the Bicentennial of the Tuscarora action. The monument was unveiling during the final "Flames Through Lewiston" event which featured hundreds of volunteer American, British, and native re-enactors. About a dozen Tuscarorans portrayed the Tuscarora Heroes and Sacarissa Chief Leo Henry played the role of his predecessor, Chief Solomon Longboard, the leader of the Tuscarora Heroes in 1813. Local civilians of all ages reenacted the panicked exodus from Lewiston by its residents 200 years earlier. Re-enactors, dressed in only pajamas and blankets, ran for their lives down the same street their Lewiston predecessors used to escape the attackers. Some civilians were killed on the street by British natives as was the case in the real attack. Symbolism The monument site has several symbolic aspects. The sculptures are mounted on stamped form concrete in the shape of a large turtle's back. The Iroquois believe that the world was created on a turtle's back. The turtle's head points toward the American flag representing the American-Tuscaroran alliance since the American Revolution. Six northern white pine trees surrounding the sculptures represent the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois flag also flies at the site. The Tuscarora Heroes Story In the early morning of December 19, 1813, the citizens of Lewiston, New York, awoke to unimaginable horrors. The small frontier village, situated on the Niagara River on the border between the United States and Canada, suddenly found itself on the front line of a vicious international war. Hours earlier, in the middle of the night, British-Canadian troops had invaded the United States and captured Fort Niagara without firing a shot. The British-Canadians, along with their unrestrained “Western Indian” allies, ran down River Road toward Lewiston, armed with torches, guns and tomahawks, intent on retribution and turning Lewiston into a pile of ashes. Poorly defended, Lewiston citizens were on their own. They could only run for their lives through the snow and mud in hopes of escaping the atrocities. Civilians were murdered in the rampage and tormented parents found themselves helpless in trying to save their children — one 7-year-old was shot and scalped in front of his mother’s eyes. At the moment when Lewiston citizens had lost hope and thought they would all become victims of a bloody and merciless massacre, the local Tuscarora men ran down from their village atop the Escarpment and offered the first resistance the enemy had seen. Their ingenious