Below is an excerpt from a Raleigh, NC newspaper article pertaining to the native american indians living in old Orange County. NATIVE AMERICAN VILLAGE BEING REBORN Occaneechi still await recognition from the state By MANYA BRACHEAR, Correspondent HILLSBOROUGH -- Symbols play an important role in Native American culture. You could have asked Forrest Hazel of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation as he prepared for a ritual Thursday at a replica of an 18th century Indian village being built near Hillsborough. There was sage, the plant of the people, tobacco to symbolize the ancestors' livelihood, and sweetgrass to purify the atmosphere and symbolize harmony. And the ceremony itself was a symbol. Thursday's dedication of the reconstructed Indian village represented the Occaneechis' solidarity through a seven-year struggle to attain recognition from the state's Indian Affairs Commission. The tug of war started not long after University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill archaeologists uncovered the original 18th century Occaneechi township a quarter-mile downstream on the Eno River. The excavation plays a big role in advocating the legitimacy of the Occaneechi heritage, said H. Trawick Ward, one of the archaeologists who discovered the village 14 years ago. To qualify for state recognition, the Occaneechi must document 200 years of unbroken tribal history and prove the existence of tribal organizations, such as schools. Lawrence Dunmore III, president and chairman of the Occaneechi Tribal Association, said almost 300 years of history has been compiled for state and federal petitions. Dunmore's recollection of that history includes information on "Little Texas," a community that was settled in the 1780s in Orange County and northeastern Alamance County. He said this settlement included Indian churches, group labor parties and schools. ...... Copyright © 1997 The News and Observer Publishing Company Raleigh, North Carolina