Indigenous Peoples of South Carolina

South Carolina

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Tribes and Bands of South Carolina
A list of American Indians who have lived in South Carolina has been compiled by John R. Swanton in his The Indian Tribes of North America Many of the tribes in this list may have had very limited contact with the area which became South Carolina. Some have become extinct or have been consolidated with other tribes. And some may simply be variant spellings.

Catawba, Cherokee, Chiaha, Chickasaw, Congaree, Creek, Cusabo, Eno, Keyauwee, Natchez, Pedee, Saluda, Santee, Sewee, Shakori, Shawnee, Sissipahaw, Sugaree, Waccamaw, Wateree, Waxhaw, Winyaw, Yamasee, Yuchi

Other tribes may have also been residents of the area of South Carolina, at least for a short time.

The following tribal names have been suggested as having resided in South Carolina, but no documentation for their contact with this state has been identified.

Cherokee - Iroquaian, Siouan, Muskhogean and Algonquain Cherokee Bear Clan, Chalokolowa-Chickasaw, Sumter Band of Cheraw

Reservations
From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the American Indian was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America, the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America , and other sources. Those reservations named in bold are current federally-recognized reservations, with their associated agency and tribe(s). Others have historically been associated with the state or are not currently recognized by the federal government.


 * Catawba Reservation, State, Tribe: Catawba

Family History Library
The Family History Library has some published documents and histories of Indians who lived in South Carolina in the colonial era. The Catawba, Old Cheraws, Cherokee, and other Indian nations are chronicled in Chapman J. Milling, Red Carolinians (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1940; Family History Library book 975.7 F2m; film 1425645 item 5).

Web Sites
Carolina Indian Heritage Association

See also:
South Carolina - Church Records for a list of missions

South Carolina - Military Records for a list of forts

South Carolina_History