Eastern Cherokee Southern Iroquois and United Tribes


ECSIUT Cherokees of S.C. Cherokee General Information and History Folkways And Artist Volunteer Opportunities Human Rights and Current Issues Tuscarora Village Design Project Historic Preservation Educational programs Future Projects Cherokee Marketplace Expanded Store Membership, Genealogy, and Tracing Ancestry South Carolina Tribes Media Coverage Links Contact us!	The Cherokees of South Carolina The center of "Cherokee country" in South Carolina was the Lower Villages or settlements now in presentday Oconee, Greenville,, Pickens and Anderson counties. There were many treaties, wars, and agreements from 1600-1800, two hundred years of history . These activities are well recorded in the historic documents and chronicles of South Carolina including- The Journals of the Commissioner of the Indian Trade 1710-1718, Documents Relating to Indian Affairs 1750-1754, and Documents Relating to Indian Affairs 1754-1765(McDowell). During the 1780's small bands of mixed Cherokees and Creeks lived along the Tugaloo River. A Treaty drawn in 1785 was suppose to remove the Cherokee from South Carolina, yet it was not successful. In 1810 a Cherokee of the Tugaloo received visions that instructed the Cherokees to return to their traditional ways, The Cherokee Ghost Dance. Then again another attempt to relinquish the "Indian Territory" of the Cherokees was in 1816 when a treaty was drawn between the General Assembly of South Carolina and the Cherokees of South Carolina, prior to the Trail of Tears, attempting once again to disassemble the remaining Cherokees and mixbreeds. This treaty divided up land and granted allotments to a few Cherokee families such as the Adairs, Nicholsons and Martins, along the Tugaloo and Chatuga rivers. Many Indian families were living along the Tugaloo River at that time, including the Allen family who is one of the prominent families in the current tribal organization.	Cherokee home Powder horn ca. 1850-1860 Handcrfted by Forch Allen South Carolina Indians Today

	Of Course many of the agreements of this last treaty were not upheld. The treaty was broken just like all of the many treaties that have been made between the federal government and tribes from throughout the nation. A 1820 document attests to the Cherokee Indians of South Carolina's attempts to reclaim their sacred and ancestral land. The request reads as follows: "To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives. A petition of Sally N. Nicholson. Humbly showeth that your petitioner is a native of the Cherokee Nation, That She was allowed a certain section of land lying within the chartered limits of this state in the treaty made and entered into between the United States and said Nation--the same being and lying on the waters of the Keowee River and Choquee Old Fields ' and within the chartered limits of this State. That fi-om some cause unknown to your petitioner, she has been kept out of the possession of said land by the Commissioners appointed by his Excellency. Your petitioner prays your honorable body to take her case into consideration and grant her such relief as in your wisdom she may be entitled to. And your petitioner ( as in duty bound) shall everpray Sally Nicholson" (Petitions to the South Carolina General Assembly in the year 1820, petition# 11, S.C. Archives.)
	In February 1958, an archeological team from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., began digging along the South Carolina banks of the Seneca and Tugaloo Rivers for artifacts to tell the story of the Tugaloo Villages. With the Trail of Tears many Cherokees were to leave South Carolina, yet some of the tribal members and their extended families were destined to stay in the upcountry. [previous] 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 [next]

The Cherokees of South Carolina