ECSIUT
The Cherokees of South Carolina 
According
to Clan Mother Amanda F. Allen, the families represented in the
Tribe today include family names such as Oglesby, Allen, Jones,
Poole, Walker. Other tribal names include families such as
Adair, Sizemore, Thompson, Butler, Nicholson, Martin, Stare. The
Butlers are also related to the Bushyhead family among the Cherokee
and the Wattses,Vanns, Rosses, Galphins and McIntoshes. Many of
these families were ultimately re- lated, after many years of intermarrying
within this small community and with in the tribe. This was
caused, in part, by the isolation of the the community and in keeping
with the strict miscegenation laws not permitting "free people of
color" (Native Americans) to marry white or black persons.
Like many other rural communities, the families who lived
in the area, outside Westminster, South Carolina found the need
to have a church in their community. Although early Allen and Oglesby
family members attended Chauga and Old Westminster prior to the
1860s, they felt the need to form their own congregation. In 1884
the Natives from this Cherokee community would start a church, Cross
Roads Baptist Church, and soon after a school was built on
property adjacent to the church, dedicated to the children's education.
This church would become the center of tribal/clan activities for
many years. Many tribal members were buried in the cemetery of the
church. Many of the old graves have hand made stone-markers similar
to those of early Native peoples or early rural Americans.
These granite rocks were similar to the markers in the "Cherokee
Graveyard" in Walhalla, where names were not included on all and
they are placed at random (not at the head or foot) on the grave
site to mark the resting place of individuals.
In early times, most of the families were farmers, as were many
who lived in rural communities throughout the state. Consequently,
one clan began gathering the last weekend in September in thanksgiving
to the harvest of that season, and in keeping with the Cherokee
Fall Festival tradition, which is held the first weekend in October,
for the same reason. The genealogical and historic documentation
has been completed for many of these families and currently there
are approximately 500 Cherokee descendants on the Tribal enrollment..
Most of these Cherokee descendants had ancestors who resided in
the numerous Cherokee Lower Villages of history including:
Brasstown, Crane Creek, Chatuga, Chauga, Cheowee, Coweeshee, Echay,
Esseneca (Seneca), Estanaley, Estatoe, Oustestee, Keowee, Noyowee,
Oconee, Socony, Qualhatchie, , Sugartown, Tomassee, Toxaway, and
the Tugaloo Village. The Tribal Rolls of the Cherokees of
South Carolina are presently open to any Cherokee descendant who
can document their Cherokee ancestry and their families genealogical
history and who maintains close social and economic ties to their
Cherokee ancestry.
South Carolina Indians Today
NATIONAL
Native American Indian Organizational LINKS:
National Congress of American Indians
American Indian
Movement
Office of American Indian Trust
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
First Nations Development
Institute
National Center for American
Indian Enterprise Development
Department of Labor, Native American
and Indian Programs (Welfare to Work, TANF)
Department of Defense and Native American Programs
National Indian Policy Center (George
Washington University)
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Program
Council of
Energy Resource Tribes
Native American Rights Fund
National Indian Telecommunications
Institute
Native American Cultural and
Educational Authority
INTERNATIONAL LINKS:
International Indian Treaty
Council
Center for World
Indigenous Studies
International Work
Group for Indigenous Affairs
UN Documents on
Indigenous Peoples
Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Economic
Development and Cultural Change