Neighborhood at war after haunting discovery of ancient lost village: 'You've got human femurs lying around'

A North Carolina neighborhood has descended into chaos after the shock discovery of thousands of ancient Native American artifacts - including human bones. 

The record archeological find was first unearthed by a construction crew working on a development project along the waterway in Carteret County’s Cedar Point.

A dig then revealed a trove of artifacts believed to have belonged to the Tuscarora tribe - an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States' Carolinas.

Archeologists also uncovered 11 human burial sites - the state's most significant find in the past 30 years and its largest excavation to date. 

The multi-million Bridge View neighborhood project has since been paused, but the statehouse is currently considering a controversial law that could allow the development to continue.

Meanwhile, residents are clashing with protestors, with the local sheriff now hunting for a suspect in an alleged stabbing that occurred during a confrontation between the two warring groups, WRAL reported.

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Carteret County in Cedar Point has a population of just 1,300 people.

There, along the Roanoke, Neuse, Tar, and Pamlico rivers, the Tuscarora lived free until settlers arrived in the early 1700s.

The recent archeological dig uncovered around 2,000 artifacts - including evidence of longhouses, fish drying racks, and ritual sites.

Experts say they all point to an early Native American village inhabited by the Tuscarora tribe, who claim the state's bill to bulldoze the site is a violation of a United Nations resolution with protections for indigenous people.

Sen. Michael Lazzara, a Republican from Onslow, has asked the legislature to overlook the archaeological findings buried there - to pave way for the gated community that would have included a boat ramp pier and fenced in dog park.

As of Monday, there is no word on whether the development will continue, following a forecasted finish of summer 2024.

North Carolina lawmakers, meanwhile, continue to debate the topic at the state legislature - as a separate battle occurs on the ground between those in favor of finishing the waterfront homes and those against. 

Those against include the Tuscarora Nation Grand Council, a committee composed of the three traditional Tuscarora communities in nearby Robeson County.

They and others cite how town histories in the nearby region and archeological studies authenticate Tuscarora occupation of areas near Cedar Point until the Tuscarora Wars of 1711, after which the tribe was forced to emigrate to New York.

The findings by the builders and archaeologists this month solidify this, they say  - a stance shared by experts like Chris Southerly, the acting state archeologist. 

He told WRAL last week of how the site has a rich history of multiple Native American groups - all of whom converged for cross-cultural interactions in the decades before the three-year conflict between the Tuscarora People and European colonists.

'In the [European] contact period, it could have been a part of the Powhatan Confederation - the Indians that were met by the Jamestown settlers.'

As for the weight of this particular discovery, Sen. Mike Woodward, a Democrat from the 22nd district, said: 'In this example Down East, you've got human femurs that have been found - and are still lying there, exposed, on some of these properties.'

'That's a little different than finding a few arrowheads.'

The trenches dug by an archaeological consultant who found the thousands of additional artifacts, meanwhile, sits marked by small flags, including the 11 human burial sites. 

Over the weekend, a clash between residents and Native American protesters from the Tuscarora Nation occurred right across the street, and has since spurred a police investigation. 

One man there claimed he was stabbed in the arm with a pocket knife, while others said they were verbally harassed by protestors, WRAL reported. 

In a statement, the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office confirmed deputies were searching for an alleged perpetrator.

One woman posted a TikTok saying she was part of the Tuscarora tribe and claimed a gun was pulled. She did not return a DailyMail.com request for comment.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Tuscarora National said the altercation began after someone physically assaulted a Native woman and her children. 

'Following a peaceful prayer event organized by the 17 Rivers American Indian Movement of NC in Cedar Point near a disturbed ancient Indian burial site, participants were met with violence from nearby residents,' chiefs of the three Native communities wrote.

'Members of the Tuscarora Nation of NC, the Occaneechi Saponi, and other extended Indigenous relatives, allies, and supporters met in Cedar Point to peaceably honor the ancestors' remains unearthed by construction and surveys.

'Residents of the nearby development proclaimed that the 17 Rivers AIM and Tuscarora participants should get off the land across the road from the development, which is currently undeveloped.

'A video of the confrontation on TikTok captured the conflict as it de-escalated, and as local police arrived. 

'TikTok removed the video because it violated their policies on gun violence and safety which illustrates the level of aggression the participants faced,' the statement continued.

The nation said members of their group witnessed this, and said that a resident of the Cedar Point development 'physically assaulted a Native woman and her children.'

The statement then points out how 'The NC Tuscarora and NY Tuscarora have separate and distinct governing bodies and represent themselves independently.'

'Despite the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources consulting with members of federally recognized tribes outside the State and with the Commission of Indian Affairs, the State has yet to consult with the NC Tuscarora,' they said.

The tribe added a bill filed in May that seeks to grant North Carolinian Tuscaroras state status would reaffirm their position as a state-protected tribe, stopping the build in its tracks.

'We have received no letter of the findings and no offer to provide evidence of our claims,' Chief Cecil Hunt of the SaddleTree Community, Chief Stanford Locklear of Prospect Longhouse, and Chief Onyas Locklear of Maxton Longhouse said.

Referencing treaties from the early 17th century between the Tuscarora and the English Colonies, the trio insisted: 'The State of NC must honor those treaties and embrace their relationship with the Tuscarora to reach equitable justice for our communities who face oppression at the hands of the settler society.

'We demand accountability and equitable justice from the County of Carteret, the State of NC and the United States.' 

Meanwhile, in the wake of the initial discovery by the Bridge View builders, archaeologists took over the site, sparking the debate as to what will become of the finds - and the patch of land where they were found.

The defeat of the Tuscaroras more than 300 years before marked the end of their dominance along the North Carolina coastal plains.

Those who remain are now the only Indigenous group in the state to claim rights to the site, and are battling back a controversial bill that would have allowed developers to build on the site and others like it.

That guidance, officially named House Bill 385, was introduced earlier this month after the find, but was overhauled last week after it was met widespread criticism from Natives and the state’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

This was because under it, developers like the one building Bridge View did not need to disclose to possible purchasers of the land whether there is a potentially significant archaeological site on the property.  

The original, introduced on June 5, also allowed developments to 'incidentally' disturb archaeological sites, without halting and digs afterwards.

At the time, Sen. Lazzara complained of how the Bridge View developers had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars conducting surveys on the Carteret County site.

Those stipulations, however, have since been stripped - along with DNCR not having to seek funding from state, federal or private sources to purchase archaeological or historically significant sites like the one in Cedar Point.  

Under the revised legislation, developers like Bridge View's Cedar Point Developers LLC will now be allowed to ask the Office of State Archaeology whether it believes there are culturally sensitive sites on the land during the purchase process.

If a developer uncovers an archaeological site while working, they would need to pause all activity under existing state law. 

Moreover, even if the Office of State Archaeology does not have an issue with a site, it will still be able to restrict development for a period of three years.

The provision does not appear to immediately help the builders, but seems to also offer them a way for them to offload the 21-acre site in question, 

The legislation, however, doesn’t include state money that could be used to purchase it - stopping short of the demands aired by the Tuscarora Nation Grand Council.

They say the bill still violates international laws protecting indigenous groups, even after the watered-down version passed this past Tuesday.

It requires state officials to do more to work with developers ahead of such land purchase, to warn them of the possibility that they may run into a suspected archeological site.

It also no longer allows developments like the one in question to easily go ahead even after archeological finds are discovered, as the original bill had.

One of the lead backers of the abandoned proposal had been Sen. Lazzara, who reportedly received at least $7,500 in campaign contributions from developers in coastal Carteret County, where the community is being built.

Some homes have already been finished, but the rest are held up as the state decides what to do with the finds - which officials have billed as the biggest involving Native Americans in the state's nearly 300-year history.

Officials like Southerly have framed the remains as the remnants of a place where Native Americans lived for 1,000 years - or more - before contact with Europeans, assertions the developers have largely downplayed.

They're likely frustrated at being the only development currently being held up by the archeological rules Lazzara had sought to weaken, as some say that proposal was meant to move the project forward.

When contacted Wednesday, the developers did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment.

The day before, Lazzara said his formerly proposed change wouldn't have helped the developers at all, even if it hadn’t been stripped as it was this week.

'It needs to be made clear - very clear - that neither the previous language nor this language does absolutely anything for the developer in question that has been written about,' Lazzara told The News & Observer. 'It doesn't affect them at all.'

But even with Senate Republicans seeing their plan to weaken local archeological rules now foiled, tensions remain high over the currently paused build.

After the still-shrouded altercation, the entrance to the gated community remains closed, in a bid to to help address both groups' safety.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Carteret County Sheriff's Office for more information.