstracts of Deeds, Northampton County, North Carolina Public Registry, Deed Book One and Deed Book Two, 1741-1759.

The most indicative map of Tuscarora Territory is included in my work The Exsanguination of the Second Society: Scholarly Historical Fiction Relating to Robeson County, North Carolina's Tuscaroras.

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