October 25, 2025
Smithfield To Honor Tuscarora Heritage With Downtown Mural
SMITHFIELD — The Town of Smithfield is preparing to celebrate its Native American roots with a large public mural honoring the town’s Tuscarora heritage — a project that will now coincide with Native American Heritage Month in November.
Funded through a $10,000 state grant awarded to Johnston County’s Committee for America 250NC, the mural will be painted in downtown Smithfield near the Johnston County Courthouse.
The mural will be created by Greensboro-based artist Brian Lewis, who previously painted the Ava Gardner Museum mural on Market Street. Lewis, whose work has appeared around the world — including recent projects in Scotland and Croatia — brings international acclaim to this local initiative.
The painting of the mural was initially scheduled to begin in September but has been delayed until November, a change that aligns with the national observance.
“The painting of the Tuscarora mural has been delayed until November 3, which will be a great tie-in for Native American Heritage Month,” said Todd Johnson, Director of the Johnston County Heritage Center. “We are very excited about having this incredibly gifted artist back in Smithfield to honor the rich heritage of the Tuscarora people. We are indebted to David Johnson, who is allowing us to have the mural placed on his building at 134 S. Third Street.”
During a recent Smithfield Town Council meeting, Todd Johnson offered compelling historical context for the project. Quoting from an 1805 book cataloging U.S. towns at the time, he noted that Smithfield was described as being the site of a considerable Indian village called Neuse. The book also referenced a large Indian burial mound originally 16 feet that once stood in what is now downtown Smithfield.
The mural will be painted on canvas, then permanently affixed to the building.
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Wonderful!
Genuinely appalling. I cannot fathom honoring and celebrating a people that attacked colonial civilians, impaled women on stakes, slaughtered over 80 infants, and killed over 130 people on September 22nd 1711. It got so bad that Governor Hyde had to deploy the NC militia, and outnumbered, had to have South Carolina militia to back them up. We then fought a 4 year’s war (Tuscarora War 1711-1715) to stop the violence.
Shall we feast our eyes on this mural and desecrate the memory of our ancestors and essentially celebrate death and barbarism for the sake of what exactly?
All I know is that this mural will do nothing more for true students of history to serve as a grim reminder of the atrocities carried our by a people that literally waged war against us. There’s no honor in that, there’s nothing to celebrate.
Key word is “colonial.”
That tells me that the indigenous peoples were likely defending what they viewed as an invasion of their land… soooo seems pretty respectful to celebrate the heritage of the land that white people decided to show up and make their own.
This is a good way to bury the hatchet.