Justified By God

Today, I take you back three hundred years, to a fireside, as my father’s matrilineal ancestors considered whether their actions were “justified by God.”

Reliance On the English

Wheat dumplings simmered in the metal pot over a fire. Nourourhquotkan watched the flames deep in thought. Nourouhquotkan had taken the name John Pagett at the insistence of his clan leaders, who had urged everyone to take names of prestigious English colonists, thus, ensuring the respect of the English. He was the husband to Runehu’hu, which meant turtledove. He loved the sound that her name made as it rolled off the tongue, Rooneh-hoo’-hoo. However, to satisfy the ukuwana’?tha? (oodoo-wawnaw-ahk-tha-ahk) or clan mother, he took to calling her Jane.

John’s thoughts about the name Jane turned his thinking to the metal pot sitting directly on the open flame. He thought about how uneasy it made him that his people were becoming more and more reliant on trade with the English. The clay pots the Tuscarora had used previously could not rest directly on an open fire. True, the metal pots were superior, but this was just another indicator of the Tuscaroras’ need to trade deer skin to obtain these conveniences.

As John rested on his mat, he held a stone tobacco pipe in his mouth. He said to Jane, “Teethha Hancock is head of the bear clan. His actions are justified by God.” Teethha is the Tuscarora word for king. Although, the use of the English word “king” was becoming more common among his people.

English Abuses

John continued, “As is our custom, I have come here to live in your mother’s longhouse, but I cannot abandon my brothers. The English are a threat to all Tuscaroras, not just those in Hancock’s town of Catechna. My blood is hot to join with my brothers in the coming battle against the English who are taking more of our land.”

John passed the pipe to Jane. She drew deeply in on the Nicotiana rustica and let the smoke waft out her nose as a puff curled over her head. Tobacco smoking was common for both men and women among the Tuscaroras.

Jane held the stone pipe and listened for John to finish his thoughts.  She then broke the silence with her answer, “I understand your anger, but the hostilities you are provoking will bring the war to all bear clan people, even those in our village, perhaps other clans of upper Tuscarora towns as well. This is why King Blount, of our village, advised them to release the prisoner De Graffenried.”

Baron Christopher de Graffenried and John Lawson were being held as prisoners because they had traveled into King Hancock’s territory without permission, but, more importantly, because of abuses by the English toward the Tuscarora people. De Graffenried had brought 400 Swiss and German settlers to North Carolina and had established the town of New Bern. Several hundred settlers being dumped into the area certainly shocked the Indians, resulting in more land loss and conflicts over hunting and fishing. Lawson was the surveyor general for the colony of North Carolina. Many native people believed that his work was responsible for the loss of so much Indian land to the ever increasing numbers of English colonists. When captured, the pair, and two African slaves, were on an expedition up the Neuse River. Though they would not admit it, the goal was to survey more land for English farms and plantations.

War In North Carolina

John responded to Jane’s comment about King Blount, “I was at the council meeting when the truth came out. When questioned, prisoner Lawson’s temper got the best of him. He argued back loudly. His sarcasm was apparent for all to see. Rather than apologize for the abuses committed by the colonists, he threatened King Hancock and guaranteed that the Tuscarora would pay for taking him prisoner.”

John grimaced.

Jane handed the pipe back to John. She looked directly into his eyes and said, “Do not go. Stay here. I have a bad feeling about this.”

John responded, “The English will not be satisfied until they have taken all our land and removed our bloodline from the earth.”

Jane shook her head. “This is nonsense. Your hatred for the English will only result in our destruction. Please do not drag us into the conflict with the English. The decisions made by this war captains will have far-reaching consequences for our people.”

Jane’s intuition was correct. She knew their leaders’ next moves would be critical to the future of her people. Would her family be snuffed out or would her bloodline survive?

She had a sense of foreboding that the coming events would lead to war in North Carolina. Jane feared that many of her mother’s clan would not survive, that some would end up as enslaved people. She did not know that this was her fate, and did not know that her own husband would not survive? She did know that her future was not certain.

Justified By God

Jane was not a Christian. It would be later in life that she would meet and marry Thomas Kersey and learn of the sacrifice of Jesus. On this night, she believed in Tarenhiawagen—the Master of Life and Ruler of Skyland. It was he who had led the Tuscarora from the Great Lakes east to their present home on the Neuse River on North Carolina’s coast. . . a place that he called Cautanoh. It was he who taught this Iroquois-speaking people to use a bow and arrow. Thinking themselves favored by Tarenhiawagen made them believe they were superior to other people and justified their actions.

John could feel it in his heart that revenge on the English was justified by Tarenhiawagen or God. He was truly “righting a wrong.” The actions of the English were against God. I can hear him saying, “I wasn’t raised that way,” as he railed against the abuses of the English toward this people. How could he mingle with people whose lifestyles so blatantly ran afoul of how he’d been reared?

A Feeble Measuring Stick

Like many of us, he conflated his righteousness with his upbringing—the lives of his forebears was the stick by which he measured his actions. This hit too close to home, as I considered his feeble measuring stick, which resembled my own legalistic stubbornness. This reminded me of the self-righteousness of the Pharisees and the words of Jesus:

“He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.’”

Luke 16:15

Like John, I treasure my godly parents who deposited within me a fierce desire for God. Would I ever measure up to the kind of righteousness I saw in them?

No matter the “right” things we do as Christians, they can only yield a temporary good feeling, too often tainted with a little pride, a bit of superiority, a dose of pity, rather than compassion. I can hear the voice of Jesus speaking to me . . . speaking to us. Your genes don’t constitute your salvation. It is my blood, not yours, that prepares you to sit at my table. Praise God! It is because of Jesus that we are justified and can stand in the righteous presence of God.

Prayer

Jesus, please grant us the foresight to resist self-righteousness, self-righteousness which only leads to our destruction. We are not justified by our goodness. Only you are worthy to “break the seal and open the scroll.”

Copyright © 2023 Chuck Locklear

Also, see The Lost Colony of Roanoke.