The Tuscarora Nation of New York helped dedicate the Nooherooka Monument in North Carolina in 2013. Photo from Eastern Carolina University

Members of the Tuscarora Nation of New York returned to their ancestral homelands in North Carolina last week.

About 40 members traveled to New Bern for the three-day Tuscarora Homecoming. They shared culture, history, arts and crafts and genealogy with their old neighbors in the community.

"We’re just continuing renewing our relationship with North Carolina and our homelands," Vincent Schiffert told The New Bern Sun Journal.

The homecoming built on the Nooherooka Commemoration of 2013. Eastern Carolina University invited the tribe to help dedicate the Nooherooka Monument at the site of the last battle of the war. Some tribal members describe the battle as a massacre that cost hundreds of lives.

The tribe lived throughout North Carolina until being driven out after the bloody Tuscarora War in the early 1700s. Some didn't make it out because they were taken as slaves.

Get the Story:
A long time coming: Members of Tuscarora tribe visit homeland they fled in 1713 (The New Bern Sun Journal 7/26)
Tuscarora tribe members returning to ancestral homeland (The New Bern Sun Journal 7/23)