Coharie facts for kids

The Coharie ("Schohari"), which means "Driftwood" in Tuscarora, are a Native American tribe who descend from the Tuscarora nation and related peoples. Most survivors of this Iroquoian-speaking tribe left the colony after warfare in the early 18th century, under pressure from English colonists and Native American enemies. They migrated north to New York, where they colocated with other Iroquoian-speaking nations, and were accepted as the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois League. Leaders declared that the migration was complete by 1722, and those who stayed in the South were no longer considered Tuscarora.

But some Tuscarora remained in North Carolina and continued their culture, also gradually intermarrying with other peoples. In the 20th century, their descendants organized self-government again. They are located chiefly on the Little Coharie River, in Sampson and Harnett counties in North Carolina. The Coharie are one of seven state-recognized Native American tribes in North Carolina.

Demographics

The Coharie population of Harnett and Sampson counties has steadily increased from 755 in 1970 to almost 2,700 estimated in 2007. As of 2011, there are 2,791 enrolled Coharie members.

According to the 2000 census, the Coharie population in Sampson County is 1029, and 752 in Harnett County, for a total of 1,781. The Coharie Tribe consists of 2,632 enrolled members, with approximately 20% residing outside the tribal communities in Harnett and Sampson counties. The Coharie community consists of four settlements: Holly Grove, New Bethel, Shiloh, and Antioch.

Government

The state of North Carolina recognized the Coharie Tribe in 1971. Clinton, North Carolina is the tribal seat. In 1975, the tribe chartered the Coharie Intra-Tribal Council to serve as a private non-profit organization established to promote the health, education, social, and economic well-being of the Native people of Sampson and Harnett counties.

The Coharie Intra-Tribal Council is housed in the old Eastern Carolina Indian School building. This school was established in the mid-20th century to serve Native Americans of Sampson, Harnett, Cumberland, Columbus, Person, and Hoke counties from 1942 until 1966. At that time, the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act had ended legal racial segregation of public schools.

The Coharie Indian Tribe elected their first tribal chief in 1910. Tribal affairs are led by a tribal chief and seven tribal council members. The Coharie political leadership oversees the four communities of Coharie Indians from three geographical locations in Sampson County and one region in Harnett County. Many members are affiliated with churches in their communities:

• New Bethel Baptist Church: northern Sampson County
• Holly Grove Holiness Church: southern Sampson County
• Shiloh Holiness Church: western Sampson County
• Antioch Baptist Church: Harnett County

The Coharie Tribal Center is located: 7531 North US 421 Hwy. Clinton, North Carolina 28328

Tribal Government structure

When European explorers arrived in what is now North Carolina, American Indians already had long-established ways of organizing and governing their communities. Colonization forced most tribes to give up their lands and abandon their ways of life. Since the 1800s, many tribes have reunited and recovered their heritage.

The Coharie Tribe has a tribal governing body. The governing bodies consist of two boards. The Coharie People Board is a governing body elected by the tribal community. This board oversees the tribal functions and the tribal office building. Tribal functions include the annual powwow in September and the annual Coharie Princess Pageant in July. The board consists of nine people. This board has a chairman, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, and members. From this board, three members are elected to attend the Coharie Intra-tribal Council board.

This board oversees and governs all the finances, (e.g. grants), petitions for federal recognition, tribal enrollment, staffing, and other executive duties. This board consists of an elected chairman, vice chair, secretary, and members. The tribe also has an elected tribal chief whose duties are mainly of traditional stature (e.g. naming ceremonies, blessing of powwow arena, representing the tribe at other tribal and statewide functions).

Relationships to other North Carolina tribes

The Coharie have intermarried predominantly with the Lumbee and Tuscarora Indians of Robeson County. They also have intermarried with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

History

Seventeenth century

Historians generally contend that the Coharie are descendants from members of three language groups: the Algonquian-speaking Neusiok and Coree (although the Neusiok and Coree might be Iroquoian) and the Iroquoian Tuscarora, and the Siouan Waccamaw, who occupied what is now the central portion of North Carolina. In the early seventeenth century, the Coree lived along the Big Coharie and the Little Coharie Rivers in present-day Sampson County.

Eighteenth century

Between 1730 and 1745, intertribal conflicts as well as competition over land and resources between Native peoples and English colonials resulted in numerous wars. The trade in deerskins and Indians found some tribes capturing members of traditional enemy tribes to sell as slaves to the colonists. In addition, Eurasian infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, to which the Natives had no natural immunity, decimated many communities. The epidemics of new diseases disrupted their societies. These had been endemic among the Europeans, who had acquired some immunity.

Nineteenth century

Throughout the 1800s, the Coharie Indians built their community in Sampson County. Considered free persons of color, the Coharie held the right under state law to own and use firearms, and vote in local elections. But, following Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831, the state passed legislation in 1835 reducing the rights of non-White people. The Coharie were among those that lost the right to vote and bear arms. Following the Civil War, the state constitutional convention of 1868 during Reconstruction removed this ban.

In 1859, the Coharie Indians established their own subscription school. In 1910, the Coharie Indians established an Indian school in Dismal Township as they wanted to maintain their culture. In 1911, the Coharie Indians established New Bethel Indian School. In 1943, the state of North Carolina established and built East Carolina Indian School, the first primary through high school Indian school, in Herring Township in Sampson County.