A
Brief History
of the Catawba Peoples
The earliest mention of the Catawba
in written accounts was made by
Spanish explorers of the mid-sixteenth
century. A member of the Juan
Pardo expedition recorded a number
of names of villages and peoples
of the area as they traveled up
the Edisto and Santee river complexes.
"Katapa" or "Kataba"
and "Yssa" or "Esaw"
are among the names easily recognized
as designating Catawba peoples.
It is likely that the Catawba
were a loosely associated confederation
of villages speaking related dialects
of language or languages distantly
related to Siouan. There were
also speakers of Algonquian, Iroquoian,
Yuchee, and Muskogean languages
living in the area, with whom
they had contact. John Lawson
who visited them in 1701 wrote
the most complete early description
of the Catawba. Lawson also left
us the only known sample of Woccon,
a Siouan language closely related
to Catawba, in the form of a word
list of 150 words. According to
Hudson, the early Catawba occupied
an area where two cultural traditions
met-that the tribes of the piedmont
and that of the southern chiefdoms
of the lowlands. Their mode of
subsistence was typical of the
piedmont area. They farmed beans,
corn, and squash; gathered nuts,
berries, and tubers; fished; and
hunted bear, deer, elk, pigeons,
turkey, and other large and small
game.
The Catawba were known as warriors
and, except during the Yamassee
War of 1715, were allies of the
British, against both the Spanish
and the French. They also feuded
with and made retaliatory attacks
against the Cherokee and the Shawnee,
Delaware, and Iroquois to the
north. Situated at the intersection
of trade routes, they occupied
a prominent position as middlemen
in the trade with the British,
most for furs, for which both
Virginia and South Carolina competed.
In the end, most of the Catawba's
dealings were with the South Carolina
government, which also needed
them as a buffer politically and
militarily. Their numbers were
decimated by the French and Indian
War and by a smallpox epidemic,
and, although they sided with
the states during the American
Revolution, they were no longer
a strong military force by that
time.
The end of the eighteenth century
marked a change in the social
status of the Catawba from relative
independence to increased dependence
on the government of South Carolina.
Because of the influx of white
settlers in their area, they requested
a reservation at the Augusta Conference
in 1763 and received one of fifteen
miles square along with a guarantee
of hunting rights outside that
area. As cotton replaced rice
and indigo as the main agricultural
crop, piedmont land came to be
more in demand. By 1840, the Catawba
had leased out all their land
and signed a treaty with South
Carolina, agreeing to cede their
land and relocate in return for
a purchase of land for them in
North Carolina and cash paid to
them over a period of years by
South Carolina. This did not work
out however. North Carolina was
not agreeable to the plan. After
moving to North Carolina, some
Catawbas went to live with the
Cherokee, but most eventually
returned to South Carolina. Both
by private donation or government
arrangement, several hundred acres
were set aside to them in South
Carolina as a reservation, and
they received an annuity from
the state but not as outlined
in the original treaty of 1840.
Catawbas fought in the Civil War.
Afterwards, some sharecropped,
leaving the reservation for short
periods of time, but they maintained
their legal status as Indians.
They continued to be referred
to as a "nation" by
South Carolinians. Throughout
their history, much of the Catawba's
livelihood depended on the manufacture
and sale of pottery. Even in the
1960's, according to Douglas Summers
Brown writing at that time, one
family had pipe molds four generations
old.
In the 1880's, missionaries converted
many Catawba to Mormonism, and
the church has continued to have
an important role in their lives
in recent times. Attempts at conversion
had been made earlier by many
other religious denominations,
but with less success.
The late 1930's and the early
1940's, with the onset of World
War II, marked the beginning of
a period of assimilation for the
Catawba. Many went to work in
the textile mills in nearby Rock
Hill or were employed by the W.
P. A. In 1943, South Carolina
signed a "Memorandum of Understanding"
in which it agreed to pay for
the purchase of additional lands
for the Catawba, to be turned
over in trust, along with the
Old Reservation, to the Federal
Government. Catawbas were granted
South Carolina citizenship and
allowed to attend public local
and state schools. In return,
the Office of Indian Affairs was
to provide annual funds for the
Catawba, medical treatment, and
loans, grants, and training for
economic development.
In 1959, a bill was introduced
in Congress to terminate the Catawba's
status as Indians and to divide
and distribute their land. The
preceding years had brought about
many social changes among the
Catawba. In addition, many preferred
to pay taxes but have title to
their lands in order to borrow
money and make improvements. Termination
was complete in 1960. The Old
Reservation, however, continued
to be held in trust by South Carolina,
never having been accepted by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Apparently, the last speakers
of Catawba were Chief Sam Blue,
his wife and his sister, Sally
Brown Gordon. Sally Brown Gordon
died in 1952, Chief Sam Blue in
1959, and his wife in 1963. Although
Catawba families had moved to
Colorado, Utah, Arkansas and Oklahoma
at various times during the century
before that, there are no fluent
speakers of the language left.
After the termination, there still
had been no resolution of the
original stipulations in the Treaty
of 1840. In 1975, Catawbas formed
a non-stock, non-profit corporation
under state law by the name of
the Catawba Indian Tribe, Inc.
A Tribal Executive Committee was
elected as governing body, and
Gilbert Blue was named Chief.
In the same year, a lawsuit involving
the Passamaquoddy Tribe extended
the Nonintercourse Act of 1790.
The original Act restricted the
sale of property held by a federally
recognized tribe. In 1975, a court
held that the restrictions on
the sale of property applied to
all tribally held land within
the United States, regardless
of whether the tribe was federally
recognized or whether its land
was in "Indian Country".
This encouraged other eastern
Indian tribes to assert old land
claims: the Oneida of New York,
the Narragansett in Rhode Island,
the Mashpee in Massachusetts,
the Cayuga in New York. The claims
presented by many eastern Indian
tribes prompted the Catawba to
put forth a similar claim that
resulted in almost twenty years
of court battles with the Federal
government, the South Carolina
government, and the Local government.
In 1993, the final result of this
was the federal recognition of
the Catawba Indian Nation as well
as a settlement of $50 million
from the Federal, State and Local
governments and other large entities
affected by the area of land claim.
Today, the Catawba are survivors.
The single most unbroken tradition
throughout all the years is pottery
making. The traditional way of
making pottery, using the coil
method, rubbing stones and pit
firing still lives on. Clay is
dug from the flood plains of the
Catawba River itself. This tradition,
surviving through the past several
hundred years, now goes into the
future at a speedy rate. Like
the pottery tradition, the culture
has continued to live on through
dancing, singing, and storytelling.
Dancing on Catawba lands has been
done for hundreds of years and
continues with several dance groups
today. These include the Rattle
Snake Dance, Women's Honor Dance,
and the Hunters' Dance. Along
with dancing, comes a lot of singing
and drumming including the Catawba
Canoe Song. Many Elders pass on
their stories and their storytelling
skills to younger Catawba. Some
stories included in the Catawba
storytelling tradition are Ugni
the Comet and D?pendat?ksuksu:
"one whose back is striped/spotted",
a story about how the chipmunk
got its stripes.
The Catawba Indian Nation now
is located in north central South
Carolina in the center of an area
which once comprised Catawba territory,
about 8 miles east of Rock Hill,
South Carolina. Over 2,165 Catawba
are listed on the official tribal
role. Of these 2,165 persons,
the majority lives either on or
within 20 miles of the reservation.
Of the contemporary Catawba population,
97 families live on the reservation.
The total reservation population
is about 300 persons.
The Catawba are still a proud
people.
They continue to make pottery,
sing, dance, drum and share their
heritage and culture.
|