Tuscarora
/ˌtʌskəˈrɔːrə/noun
A member of a Native American people originally from the Carolinas and later part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, or their Iroquoian language.
Did you know?Tuscarora is an English rendering of a self-name that entered colonial records through contact history, and while the people’s name is real and ancient, its deeper literal origin is not securely established in standard scholarship.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Colonial
Tuscarora
Skarūʔręʔ / Tuscarora (approx. colonial rendering)
“The people’s own ethnonym, later recorded by Europeans in varied spellings.”
17th Century
English
Tuscarora
“An English spelling used in colonial accounts for the nation encountered in the Carolinas.”
18th Century
English
Tuscarora
“Used more broadly for the people after their migration north and alliance with the Haudenosaunee.”
Modern English
English
Tuscarora
“The common English name for the Tuscarora people and their language.”