On June 8, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission will help to celebrate the 300th anniversary of a significant development in our nation’s early history.

In June 1710, a delegation of Tuscarora Indians was dispatched from present day North Carolina to deliver a set of wampum belts to the Governor of Pennsylvania. The delegation was seeking permission to relocate the tribe to Pennsylvania in order to avoid a war with colonists in North Carolina. The meeting was held on June 8 at Conestoga Town, Manor Township, Lancaster County. At that meeting, members of the Iroquois confederacy invited the Tuscarora to move to their lands in New York.

Unfortunately, the move was delayed when war broke out. After the Tuscarora War ended in 1713, the tribe started migrating north through the Susquehanna Valley, passing through Harrisburg on one of its routes.

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of their journey home, the Tuscarora Nation is sending some of its young men to retrace the steps of their ancestors along the trail.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 8, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission will host a ceremony at the State Museum in Harrisburg to honor the meeting held at Conestoga Town three centuries ago. The event will take place in the museum’s Memorial Hall.

Officials from the Nation, including a Clan Mother, will be present, along with some of the individuals who will walk the route from North Carolina through Pennsylvania to New York. Featured will be a party of Tuscarora dancers who are renowned as the best of the Iroquoian dancers. The Tuscarora are Iroquoian speakers.

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