1,000-year-old Native American canoe brought to the lake’s surface
LAKE WACCAMAW, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) – Members of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe worked with a team of archaeologists to bring a nearly 1,000-year-old canoe to the surface of a lake in North Carolina.
Waccamaw Siouan Chief Michael Jacobs said the canoe is a rare opportunity to learn more about Native American culture in southeastern North Carolina.
“That canoe at 28 feet long would have carried many a brave,” Jacobs said. “We feel like in our heart, it’s a history that we’re still exploring and understanding because this is the first time we’ve had access.”
The piece of history had been buried beneath Lake Waccamaw for hundreds of years. It was discovered unexpectedly by three teenagers swimming in the lake during the summer of 2021.
“I stepped on it, and I thought it was a log,” Eli Hill explained. “I tried to pick it up and it never came up. So, we kept digging at it and it just kept going. The next day, we came back and we started digging some more and it just kept going.”
Hill’s family reached out to the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology about the canoe.
A team worked to move it closer to the family’s pier, where it sat for nearly two years before it was finally brought to the surface.
State Archaeologist John Mintz said the lengthy removal process was worth it in the end.
“This canoe is about 1,000 years old,” Mintz said. “It’s a southeastern Indian canoe that originated from this area, so we wanted the local Indian group to be part of it.”
The canoe will be taken to a lab in Greeneville to be preserved, studied and possibly share its secrets.
“We’re looking forward to examining it, running some tests on it, really finding out and going back to our elders and getting the history of it to where we can teach the truth to our people and know that we’ve got concrete evidence to stand on,” Jacobs said.
Dozens of members of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe watched as the canoe was brought out of the lake. A feeling of gratitude was felt by many in attendance.
“Our history is still unfolding,” Jacobs said. “When the colonists made contact with our tribe, there’s a lot of the things that we hailed as historical and meaningful to us that we’re still putting together.”
Copyright 2023 WECT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
