While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Catawba (probably from Choctaw ka-tápa,
'divided', 'separated', 'a division'. Gatschet). The most important of the
eastern Siouan tribes. It is said that Lynche cr., S. C., E. of the Catawba
territory, was anciently known as Kadapau; and from the fact that Lawson applies
this name to a small band met by him s. E. of the main body, which he calls
Esaw, it is possible "that it was originally given to this people by some tribe
living in E. South Carolina, from whom the first colonists obtained it. The
Cherokee, having no 6 in their language, changed the name to Atakwa, plural
Anitakwa. The Shawnee and other tribes of the Ohio valley made the word Cuttawa.
From the earliest period the Catawba have also been known as Esaw, or Issa
(Catawba iswă′, river ), from their
residence on the principal stream of the region, Iswa being their only name for
the Catawba and Wateree rs. They were frequently included by the Iroquois under
the general term Totiri, or Toderichroone, another form of which is Tutelo,
applied to all the southern Siouan tribes collectively. They were classed by
Gallatin (1836) as a distinct stock, and were so regarded until Gatschet visited
them in 1881 and obtained a large vocabulary showing numerous Siouan
correspondences. Further investigations by Hale, Gatschet, Mooney, and Dorsey
proved that several other tribes of the same region were also of Siouan stock,
while the linguistic forms and traditional evidence all point to this E. region
as the original home of the Siouan tribes. The alleged tradition which brings
the Catawba from the N., as refugees from the French and their Indian allies
about the year 1660, does not agree in any of its main points with the known
facts of history, and, if genuine at all, refers rather to some local incident
than to a tribal movement. It is well known that the Catawba were in a chronic
state of warfare with the northern tribes, w r hose raiding parties they some
times followed, even across the Ohio.
The first notice of the Catawba seems to be that of Vandera in 1579, who calls
them Issa in his narrative of Pardo's expedition. Nearly a century later, in
1670, they are mentioned as Ushery by Lederer, who claims to have visited them,
but this is doubtful.
Lawson, who passed through their territory in 1701, speaks of them as a
"powerful nation" and states that their villages were very thick. He calls the
two divisions, which were living a short distance apart, by different names, one
the Kadapau and the other the Esaw, unaware of the fact that the two were
synonyms. From all accounts they were formerly the most populous and most
important tribe in the Carolinas, excepting the Cherokee. Virginia traders were
already among them at the time of Lawson's visit. Adair, 75 years later, says
that one of the ancient cleared fields of the tribe extended 7 in., besides
which they had several smaller village sites. In 1728 they still had 6 villages,
all on Catawba r., within a stretch of 20 m., the most N. being named Nauvasa.
Their principal village was formerly on the w. side of the river, in what is now
York co., S. C., opposite the mouth of Sugar cr. The known history of the tribe
till about 1760 is chiefly a record of petty warfare between themselves and the
Iroquois and other northern tribes, through out which the colonial government
tried to induce the Indians to stop killing one another and go to killing the
French. With the single exception of their alliance with the hostile Yamasi, in
1715, they were uniformly friendly toward the English, and afterward kept peace
with the United States, but were constantly at war with the Iroquois, Shawnee,
Delawares, and other tribes of the Ohio valley, as well as with the Cherokee.
The Iroquois and the Lake tribes made long journeys into South Carolina, and the
Catawba retaliated by sending small scalping parties into Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Their losses from ceaseless attacks of their enemies reduced their numbers
steadily, while disease and debauchery introduced by the whites, especially
several epidemics of smallpox, accelerated their destruction, so that before the
close of the 18th century the great nation was reduced to a pitiful remnant.
They sent a large force to help the colonists in the Tuscarora war of 1711-13,
and also aided in expeditions against the French and their Indian allies at Ft
Du Quesne and else where during the French and Indian war. Later it was proposed
to use them and the Cherokee against the Lake tribes under Pontiac in 1763. They
assisted the Americans also during the Revolution in the defense of South
Carolina against the British, as well as in Williamson s expedition against the
Cherokee. In 1738 smallpox raged in South Carolina and worked great destruction,
not only among the whites, but also among the Catawba and smaller tribes. In
1759 it appeared again, and this time destroyed nearly half the tribe. At a
conference at Albany, attended by delegates from the Six Nations and the
Catawba, under the auspices of the colonial governments, a treaty of peace was
made between these two tribes. This peace was probably final as regards the
Iroquois, but the western tribes continued their warfare against the Catawba,
who were now so reduced that they could make little effectual resistance. In
1762 a small party of Shawnee killed the noted chief of the tribe, King Haiglar,
near his own village. From this time the Catawba ceased to be of importance
except in conjunction with the whites. In 1763 they had confirmed to them a
reservation, assigned a few years before, of 15 in. square, on both sides of
Catawba r., within the present York and Lancaster cos., S. C. On the approach of
the British troops in 1780 the Catawba withdrew temporarily into Virginia, but
returned after the battle of Guilford Court House, and established themselves in
2 villages on the reservation, known respectively as Newton, the principal
village, and Turkey Head, on opposite sides of Catawba r. In 1826 nearly the
whole of their reservation was leased to whites for a few thousand dollars, on
which the few survivors chiefly depended. About 1841 they sold to the state all
but a single square mile, on which they now reside. About the same time a number
of the Catawba, dissatisfied with their condition among the whites, removed to
the eastern Cherokee in w. North Carolina, but finding their position among
their old enemies equally unpleasant, all but one or two soon went back again.
An old woman, the last survivor of this emigration, died among the Cherokee in
1889. A few other Cherokee are now intermarried with that tribe. At a later
period some Catawba removed to the Choctaw r Nation in Indian Ter. and settled
near Scullyville, but are said to be now extinct. About 1884 several became
converts of Mormon missionaries in South Carolina and went with them to Salt
Lake City, Utah.
The Catawba were sedentary agriculturists, and seem to have differed but little
in general customs from their neighbors. Their men were respected, brave, and
honest, but lacking in energy. They were good hunters, while their women w r ere
noted makers of pottery and baskets, arts which they still preserve. They seem
to have practiced the custom of head-flattening to a limited extent, as did
several of the neighboring tribes. By reason of their dominant position they
gradually absorbed the broken tribes of South Carolina, to the number, according
to Adair, of perhaps 20.
In the early settlement of South Carolina, about 1682, they were estimated at
1,500 warriors, orabout4, 600 souls; in 1728 at 400 warriors, or about 1,400
persons. In 1738 they suffered from smallpox; and in 1743, after incorporating
several small tribes, numbered less than 400 warriors. In 1759 they again
suffered from small pox, and in 1761 had some 300 warriors, or about l,000 people.
The number was reduced in 1775 to 400 souls; in 1780 it was 490; and in 1784
only 250 were reported. The number given in 1822 is 450, and Mills gives the
population in 1826 as only 110. In 1881 Gatschet found 85 on the reservation,
which, including 35 employed on neighboring farms, made a total of 120. The
present number is given as 60, but as this apparently refers only to those
attached to the reservation, the total may be about 100.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
