Tuscarora, sometimes called Skarure(h/ʔ), is an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people, spoken in southern Ontario, Canada, and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls, in the United States. The original homeland of the Tuscarora was in eastern North Carolina, in and around the Goldsboro, Kinston, and Smithfield areas, and some, though few, still live in this region. The name Tuscarora (pronounced approximately "Tuh-skuh-roar-uh") comes fr...
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Tuscarora, sometimes called Skarure(h/ʔ), is an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people, spoken in southern Ontario, Canada, and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls, in the United States. The original homeland of the Tuscarora was in eastern North Carolina, in and around the Goldsboro, Kinston, and Smithfield areas, and some, though few, still live in this region. The name Tuscarora (pronounced approximately "Tuh-skuh-roar-uh") comes from the tribe's name and means "hemp people," after the Indian hemp or milkweed that they use in many aspects of their society. "Skarureh" refers to the long shirt worn as part of the men's regalia, hence "long shirt people".
Tuscarora is a living but severely endangered language. As of the mid-1970s, only about 52 people spoke the language on the Tuscarora Reservation (Lewiston, New York) and the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation (near Brantford, Ontario) . The Tuscarora School in Lewiston has striven to keep the language alive,...
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