Neyuherú·ke' 300 Commemoration, Wampum Belt Ceremony

Larry Tise: (00:00)
Uh, my name is Larry Tise, and I would like to welcome you to the opening of the Neyuherú·ke' 300 commemoration, which we are commemorating, probably the most disastrous battle that ever occurred on North Carolina soil. There were certainly more deaths in this battle than any other battle in North Carolina history, on North Carolina soil, and we're not celebrating this event. We are commemorating the fact that it happened, and East Carolina University and the Tuscarora Nation, and a lot of historians and scholars around North Carolina and around the nation have participated in putting this together. The first order of business is to do a Tuscarora ritual, the words that become, that come before all else. I would like to invite our presenter to the stage.

Unidentified Speaker: (01:11)
[Woman speaking Thanksgiving Address in Tuscarora language, Skarò˙rə̨ˀ]

Larry Tise: (02:49)
Vince Schiffert, one of our loyal and faithful connections with the Tuscarora Nation, will do a little interpretation now.

Vince Schiffert: (02:56)
Nyaweh Gowa [greeting in Mohawk], the way it's been explained to me by different elders, not only in Tuscarora community, but elsewhere in the Six Nations. Gano:nyok is a speech that's always given before any gathering, whether it's ceremonial, governmental, social dances or what have you. This event is a perfect example of when you would need to do Gano:nyok. There's a faith keeper from the Onondaga longhouse up at Six Nations, Norm Jacobs [name unintelligible] I really learned a lot from him, from different meetings and listening to him talk about Gano:nyok. And he said, a lot of times you come to events, and everyone that's here, all of us, or whatever event you're at, they got different things on their mind. There are different situations back at home; you're thinking about different things. You know, you might be sad about something, you're angry at somebody, your mind's just heavy. So Gano:nyok serves two purposes he said. One, it gives thanks for all the things in this world. Starts out right here in this room. We're thankful for all the people that we all made it here. We give thanks for that. We can also start from there. We can step outside this room. We can step on Mother Earth. We start there. From there we go to the waters, the grasses, the shrubs, the medicine plants, the trees, and it keeps working its way up, all the things that were given to us by the Creator, everything we need to live, to survive, to be happy. And as you're doing that speech, the audience is really supposed to be listening and concentrating. At the end, you'll hear some of the people responding, yeah, kind of like an agreement that yeah, that those words made sense. And I remember Norm saying that if you're really concentrating and listening, by the time the speaker gets to the very end, you're really agreeing that these are good things that we need in our lives here on Earth, and that you tend to focus on all the good stuff that the speaker's talking about. And so by the time they get to the very end of the speech, at that one moment in time, everyone's minds are at one point in this room, and at that point you're ready to begin your business. So with that [Mohawk language].

Larry Tise: (05:05)
Thank you, Vince. You are about to witness something that has not happened in 200 years. And in order to prepare for this, I would like to invite the following people to the stage, [Chief] Neil Patterson, Sr. who is here already next, Chief Kenneth Patterson, and as you come to the stage, shall we arrange them in a row across the stage, next Chief Stuart Patterson and chief Leo Henry. Uh and also Martin Rickert. The Tuscarora Nation is a matrilineal society, which means that the governance of the Nation is very much in the hands of the clans, and the clan mothers and the clans are responsible for choosing the chiefs. So I'd like to invite the clan mothers who are present to come onto the stage. Susan Shandro, Linda Hill, Francine Patterson, Doreen Rickert and Dorothy Chu. Francine Patterson? Because the ceremony involves the delivery of a message we need to have several people on the stage to receive the message. So I would invite, I'd like to invite Provost Marilyn Sheerer to the stage, Vice Chancellor Ron Mitchelson, Dean Allen White and George Mewborn. This ceremony will be presented by Neil Patterson, Sr.

Neil Patterson, Sr.: (07:56)
This is hasn't been done in a couple hundred years. the last person to have this done was a guy by the name of George Washington on the American side, he asked for a belt, and the Iroquois made him a belt, large belt, by the mean, all means, according to Iroquois standards, and it's called the George Washington belt. He commissioned it. They did it, and it was done. now a days it's awful hard to get the Quahog shells. So a while back, they asked if we remember this, and the way Indians remember things is to do it in a belt.
(08:44)
In the beginning, That's priority. Send belts, just like everybody else. Send wampum and so the wampum belt that we have today commemorates what happened many years ago, 300 years ago, and it's a commemoration. This belt, I suppose, if you were to value it, probably worth its weight in gold, by the end of today, it will be worth its weight in gold, because it hasn't been done before in 200 years. And what we do is we read the story into it. So I mean, most of these people sit in council and I listen to them and say, "What do you think about this? What do you do about this?" And this is the main thing we want to present to you, the people in North Carolina, is that we come in humility. We come with forgiveness in our hearts to remember...
(09:54)
To remember these things, that what man can do to another man should never be done again. It shouldn't be this way to take people and do what they did 300 years ago; that's just unheard of nowadays. Don't matter who them people are. Remember them. They are people. We all walk, we all breathe the same air. We're all different. We're not all the same. Thank goodness. We are all different. Makes the world go round. [unintelligible] So this belt is telling the story. And there's several meanings for a wampum belt. The belt sometimes signify a treaty, starter treaty. Sometimes they tell a story. This one tells a story, and the words are read into it. This one. And if you look at wampum belts and study them a little bit, the little square on the top, a little square on the bottom, you'll notice that it is what it is. And those represent a home, homeland, once we were and then the zigzag of the belt, the beads signify a wandering. People call this a migration. A migration is what you see geese do, flying north and south. What happened to us long time ago wasn't a migration. There was no, I think 17 or 18 different Indian nations fighting Tuscarora Nation plus Tuscaroras fighting with Tuscarora Nation, two states, South Carolina and North Carolina, and that's just that's amazing. As Vince says, we're still moving about, we're still a Tuscarora Nation, [unitellible]. And if you just keep up and do what you do and keep in mind that you are God's creation no matter who you are, no matter how weak things are, you're still one of God's creations. And that's what this belt is telling you. We come in humility to remind you of a story, of a people. You hear about a Trail of Tears, if you were able to understand and read all the story about a Tuscarora Nation, the Cherokee that were on the Trail of Tears were also one of the Indian nations that were fighting the Tuscaroras.
(13:04)
Many of those Indian nations no longer exist. Some of them are still around, but most of them don't exist anymore. Those that fought against us didn't make it. The Nation did under great, great, great duress, great strain. And one weekday, somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 people were taken, enslaved. That's what it is. It was enslavement. Killing. Didn't matter who you were, they killed you. And from that day forth, if you look back over history and understand what history is, it can't be changed. You can't change what you did this morning. I don't care how many times Superman flies around the world. Ain't going to change. this. Never going to change. So these stories that they tell from beginning to end, and it'll be that way. We understand these things. We know these things. Everything is created for a purpose. It's how you use it. Use it, how you understand it. Right now...
(14:30)
we're going to turn this over. Do you accept this responsibility? Turn it over and let the government of North Carolina understand what it is. You have to remember the words that I just told you, understand all those words that are written read into that belt, because that's how wampum belts are. You read the words into them. And so there's even a story that, if you're wrong, which I am not, you could actually just feel the belt and the words will come to you. [unintelligible]. And do you accept that?

Marilyn Sheerer: (15:13)
Thank you very much. It is with a sense of honor, awe and respect for the Tuscarora Nation that I accept this wampum belt on behalf of East Carolina University and all of the peoples of North Carolina, both I and the members of our university are honored that the ancient Tuscarora Nation should, should choose this conspicuous moment and this time and place to create and present its next wampum, following upon the last presentation of a wampum more than 200 years ago. We are in awe of the rich tradition of the Tuscarora Nation, of communicating its most important messages through the medium of wampum, and of the responsibility this places upon the recipient to proceed thence forward in peace and respect, in accepting this unique wampum. East Carolina University promises that it will preserve and protect this welcome for all the peoples of North Carolina, and that we will proudly share this treasure with our students, faculty, alumni and friends, and we will gladly share the wampum in the future for exhibition in museums and libraries across Our state, so that it can be seen by other North Carolinians. We are thus grateful to the Tuscarora Nation. We welcome the members of the Nation who have come to join with us on this solemn occasion, and we promise to go forward with you as we seek to understand our shared past and future presence in eastern North Carolina. I present on behalf of Chancellor Ballard this statement.

Neil Patterson, Sr.: (17:16)
Thank you.