|
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!
Historic preservation conference 2001
 | 
|
South
Carolina Tribes
Before contact with Europeans, forests covered much of the area, which is often called the
Eastern Woodlands.The tribes of the Eastern Woodlands were among the first to meet
European explorers and settlers. At first, the two groups had friendly relations. Squanto,
a Patuxet, is said to have taught the white settlers how to plant corn and fertilize it
with dead fish. Massasoit of the Wampanoag helped the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. In
1621, the Wampanoags and Pilgrims joined in a Thanksgiving ceremony to give thanks
for a good harvest and peace. But the friendly relations did not last, and warfare soon
became common. Most of the early fighting consisted of small battles between settlers and
Indians. Smallpox, measles, and other European diseases killed many Indians. As the
settlers moved westward, they took the land for their own. When the Indians objected,
fighting broke out. Some of these battles grew into wars. The Northeastern Indians also
became involved in the wars between France and Britain for possession of North America.
The Indian tribes took sides in these wars and often ended up fighting each other as well
as the white settlers. The Huron and many Algonquian groups sided with the French. The
tribes of the mighty Iroquois League generally allied themselves with the British and
helped Britain gain control of almost all of France's territory in North America. The
Iroquois League began to split during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). Some
members of the league sided with the American colonists, but most supported the British or
remained neutral. This also happened in South Carolina. Many Cherokee Indian in
South Carolina fought with the British during the Revolutionary War. After the American
victory, white settlers poured onto Iroquois lands. We have various Treaties during this
time period for the Cherokees of South Carolina.
Farther west, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh united many of
the tribes of the Northeast and Southeast. The Shawnee and some other groups sided with
the British during the War of 1812 in an attempt to push the American settlers off their
lands. But the Indian resistance ended shortly after Tecumseh was killed in the Battle of
the Thames in 1813.
Many tribes from the Eastern Woodlands now live in Oklahoma and
various Western states. The U.S. government forced them to move to these areas during the
early 1800's. But the Iroquois and some others still live on their original lands. The
Cherokees and Tuscaroras are southern Iroquois people. Today, the Iroquois are
leaders in the struggle for American Indian rights.
The Southeast portion of the United States extends from just
south of the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic Coast of southern
North Carolina to just west of the Mississippi River. It is a region of mild winters and
warm, humid summers. The terrain varies from the mountains of the Appalachians to the
sandy coastal plain, with rolling hills and some swamps in-between. Pine forests cover
most of the region. Before European contact. The tribes of the Southeast included the
Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Alabama, Coushatta, and a
number of other tribes belonged to a federation called the Creek Confederacy. Southeastern
Indians spoke many languages, including ones belonging to the Iroquoian, Algonquian,
Muskogean, and Siouan language families. We had all of thses language groups in South
Carolina in ancient times. The Cherokee, tuscarora were an Iroquois people that lived in
South Carolina and North Carolina. Among the Cherokee Indians in South Carolina also lived
Creek Indians who are Muskogean speakers.
Southeastern Indians generally had an abundant supply of food.
The adequate rainfall and long growing season enabled them to grow large quantities of
corn. A favorite food was sofkee, which was made by grinding and then boiling corn.
Today, sofkee is known as grits. Southeastern Indians also grew beans, squash,
pumpkins, and sunflower seeds, and raised turkeys. The women farmed and gathered nuts,
berries, and wild plants. Men cleared the land and did most of the hunting and fishing.
People of the Southeast traveled either on foot or in wooden dugout canoes. Dugout canoes
were made by burning out the centers of fallen trees with embers and then chopping out the
charred wood with stone axes.
Most Southeastern Indian villages had a central plaza with a council
house, a public square, and a ceremonial ground. Most houses were made of wattle and
daub--that is, a wooden frame covered by reed mats with plaster spread over them.
Palisades enclosed many villages. Many Iroquois long houses sheltered an elderly couple
with separate "apartments" for each married daughter. The couple's married sons
lived in the long houses of their wives' families.The Indians of the Southeast made
deerskin shirts, dresses, leggings, and breechcloths. Women sometimes wore wraparound
skirts of woven cloth made of plant fibers. Turkey feathers were sewed onto netting to
make robes. The Indians in warmer areas wore little clothing, and many decorated their
bodies with tattoos and body painting. Creek and Chickasaw men shaved their heads almost
completely, leaving only a small tuft of hair on top. Choctaw men let their hair grow
long. Iroquois villages included long houses with separate sections for related families.
Tall fences called palisades surrounded many villages and provided protection from
enemies. The Indians of the Eastern Woodlands traveled on foot or in bark canoes.
Southeastern Indians made deerskin shirts, dresses, leggings, and breechcloths. Many of
these Indians rubbed their hair with bear grease to make it smooth and shiny. In some
groups, men shaved their heads almost completely, leaving only a small tuft of hair on
top.
The Iroquois were the dominant group in warfare. Warfare
sometimes broke out among Southeastern Indians. Weapons included bows and arrows and a
variety of clubs. Warriors fought for glory and often tattooed their bodies with signs of
brave deeds. Elaborate ceremonies accompanied most warfare. Before battle, the warriors
gathered in a council house. They painted themselves, performed religious rites, and took
special medicines. Sometimes, two tribes would play a stickball game to settle a dispute
and thereby avoid a war.
Women had much power and influence among most Southeastern
Indians.
In most cases, family ties were traced through the mother, and extended families in which
all the women were related formed the basic social unit. Cherokee women could attain the
position of war woman and participate in war councils. A few Cherokee women fought
as warriors.
The Southeast had the most complex forms of government north of
present-day Mexico. The Natchez who also lived various in South Carolina regions, had a
king (Chief) called the Great Sun. He and his family formed the highest class, the Suns.
Below them were two other upper classes, the Nobles and the Honored Men and Women. At the
bottom were the commoners. The Natchez built temples and the Great Sun's house on large,
flat-topped, earthen mounds. Many Southeastern tribes had ascending ranks of chiefs.
Nearly all chiefs were men.
A chief could head a village or a whole region of villages or, in
the case of a chiefdom, a whole tribe. Typically, some chiefs represented the peace
faction. Others represented the war faction. Even today in South Carolina there are
many Chiefs! Many times, leaders of the Eastern Woodlands tribes were called sachems.
Councils of assistants, advisers, and shamans helped each chief.
In most cases, a man inherited his position of chief from his mother's clan. Religion
played an important role in the lives of the Southeastern Indians. The people honored
their ancestors and held elaborate funeral ceremonies. Many of the dead were buried with grave
goods--that is, pottery and other objects--for use in the afterlife.
The green corn dance was the most important ceremony of the
Southeastern Indians. This annual harvest celebration lasted several days and was a time
for giving thanks. The dance/ceremony was thought to maintain harmony and to make things
pure again. A new year began when a community fire was lit during the ceremony and a woman
from each household took some fire for her hearth. After European contact. The tribes of
the Southeast were among the first Indians to meet European explorers and settlers.
Armies, explorers, missionaries, and traders from Europe came through the Southeast
looking for gold, slaves, converts to Christianity, fur, and even the Fountain of Youth.
As the Europeans took the land for their own, the Indians objected. Warfare between the
two groups became common, and many Indians were killed. Many also died from measles,
smallpox, and other diseases brought by Europeans.
After the Revolutionary War, the Cherokee and some other
Southeastern Indians tried to adopt the ways of the dominate culture. We began to dress,
speak, and act like others. White people sometimes called the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and Seminole the Five Civilized Tribes because whites considered their own ways
more civilized than Indian customs.
However, white Americans continued to desire Indian lands, and in 1830,
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. This legislation allowed the U.S. government to
move Indians living east of the Mississippi River to a territory west of the river.
Thousands of Indians died during this forced removal to the West, and the Cherokee came to
refer to their westward journey as the "Trail of Tears." This term was
later applied to the forced removal of other tribes as well.
In MANY cases, a small part of a tribe managed to remain
behind in the East. A small group of Cherokees, for example, fled north from South
Carolina and Georgia near the Tugaloo River (approximately 30 miles north) to the
mountains of North Carolina. Also some Cherokees stayed in the upstate of South Carolina
after the Treaty of 1816, an hid on private property ( for more information.. See the
History of the Cherokee Indian Tibe of South Carolina on this website).
Today, the Indian tribes that remain in the Southeast
maintain a balance between traditional and modern ways of life. In South
Carolina, there are many Native American Indian groups, communities, nations,
organzations and tribal entities that are organized and Chartered in the state by The
secretary of State Jim Miles Office. They are an estimated 25,000 South Carolinians
of Native American Indian descent and their distinct culturalcommunities. (US Census 2000)
The present
Organizations, Tribes, entities and nations in South Carolina are as follows:
Catawba Indian
Nation of Rock Hill,
The Cherokee Indian Tribe of South Carolina aka
The Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois & United Tribes of S.C. Inc. whose members now
reside throughout the entire state and in Richland, Newberry, Anderson, Oconee, Pickens,
Greenville, Laurens,and Spartanburg Counties,
The Edisto India Tribe aka Natchez- Kusso Indian
Tribe of South Carolina whose members now reside in Dorchester, Colleton, and Charleston
Counties,
The Santee Indian Tribe of South Carolina whose members
nowreside in Berkley, Calhoun and Orangeburg Counties ( White Oak Community),
The Pee Dee Indian Tribe whose members now reside in
Dillon, Marlboro and Marion Counties,
The Wassamasaw Indian Tribe of the Creek Nation, of
Varnertown ( Varnertown Indians) (Berkley, Dorchester)
Chaloklowas Indian People of the Chickasaw Nation,
Chicora-Waccamaw Indian People, Horry County
Chicora Siouan Indian Tribe of Andrews
Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek of
Neeses
The Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians of
Salley
Midlands Intertribal Empowerment Group of Columbia,
Richland County
The Piedmont American Indian Association of
Greenville aka Lower Cherokee Nation
The Santee Indian Nation
The Croatan- Pee Dee Indian Tribe of Organgeburg
The American Indian Center of South Carolina, Richland
County
These groups, communities and tribal entities are an estimated 25,000
South Carolinians
of Native American Indian descent and their distinct cultural communities. (US Census)
[Top]
BACK
|
|
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
|
