Saluda Indians. A small tribe formerly living on Saluda river, South Carolina. According to Rivers 1 they removed to Pennsylvania probably early in the 18th century, which, if true would indicate that they were probably connected with the Shawnee. In addition to that of the river, the name survives in Saluda gap in the Blue Ridge.
- Rivers, History of South Carolina, 38, 1856.[↩]
Hello my name is Ozriel, I’m trying to find some information about my great grandfather . All I know is he is a Saluda Indian. My grandfather did the ancestry DNA and it came back South Carolina Native American, Asia and Africa. I know it was a small tribe along the Saluda River. My main goal is to find out what happened to his father. I don’t know where to start!
I’m trying to find any history of my 4-great grandmother Saluda Ann Patterson. Born in 1826 in North Carolina. There is no record before her marrying my grandfather Haithcock. No records of parents or any whereabouts. Thought maybe she was a native women who changed her name (to her tribes) when being married ?
I am a child on william rodgers he signed the treaty of GA known as poor William son of wards and rodgers readhead Cherokee. On my fathers side I am a grandson of Karen happuch smith through her daughter Martha schumpert both saluadee. The closest actual word for our home is aya sautee which granny said means (where peace came) or hethelekela-blue water holly . We still live on the river near Saluda old town site and the information on the mound of telimeco of cofitachique can be found in the South Carolina archives under Saluda old town site application for historic preservation. We are decendents of cofitachique. The name salude was first used by the Spanish and was writen here on george hunters map as river of health or salude Rio . Corrupted to our name but this is not the correct name. The graves are still hidden in the woods along with the cave from John Lawsons journel showed by jack keyahawees who is the chief whom married his children to the Scott traders and companions originally of John Davis 1730 out of henricho virginian who fled with his wife’s family to live among the buffalo swamp george hunters map- in order for us to not get the pig disease brought by spaniard pigs. Any information request from potential family feel free to contact.
Hello Joshua,
My name is Karen and I am stuck in researching my family tree and there is no info for and I’m hoping you can help me. My relative is Elizabeth Saluda Shawnee.1746–1770.Essex Capshaw husband.
Hi Joshua,
I’m a member of the Chicoran Shakori tribe of South Carolina, based around the Conway, SC area. By the name of Chicora, my people trace their history to Cofitachequi as well, and I have compiled a deep archive of our people’s history. I’ve documented that many of our ancestors ended up amoung the Powhatans. The Eno, also known as the Haynoke/Anog/Weyanoke/Weanoc were on the James River, as were the Chará/Cheraw (distinct from the Xualla/Saura/Saraw) and as the Chawopo on lower Chippokes Creek. Thomas Parker, Chief of Churrah whose family comes from lower Chippokes, got the land for the Dimery settlement where all my family is from.
Do you have any additional information regarding the connection between Saluda Old Town, Talimeco, and the people of Cofitachequi? I’ve documented the later filings of the Cheraw and Eno as showing them to be Algonquin, and have seen many indicators of the Shawnee as well as perhaps the Yuchi, inhabiting this general area of South Carolina. However, I still haven’t figured out the disconnect between the recorded Muskogean place names (like Talimeco and Cofitachequi), the Lamar (Cusabo/Creek) pottery, and the documentation of Algonquin peoples in said spots.
Your help would be much appriciated!
Mr. Shocco, I would be glad to share all and any information that I have. However, it would be hard to do that on this thread. If you have an email or way to contact you I would be glad to share it with you. Some pics of artifacts passed down, platts containing the Cherokee road and broad path that leads to old salude town, , family pics from the 1800s, more in depth stories, locations etc.
To give you a basic answer to your question a synopsis from when Europeans arrived to now. My great grandmother passed to me the bundle she called of salude (our oral history, medicine, artifacts, how to
Make pottery etc) Her grandparents as well as several others were descended from native peoples who remained after the revolution at or near the salude old town site here and between 96 on the Broad path. They remained trappers and traders up the rivers and broad path until the 1800s. We still live here. This is part of what she taught me.
Every South Carolina native with a drop of blood is one of “Cofitachequi” which she said in creek meant “All the people”. The allied kingdom that would have stretched all the way from the savannah to the coast and to the mounds in Morganton N.C. which was a confederation of several tribes and language groups that all burried their cheiftan dead at “talemico” the mound of “Great men” which unlike a capital would be more like a center for a pope like (spiritual leader called the dak thue (supreme chief)) with smaller tribes and chieftains in each of the four quarters of the land. The principal spiritual power of talemico was to send interpreters and spirit people to moderate disputes between our various villages as well as process the dead . Hence the name sa lou ah dee (people of buzzards) “we lived near the mounds and processed the dead, as well as used the old language(language of hands) to communicate between tribes. Xualla is just a Spanish spelling of the old word for buzzard pronounced sa lou ah. The name changes over time. Cherokee called Saluda Old Town aya sautee. Why it later was called salude old town is just time passing over the same word. It’s all newer versions of a much older name. The broad river and war path to Virginia divides the state and “great wheel” east to west. The Santee and Saluda Rivers divides it along the ancient broad path and rivers of canoes north and south. Each tribe had a principle function and place. Some made pottery, some made arrow heads, some cared for the dead and interpreted disputes etc and they all worked together. Cofitachequi is not a village it’s a peoples. Those villages the Spanish first came to are now under lake Murray to where the broad meets Santee in Columbia (hiyama) , talemico specifically is a mound between the little and big Saluda at the tip of that area. Ilawasi/Ilapi or isswa ) is villages up and down the Wateree towards Camden. Pee dee is Chicora.
Cheraw (fire signal people) Chicora , Isswa (people from the branch in the river) all of us would have been one people who sought/settled disputes and held allegence to the old ways of the central mound. You won’t find any chief graves at ilapi in Camden. They are burried here. When the Spanish came their guides from ocute only spoke creek. That is why our people were referred to as chalaque (speech we don’t know) when they passed up the broad river and Wateree rivers. So some of the names attached to these places are creek but otherwise has a different name than historically recorded. Talemico=city of the king in creek , we would say ”po takkee dak thue” town of dak Thue. Or sa lou ah dee town of buzzards.
After the Spanish came the Spanish and ocute (guale from oculmulgee river) were seen as having betrayed the whole of us. The next centuries would be spent trying to keep them and the enemy tribes up north out. The Yuchi for instance are children of cofoya that married the escaped Spanish slaves from allyon. They were allowed to make a tribe and this is why their language has unknown sounds. They were part of cofoya(chiaha) told to “sit on the (savannah) river and wait” which is why they are called Yuchi. They acted as a buffer. Eventually the European contact never stopped. The westo and tsalagi moved in to the lower towns. This is why salude, isswa others eventually sided with the English. To help keep out the Spanish. War eventually broke out between everyone as the old way was lost and people began to move in and out. The westo from the north got guns first and moved to savannah and fought Yuchi, and captured slaves. Many of our people went to big village po haw tan , others to Tuscarora also called like the word hathewekela “people of the water, or river people for short” many to Delaware etc.
When the English came a group of sa lou a dee came to moderate between Englishman Henry Woodward, guale, Yuchi, and westo (when yo )! Names again changed. For instance sa Lou a dee were called sawanno (blown on the south wind). “See George hunters map 1730 which says the sawanno garrison/soldiers bear so from Salude Old Town. On the same map notice salude rio from when the Spanish came) english called them Indians from the savannah. From 1670s to the war of tuscarora some of my people remained at salude old town on Saluda and sawanno town of savannah . Eventually the Cherokee began to trade with English and fought with the larger shawano family. The TsalagI were much larger. The Tuscarora and allies lost. Eventually most of my people went to conestoga and New York following truscsrora and others.
In 1747 when tsalagi came to the english to sale the land to S.C. a group of people came back to between the broad and south river and went to hiswassie to try and stop it but couldn’t. Shawano and others from up north as a whole tried to persuade Cherokee to fight th English. Again many wars and disagreements broke out between tribes between 1740 to 1760. The last sawanno that came back eventually hid the mound and our mines by killing the trader Isaac cloud in 1751 and others. Captain John Fairchild, Andrew Williamson, Frances Allen at fort moore (built at shawano town) and others enlisted our help and Catawba in the expeditions against cherokee. Other shawano settled their disputes with tsalagi at hiawasse in the 1760 and 1770s. After the revolution many Shawnee joined Cherokee.
For their help to the whigs many of the last of my people were allowed to remain on the Saluda river and they married some of the early settlers like the mixed Rodgers family of John Rodgers a head man of the Bertie Indian woods who traded at congaree and eventually the Rodgers families moved to S.C. some married Cherokee and so forth. Some settled down around Charleston and orangeburg.
This is just a little part of the story of what happens to some of what is “all the people” of coftiachique. Lower town tsalagi, isswa, cheraw, Tuscarora, Cafoya are all truely one people who are separated and rejoined through the ages by time and circumstance.
Do you have an email or way to contact. I could send you what information was passed to me.
Deepest apologies as I realize this is a year later but I am only now seeing your reply! Feel free to shoot me an email at austin@urbanindigenouscollective.org