THE CATAWBA

S'ey] ^cape fear and warrennuncock

tribes.

67

remaiued friendly.

The

colony

was

notsuccessful, consequently

was

disbanded afew yearslater(Martin, 1).

No more

is heardof thetribefornearly a

hundred

years.

As

they wereevidentlyawarlikepeople, it isin-obable thatlike most of their neighborstheytook part in the

Yamasi war

in1715. Itis also prob- able thatthey suffered withall the Carolinatribesfrom smallpox

and

<otherdiseases until only a handful remained.

They

do not

seem

to

have

incorporated with the Catawba, however, as did

many

of the smallertribes in their decline, but to

have

maintained their separate existence within theEnglishsettlements.

They

arelastnoticedin1751 asone of the smallfriendly tribeswith

whom

the SouthCarolina gov- ernmentdesiredthe Iroquois to beatpeace (IST. Y., 18).

For

the

name Warrennuncock

there is only the authority of a single statement

by

Lederer,

who

tells us in 1(372 that the southern

AUegha-

nies (orBlue ridge) at Sara ^" take the

name

of Suala] Sara in the

Warrennuncock

dialectbeing SasaorSualy^."

The name

hasan Algon- quian appearance,

and

isprobably only a

Powhatan synonym

for

some

Carolinatribe (having the Iinstead ofther) better

known

tousunder

some

othername.

68 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE

EAST. _[ethnology

Elmvs.

—

^{Craven(1^1^) ^^North}Carolina Records, 1886, vol.i, p.898(misi>riut).

Esau.

—

Martin, History ofNorthCarolina, 1829, vol.^i, p. 194.

Esaus.

—

Lawsou(1714), History of Carolina, reprint of1860, p.^73.

Flatheads (?).—Albany Conference(1714) in

New

York Col. Docs., 1855, vol.v,p. 386.

AlbanyConference(1715) inibid.,pp. 442-444 (subjects ^of Carolina, Oyadagah- roenes).

/ssrt.—LaVaudera(1579) in French,Hist. Coll. of La., 1875, vol. ii, p.291.

Eadapan.

—

Lawson(1714), History of Carolina, reprint of1860, p. 76.

Kadapaw.—MWlii, StatisticsofSouthCarolina,1826, p. 109.

Katahas.—UaAiwtic(1758) in

New

YorkCol. Docs.,1858, vol.x, p.813.

A'rt/«/)&«.—Adair, History ofAmerican Indians,1775, p. 223.

Katanhah.

—

Drake, Bookof Indians, 1848, bookiv, p.25.

Katlarhe.

—

Cuniming(?) (17.30) inDrake, Bookof Indians, 1848,book iv, p. 27.

Eattaiqm.

—

DcI'lslemapinWiusor, History ofAmerica, 1886, vol. ii,p. 295.

Ojadaf/ochrane.

—

AlbanyConference(1720) in

New

YorkCol.Docs., 1855, vol._{v, p.}567.

("The ^{flatheadsAlias}inIndian Ojadagochroene;^{" "}Theylivetothewest and south of Virginia").

Oyadaiiahnxnes.

—

Documentof 1713in

New

YorkCol. Docs.,vol. v,p. 386,note.

Tadirirjhroneii.

—

AlbanyConference(1722), op.^cit.,p.660 (same?),

Toderichroone.

—

Albany Conference(1717), op. ^cit.,p. 491 (so calledbyIroquois).

ToifVis.— Chaiivignrie(?) (1736) in

New

York Col.Docs., 1855, vol. ix,p.1057 (here intendedfortheCatawba).

Ushereis.—Byvd(1728), Hist, of theDividingLine,1866, vol. i, p. 181.

Usheriis.

—

Lederer, Discoveries, 1672.p. 17.

The

origin and.

meaning

of tliis

name

are

unknown.

Itis saidthat

Lyuche

creek in South Carolina, east of the

Catawba

territory,

was

anciently

known

as

Kadapau; and

fromthe factthat Lawsoiiapplies the

name

Kadapaii to a small

band met by him

southeast of the

main body

of the tribe, which he calls Esaw, it ispossiblethat it

was

originally applied to this people

by some

tribe living in eastern kSouth Carolina,from

whom

the first colonists obtained it.

The

Cherokee, having no b in their language,

changed

the

word

to

Atakwa,

or

Auitakwa

inthe ])lural.

The Shawano

and other tribes of the Ohio valley

made

the

word

Cuttawa.

From

the earliest i)eriodthe

Catawba have

also been

known

distinctively as the ''river [Catawba, istvd]

people,"from theirresidence on

what

seems to have beenconsidered the princi])al river of the region, Iswa, ^"the river,"being their only

name

forthe

Catawba and

Wateree.

The name

appears in the Issa of

La Vandera

as early as 15G9, inthe

Ushery

{isira-Mre, "river

down

there") of Lederer,

and

in the

Esaw

ofLawson.

They

werealso called Flatheads (Oyadagahroene)

by

the Iroquois, a

name

which leads to

some

confusion,as it

was

^also frequently applied

by

the

same

people to the Choctaw, Chickasaw,

and

Cherokee.

The name was

properly applicable to the Choctaw,

who

practiced thecustomof head flattening,as did also the

Waxhaw

of South Carolina adjoining the

Catawba;

butthereseems to be no ^allusion to the existence of this strangecustom

among

the

Catawba

themselves.

They

were also fre-

quently included

by

the Irocpiois under the general term of Totiri or Toderichroone (whence the form Tutelo), applied to all the southern Siouan ^tribescollectively. Like most othertribes the

Catawba know

moot] former CATAWBA

CLASSIFICATION.

69

themselves simply as ''people," or ''Indians,"in their lani^uagenieya ornieye, abbreviated to nie orye, or sometimes

expanded

into Kataha

nie,

"Catawba

Indians" (Gatschet).

G-allatin in 1830 classed the

Catawba

as adistinc^t stock,

and

they were so regarded ^until (latschet visited

them

in Sonth Carolina in 1S81

and

obtained from ^tliem a vo(;abnlary of over 1,000 words,

among

which he found

numerous

Siouan correspondences.

On

the strength ofthis testimony theywere classedwith the Siouan stockin tiieFirst

Annual

Report ofthe

Bureau

of Ethnology,published in the

same

^year.

No

further investigation of the subject

was

niade until Hale's accountof the Tutelo language, published in 1883, Gatschet's further discovery of the Biloxi in 1880, and the autlior's noticeof the Siouan affinityof the Saponi in 1800 proved

beyond

question that

some

of the oldest forms oftheSiouan languages

must

be lookedforin theeast.

The

nuiterialobtained

by

Mr. Gatschet

was

^{then turned} over forcriticalexamination to Mr. Dorsey, a specialist in the well-known Siouan tribes of the west, with the result that he pronounced the

Catawba

a Siouan language. This established, it followed that the

Woccon and

other languages

known

to be ^closely related to the

Catawba must

^alsobelong tothe

same

stock.

As

nearly all thetribes ofboth Carolinasfrom

Cape

Fear river tothe

Combahee

were closely allied politically witli the Catawba, with

whom

they were afterward incorporated, it is probable, though not certain, thattheywere allof the

same

linguistic stock.

Accordingto a

Catawba

tradition related in Schoolcraft, the people originally

came

from thenorth,driven

by

the

"Connewaugos," by which

is evidently

meant

the Iroquois.

They

settled on

Catawba

river,

and

after a desperate struggle with theCherokee,

who

claimed i)riorrights in the region,they succeeded in maintaining theirposition;

and Broad

river

was

adopted as the

boundary

between thetwo tribes. So nuich ofthe tradition

may

be acce])ted as genuine.

The

lest of it, relating with great exactness of detail

how

they

had

lived in Canada,

how

the

Connewango

were aided

by

the Frencli,

how

tlie

Catawba

^lived for a time in

Kentucky

and in

what

is

now

Botetourt county, Virginia;

how

they settled on Catawba- river about1000,

how

in one battlewith the Cherokee they lost 1,000

men and

the Cherokee lost 1,100,

and how

the

Catawba

exterminated the

Waxhaw

to the last

man

inune- diatelyafterward

—

^{allthis is} absurd, the invention

and

ignorant sur- miseofthewould-be historian

who

records the tradition,

and

of a piece with Schoolcraft's identitication ofthe

Catawba

with "thelost Fries."

The Catawba

were found living about

where we

have always

known them

as early as 1507.

Kentucky

river

was

called

by

that

name among

the

Shawano

andother northern tribesbecause

up

that river lay the great

war

trail to the

Catawba

country.

The

creekbearing the

name

inBotetourt county, Virginia,

was

so called from achance encounter of

Shawano

or others with a party of Catawba,

who

used to enter

70

^SIOTJAN

TRIBES OF THE

EAST. _[^BITREAr_ETHNOLOGY^OP Pennsylvania and ^crossoverto Ohiovalleyin tlieirraidingexcursions, just as the Iroquois

and

other northern tribes nsed to penetrate to

South Carolina against theCatawba.

The

French

had

nothing to do with the expulsion of the

Catawba

fromthe north, as sliown

by

the connected accounts of all the impor- tant Frenchdealings with the tribes from their first occupancy. So far from being exterminated, the

Waxhaw

were found

by Lawson

liv-

ingou

Waxhaw

creek in 1701,

and

were described in detail

by him

at thattime. It is hardly necessaryto say that no tribe in theUnited States ever lost 1,000 warriors in a ^singlebattle with anothertribe.

As

for the Erie, thereis no question as to their identity; theywere

an

Iroquian tribeon

Lake

Erie

whose

conquest

and

incorporation

by

the Iroquoisis amatter of history.

From

the earliest historical period the

Catawba

have always lived wherethe small

remnant may

^stillbefound, on

Catawba

river, about on the border of iS'orth Carolina

and

SouthCarolina.

Westward and

northwestward ^tliey bordered on the Cherokee

and

Sara, with the former of

whom

they werein a stateof chronic warfare, whileon the south and east they

had

^{as neighbors several} small tribes closelyakin tothemselves

and

most of

whom

afterward united with

them

in their decline. Their villages Avere chieflywithin thepresentlimits ofSouth Carolina.

Tlie first

European

acquaintance of the

Catawba was

with the Spaniards about the middleof the sixteenth century. Itis possible thattheGuachuleofl)e Soto's chroniclers,althoughevidently situated southwestof

Catawba

river, isidentical with the Ushereeor

Catawba

tribeofthe later English writers, as Guatari

and Hostaqua

areidenti- cal with

Wateree and Ou

stack orWesto,

They

are mentioned under the

name

ofIssa by the Spanish captain,

Juan

Pardo,

who

conducted an expedition from Saint Helena into the interior of South Carolinain 1567 (French, 1).

The

next important notice isgiven a

hundredyears

later

by

Lederer,

who

visitedtliese Indians in 1670 and speaks of

them

under the

name

of Ushery. lie describes

them

asliving on one side ofa great lake, on thefarther side of which lived the Oustack (Westo) of

whom

they were in constant dread.

As

there is no such lake in that jDartof the country, ^{it is} evident that he

must

have visited the regionat a time

when

the low bottomlands of

Catawba

river were flooded

by

heavy

rains.

The swamp

lands of Carolina are subject to

heavy

overflow,

and Lawson

recordsthe statementthaton hisjourney hefound Santee river risen36feetaboveitsnormallevel.

While

at

war

with the Westo, the

Catawba

in 1670were in alliance with the

Wisacky (Waxhaw),

a subordinate neigliboringtribe.

Lawson

describes the

Catawba women

as "reasonablyhandsome,''

and

delighting

much

infeatherornaments, of which they

had

a great variety.

The men

were

more

efieminate

and

lazythan other Indians generally, a fact which

may

account for thelittle importanceof the tribein histor}-.

He

notes thefact of the

SIOUAN

MOONEY]

EARLY ACCOUNTS OF THE CATAWBA. 71

universal custom of plucking out tlie beard. Tliey were acquainted with the Spaniards,

who

lived onlytwo or three days' journeysouth- Avestward.

The

Sara, living northwest of the Catawba, also were acquainted withthe

same

^nation.

According to Lederers account, the

Catawba had

the fire dance found

among

so

many

tribes; he says:

.Those misfrablewretches are straugelyinfatuated with illuessofthe devil; it

causedsosmall horrorin uie to seeone ofthem wrythe his neck all on one side,

foamatthemouth,standbarel'ootupon burningcoal for near one houi",and then, recoveringhis senses,leapout ofthe tire Avithout hurt or sigue ofany(Lederer, 10;.

As

^itis impossibleto do justice to the

Catawba

within thelimits of this paper, onlyabriefsketch of thetribe willbei^resented, with espe- cial attention to the obscurer tribes; thefuller descriptionsbeing re- servedfora future

work

onthe Indiansoftke southern Atlanticregion.

In 1701

Lawson

passed through theterritory of the Catawba,

whom

he calls

by

the

two names

of

Esaw and Kadapau,

evidently

unaware

that these

names

are synonyms. In

Esaw may

be recogniaed IswS,

whence

is derived the

name Ushery

ofLederer.

Kadapau,

ofcourse,is

anotherform of Catawba,the

band

which hecalls

by

this

name

living-

some

little distancefrom those designated

by him

as

Esaw. He

calls the

Esaw

a "powerfulnation"

and

statesthattheir villageswere "very thick."

From

all accountsthey wereformerly themos.tpopuloustribe in theCarolinasexcepting theCherokee.

He

wiis everywherereceived in a friendly manner, in accord with t'he universal conduct of the

Catawba

toward the English save during the

Yanmsi

war. Virginia traderswere all

among

tlicm then,

and

the great trading jiath from Virginia to Georgia

was commonly known

as the

Catawba

path.

He

saysnothingofhead-llattening

among

thistribe, although he describes the custom in detail asfound

among

the neighboring

Waxhaw.

In- cidentally he mentions that scratching a stranger on the shoulderat parting

was

regarded as avery great compliment.

He

alsonotes the useof a

comb

setwith the teeth of rattlesnakesfor scraping the

body

beforeapplying medicinetotheaffectedi^art in cases of lameness (Law- son, 10).

A

similarin^actice stillpersists

among

the Cherokee.

Adair states that one of the ancient clearedfieldsof the

Catawba

extended 7 miles, besides which th(^y

had

several other smaller village sites (Adair, 4). In 1728 (1729

by

error) they still

had

six villages, all

on

Catawba

river, within a distance of 20 miles, the

most

northerly being called iSTauvasa (Byrd,21). Theirprincipal village

was

formerly ou the western side of the river in

what

is

now York

county. South Carolina, opposite the

mouth

ofSugar creek (Millg, 1).

The

history of the

Catawba up

to about tiie year 17G0 is chieflya record of the petty warfare between themselves

and

the Iroquois

and

other northern tribes,throughout which thecolonial government

was

constantly kept

busy

tryingto induce the Indianstostopkilling each other

and

go to killingthe French.

With

the singleexception of their

72 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE

^EAST. [ethnology alliancewith the hostile Yainasi in 1715 they were uniformly friendly tothe English

and

afterward to their successors, the

Americans

; but they were ^{at constant}

war

with the Iroquois, the Shawano, the Dela- ware,

and

othertribesofOhiovalley,as well aswiththeCherokee. In carrying- on this warfare the Iroquois

and

the lake tribes

made

long journeys into South Carolina,

and

the

Catawba

retaliated

by

sending small scalping parties into Ohio

and

Pennsj-lvania. Their losses

by

the ceaseless attacks of their enemies reduced their

numbers

^steadily and rapidly, while disease

and

debauchery introduced

by

the whites,

and

especially severalwholesale epidemics of smallpox, aidedtlie

work

ofdestruction, sothat before the closeof the eighteenth century the great nation of

Lawson was

reduced to a pitiful

remnant

(details

may

be foundinthe Colonial

Documents

of

New

^{York,in12volumes,}1850-1877).

They

sent a large force to help the colonists in the Tuskarora

w

ar of 1711-13,

and

also aided in expeditions against the French

and

their Indian allies atFort

Du Quesne and

elsewhereduringtheFrench

and

Indian war. Later it

was

proposed to use

them and

the Cherokee against the lake tribes under Pontiac in 17C3.

They

assisted the

Americans

alsoduring theEevolutionin the defense ofSouth Carolina against the ^British, as well as in Williamson's expedition against the Cherokee.

In^{1738 the} 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

thistimedestroyed nearly half thetribe, largelybecause^{of their}custom

(common

toother Indians likewise) of plunging into cold water as soon as the disease manifested itself (Gregg,3). In order to secure

some

protection for

them

in their

weakened

condition the South Carolina

government

made

strongprotests to the governorof iSTew

York

against the incur- sions of the Iroquois

and

Ohio tribesfromthe north,

who

did notcon- fine their attention to the

Catawba

alone, but frequently killed also other ^friendlyIndians

and

negroes

and

even attacked thewhitesettle- ments. Governor Glen, ofSouthCarolina, atlastthreatenedtotake

up

the quarrel of the

Catawba by

oifering a reward for every northern Indiankilledwithin thelimits ofSouthCarolina. Thisheroicmeasure

was

successful,

and

in thenext year_(1751),ata conferenceat

Albany

attended

by

the delegates from the Six Nations

and

the Catawba, under theaus])icesof the colonial governments, a treaty of peace

was

made

between the two tribes, conditional

upon

the return of sonie Iroquois prisoners then held

by

the

Catawba

(N. Y., 19). This peace

was

^{probablyfinal as} regards theIroquois, but

had

no effect

upon

the westerntribes,

whose

interestswereallwith the French. Thesetribes continued their warfare against the Catawba,

who

were

now

so far reduced that they could

make

little effectual resistance. In 17C2 a small party of

Shawano

killed the noted chief of the tribe.

King

Haiglar, nearhis

own

village (Mills, 2).

From

thistime theyceased to beofimportance except in conjunctionwith the whites. In 17G3 they

^"^^oyEY]

CATAWBA EARLY

HISTORY.

73 had

confirmedto theuia reservation (assigned afewyearsbefore) of 15 miles square, or 225 square miles, on both ^sides of

Catawba

river, within the present

York and

Lancaster counties. South Carolina (N.

Y., 20).

On

the approach ^of the British troops in 1780, the

Catawba

Indians withdrewtemporarilyinto Virginia, but returned after the battle of GuilfordCourt

House and

established themselvesin

two

villagesonthe reservation,

known,

respectively, as

Newton

(theprincipal village)

and Turkey

Head, on o])posite sides of

Catawba

^river(Mills,3). In 1826 nearlythewhole of their reservation

was

leased to whites for a few thousand dollars, on which thefewsurvivorschieflydepended.

About

1841 theysold to the state all buta single square mile, on which they

now

reside (Gatschet).

About

the

same

time a

number

oftheCatawba, dissatisfiedwiththeircondition anunig thewhites,

removed

tothe eastern Cherokeein western Xorth Carolina,but findingtheir 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

theCherokeein 1889.

Her

daughter

and

ayoungerfull-blood

Catawba

stillreside with thattribe.

At

alaterperiod

some Catawba removed

to the

Choctaw

nation in Indian Territory

and

settled near Scullyville, but are said

now

to beextinct.

About

ten years ago sev- eral

became

converts to jMormon missionaries in South Carolina

and went

with

them

to Salt

Lake

^{City, Utah.}

The

following figures

show

the steady declineof thetribefromthe

firstauthentic reports to the presenttime.

At

^{the first} settlement of South Carolina (about 1082) they

numbered

about 1,500 warriors, equivalent perhaps to 6,000 souls (Adair, 5). In 1701 theywere

"a

very large ^nation, containing

many

thousand people" (Lawson, 11).

In 1728 they

had

butlittle

more

than 400 warriors,equivalentperhaps to 1,600 souls (Byrd,22). In 1738 they suffered from the smallpox,

and

in 1713, even after they

had

incorporated a

number

of smaller tribes,the whole

body

consisted of less than400 warriors.

At

that timethis

mixed

nation consisted of the remnantsof

more

than twenty differenttribes, each ^stillretaining its

own

dialect. Others included with

them

were the Wateree,

who

had a separate village,the Bno,

Cheraw

or Sara, Cliowan(?), Congaree, Notchee, Yamasi, Coosa,etc., (Adair, 6). In 1759 the smallpox again appeared

among them and

destroyed a great

many.

In 1761 they

had

^left about 300 warriors, say 1,200 total,

"brave

fellows as

any

on the continent of America,

and

our firm friends" (Description of SouthCarolina, London, 1761).

In 1775 they

had

little

more

than 100 warriors, about 400 souls; but Adair says that smallpox

and

intemperance

had

contributed

more

than

war

to their decrease (Adair, 7).

They

werefurther reduced

by

snuillpox about the beginning of the Eevolutiou, in consequence of which they took the advice of their white friends

and

invited the

Cheraw

^still living in the settlements to

move up and

join

them

(Gregg, 4). This increased their number,

and

in 1780 they

had

150