Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: I am the founder of, I’m the founder of Sun, which in Skabureauriko Dahlia and Yaguara, and that is in our language how we would say the Tuscarora Historical and Preservation Society. And so, I got to a place where, culturally speaking, there was just some things that I wanted to see happen for my people, and we didn’t really have the funding for it. And so I decided to start this nonprofit so that I could apply for grants. And if and now we are funded through the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, a wonderful group of people who believe in us and our mission, and now I can do things that will preserve our language. For example, the animated videos that I made. Maybe you saw them. I don’t know if you were in there when I was speaking. Okay, I make these animated videos that are our traditional stories that have been animated now and they’re narrated in the Tuscarora language by me. And those graphics generators, they’re not really cheap. They’re not really expensive, but if you get a couple of them subscriptions a month, that adds up. So what this grant funding does is it allows me to continue making these videos that will be passed down because rather than being lost in a book somewhere on a shelf, now they’re in video format where the children or other people can access it on YouTube. 

Savannah Turgal: Yeah 

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: That way it ensures that the story gets passed down, and therefore the worldview gets passed down, and our language gets passed down. So that’s just one one thing that we do with the Historical and Preservation Society. Another is funding things like, say, Zoom, because I don’t stay in our home territory anymore. So I have to get a Zoom subscription because I teach the Tuscarora language, and so from 200 miles away, I’m able to have a Zoom subscription that enables me to teach the language. 

Savannah Turgal: That’s really cool. Can I ask what are the three flags in the center of the sigil?  

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: This is an ancient symbol that the Tuscarora used to identify ourselves by. 

Savannah Turgal: Okay.  

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: It was recorded by a man we were going to schedule for extermination, Baron von Braffenreid, who had with his Swiss colony had squatted on our, or stole, our land there at New Bern, and he convinced us that he was a very important person, and that the, the Queen of England and such would come after us if, if we killed him. So we let him go for his crimes about stealing our land. But in his journal that he wrote about his experience in Eastern North Carolina. And particularly New Bern, he wrote this down by hand in his journal with pen and quill, and was and said that this is the symbol that the Tuscarora identify themselves with. So it’s an old symbol that we use to that this represents us, the Tuscarora nation. 

Savannah Turgal: Is there significance to the colors or the order of them? 

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: These are our traditional tribal colors. It’s typically black and white. So in the old days, if you saw, say, 300 years ago, if somebody saw a Indian coming up to them, and they had black and white face paint on. Chances are they were Tuscarora. Those were our colors, and the red we would add if we were at war. So if we were at war with somebody on the war path, as they say, we would add red to our face paint, and that indicated that we were at war.  

Savannah Turgal: I’m guessing the red would be for blood. Yeah. What’s the the white and the black signify? If there’s anything specific, 

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: No one, no one really knows. Some some people might say it’s about balance. You know,  

Savannah Turgal: I can see that 

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: other other people say like, well, this was the ochre that was available to us in our home territory. you know, if we had like say further inland, like down around Salisbury, those tribes that stayed in that area, they had this blue ochre there. 

Savannah Turgal: Yeah, so it’s just like the availability.  

Runehkwacha Duane Brayboy: It was what was available in our area. So I believe that it’s probably that. I think it’s maybe about the balance as well. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. But also, the red is a sacred color. It’s the color of the ancestors, and so in addition to the blood, it’s also that it’s our way of calling the ancestors to us, like I’m going into battle, I’m putting this red paint on to petition the ancestors to come to my aid while I’m in battle.