A nearly millennium-old Native American canoe was fished out of a North Carolina lake on Wednesday, video shows.
The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe joined forces to pull the 930-year-old canoe out of Lake Waccamaw.
North Carolina American Indian Heritage Commission posted a video showing a group of divers removing the canoe, which appeared to be submerged under a wooden deck.
Several people were needed to retrieve the enormous 28-foot-long wooden canoe. The boat appeared well-preserved despite deteriorating under the water.
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"For years and years we’ve always been questioned about our history and where we come from and who we are," Waccamaw Siouan Chief Michael Jacobs explained. "Now, we have physical history to back it up."
A group of teens found the canoe two years ago. Teenager Eli Hill told WECT that he stumbled upon it while swimming.
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"We were throwing mussels at each other and I stepped on it and I thought it was a log. I tried to pick it open and never came up. So, we kept digging at it and it just kept going. And then the next day, we came back and we started digging some more and it just kept going," Hill explained.
The canoe will reportedly be taken to Greenville to be preserved and studied.
"We're looking forward to examining it, running some tests on it, really finding out and going back to our elders and getting the history of it, to where we can teach the truth to our people and know that we've got concrete evidence to stand on," Jacobs said.
