“We were run out of our home in Occoneechee Island by Nathaniel Bacon in the late 1600s,” says Sharn Jeffries, vice chairman of the ~1300 member American Indian tribe. In Kerr Lake, Occoneechee Island is now known as Buggs Island. Orange, Alamance, and Caswell counties are the tribal government’s core service area, which concerns itself with the overall well-being of members. “The Occoneechee are one of the few tribes with written history and archeological evidence to say who we are.”
Jeffries works to keep tribal traditions alive and he notes the irony that current trends in free range farming, growing heirloom foods, and creating common spaces were once the way of life for the tribe. “What was seen as backward and worthless is now becoming the expected norm.” The Occoneechee would fight for regional land, but had no concept of individual land ownership. They were among the original environmentalists. If Jeffries took an Orange County stay-cation, he would spend it hunting or gardening “to increase the probability that I had healthy food for me and my family and friends.”
