Waccamaw
Encyclopedia
The Waccamaw Indians of South Carolina
, distinct from the Waccamaw Siouan
Indians of North Carolina
, are the first state-recognized tribe of Native Americans
in South Carolina
. They organized as a non-profit corporation in 1992, when they established their government and began to seek recognition.
. The ancient Waccamaw were river dwellers who lived along the Waccamaw River
from present-day North Carolina
’s Lake Waccamaw
to Winyah Bay
near Georgetown, South Carolina
.
According to the ethnographer, John R. Swanton
, the Waccamaw may have been one of the first mainland groups of Natives visited by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Within the second decade of the 16th century, Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos captured and enslaved several Native Americans, and transported them back to Hispaniola. Most died within two years, although they were supposed to be returned to the mainland. One of the men whom the Spanish captured was baptized and learned Spanish. Known as Francisco de Chicora
, he worked for Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón
, who took him to Spain on a trip. Chicora told the court chronicler Peter Martyr
about more than twenty indigenous peoples
who lived in present-day South Carolina, among which he mentioned the "Chicora
" and the "Duhare" — these were tribal territories that comprised the northernmost regions. The early 20th century ethnographer John R. Swanton
believed that these nations were the Waccamaw and the Cape Fear Indians
, respectively.
to endemic Eurasian infectious
diseases, such as smallpox
and measles
, the Waccamaw, like many southeastern Native peoples, died by the hundreds. By the early eighteenth century, the Cheraw
, a related Siouan people of the Southeastern Piedmont, tried to recruit the Waccamaw to support the Yamasee
and other tribes against the English during the Yamasee War
in 1715. The Waccamaw engaged in a brief war against the South Carolina colony in 1720 to stem the tide of English incursions into the Piedmont. Colonial accounts state that the English killed, or took captive numerous Waccamaw men, women and children.
Such events occurred again. Caught in the middle of the accelerating deerskin
and slave trades, the Waccamaw were forced into slavery. While George II of Great Britain
ordered all plantation owners to free their Native American slaves in 1752, some slaveholders refused to do so without compensation. Slave owners simply insisted that they did not own any Native American slaves and proclaimed their Native American slaves to be Negro.
In 1755, John Evans noted in his journal that the Cherokee
and Natchez
killed some Waccamaw and Pee Dee Native Americans "in the white people’s settlements." Their location at this time is uncertain, but some (WHO?) believe that the Waccamaw were living near present-day Moncks Corner, South Carolina
.
. John Dimery and his sons added to their land holdings in subsequent years—lands that formed the heart of the Waccamaw Dimery Settlement.
By 1850, the Dimery Settlement had grown to at least four families: that of John Dimery, Willis Thompkins, Cockran Thompkins, and Sara Cook, for a total of some 27 individuals. Oral tradition states that around this time John Dimery donated the land for the raising of Pisgah Church. The Waccamaw grew cotton
, corn
, and later tobacco
, much the same as their neighbors. They participated in community activities such as hog killings, barn raising
s, and lumbering in which community members combined their efforts to help individual members of the settlement.
Census classifications that listed the Waccamaw as "free persons of color," threatened their native identity in the nineteenth century, as the census did not use "Indian" as a category for non-reservation Indians until 1870. John Dimery first appeared on the Horry County Census in 1820 as a "free person of color." Historian
and genealogist Virginia DeMarce and Paul Heinegg have found that 80 percent of the individuals listed as free persons of color in 1790 and 1810 were descended from African Americans free in colonial Virginia. Most of those were descended from unions and marriages between white women and African men, people who lived and worked together as free, servants, or slaves. Some of the Africans were freed as early as the mid-17th century.
The example of members of the Hatcher family show the variability of identification as Indians in official records of the Waccamaw of the Dimery Settlement, and other Native peoples in the South, as they were seldom asked how they identified. In the 1920 federal census, William I. Hatcher, who lived in Galivants Ferry Township, was classified as white. His brothers Noah, Julius, Robert and Vander, living in Dog Bluff Township, were recorded as "mulatto
;" and their uncles, Peter and William Hatcher, who lived in Robeson County, NC, were enumerated as "Indians". Such classifications may also have been accurate representations of their appearances and ethnic affiliations at the time. With intermarriage with other races, some Americna Indian descendants became more affiliated with other ethnicities.
consist of about 400 members. The Waccamaw petitioned the state for recognition as a Native American
tribe, and received formal recognition from the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs on February 17, 2005. The tribe is headquartered and bounded by the Waccamaw River
and the Little Pee Dee River
in Aynor, Horry County
.
The majority of tribal members live along the Waccamaw River in Georgetown and Horry counties, especially near the area now known as Dog Bluff. In May 2004, the Waccamaw people of South Carolina received 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of land in the tribe's ancestral homeland in the Dog Bluff community near Aynor
in Horry County.
The Waccamaw of South Carolina are one of the founding members of the South Carolina Indian Affairs Commission, the National Organization for the Unification of Native Americans (NOUNA), and the National Coalition for Indian Sovereignty.
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, distinct from the Waccamaw Siouan
Waccamaw Siouan
Waccamaw Siouan Indians are one of eight state-recognized Native American tribal nations in North Carolina. Formerly Siouan-speaking, they are located predominantly in the southeastern North Carolina counties of Bladen and Columbus. They adopted this name in 1948. Their communities are St...
Indians of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, are the first state-recognized tribe of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. They organized as a non-profit corporation in 1992, when they established their government and began to seek recognition.
Territory
The South Carolina branch of the Waccamaw are descendant from a community known as the Dimery Settlement of South Carolina. They have long inhabited territory in present-day northeastern South CarolinaSouth Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. The ancient Waccamaw were river dwellers who lived along the Waccamaw River
Waccamaw River
The Waccamaw River is a river, approximately 140 miles long, in southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina in the United States. It drains an area of approximately 1110 square miles in the coastal plain along the eastern border between the two states into the Atlantic Ocean...
from present-day North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
’s Lake Waccamaw
Lake Waccamaw
Lake Waccamaw is a unique fresh water lake located in Columbus County in North Carolina. The lake is oval in shape and measures roughly 5.2 by with an average depth of . It covers 36,170,802 square meters, an average width of 2.32 meters and a shoreline of about 22,852 meters...
to Winyah Bay
Winyah Bay
Winyah Bay is a coastal estuary that is the confluence of the Waccamaw River, the Pee Dee River, the Black River and the Sampit River in Georgetown County in eastern South Carolina...
near Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, in the Low Country. Located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee River, Waccamaw River, and Sampit River, Georgetown is the second largest seaport in South Carolina,...
.
History
While the Waccamaw were never populous, they incurred devastating population loss and dispersal with the incursion of colonial settlers and their diseases during the eighteenth century.According to the ethnographer, John R. Swanton
John R. Swanton
John Reed Swanton was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory...
, the Waccamaw may have been one of the first mainland groups of Natives visited by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Within the second decade of the 16th century, Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos captured and enslaved several Native Americans, and transported them back to Hispaniola. Most died within two years, although they were supposed to be returned to the mainland. One of the men whom the Spanish captured was baptized and learned Spanish. Known as Francisco de Chicora
Francisco de Chicora
Francisco de Chicora was the baptismal name given to a Native American kidnapped in 1521, along with 70 others, from near the mouth of the Pee Dee River by Spanish explorer Francisco Gordillo and slave trader Pedro de Quexos, based in Santo Domingo and the first Europeans to reach the area. From...
, he worked for Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was a Spanish explorer who in 1526 established the short-lived San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the first European attempt at a settlement in what is now the continental United States...
, who took him to Spain on a trip. Chicora told the court chronicler Peter Martyr
Peter Martyr
Peter Martyr is the name of:*Peter of Verona, 13th-century martyr*Peter Martyr Vermigli, 16th-century Italian theologian*Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, 16th-century Italian-born historian of Spain and its New World discoveries...
about more than twenty indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
who lived in present-day South Carolina, among which he mentioned the "Chicora
Chicora tribe
The Chicora tribe was a small Native American tribe of the Pee Dee area in northeastern South Carolina, ranging to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. Scholars consider them a Catawban group, likely to have spoken a Siouan language....
" and the "Duhare" — these were tribal territories that comprised the northernmost regions. The early 20th century ethnographer John R. Swanton
John R. Swanton
John Reed Swanton was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory...
believed that these nations were the Waccamaw and the Cape Fear Indians
Cape Fear Indians
The Cape Fear Indians were a small tribe of Carolina Algonquian Native Americans who lived on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina ....
, respectively.
Eighteenth century
European contact nearly wiped out the Waccamaw. Having no natural immunityImmunity (medical)
Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...
to endemic Eurasian infectious
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
diseases, such as smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
and measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
, the Waccamaw, like many southeastern Native peoples, died by the hundreds. By the early eighteenth century, the Cheraw
Cheraw (tribe)
The Cheraw , were a tribe of Siouan-speaking Amerindians first encountered by Hernando De Soto in 1540. The name they called themselves is lost to history but the Cherokee called them Ani-suwa'ii and the Catawba Sara...
, a related Siouan people of the Southeastern Piedmont, tried to recruit the Waccamaw to support the Yamasee
Yamasee
The Yamasee were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans that lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida.-History:...
and other tribes against the English during the Yamasee War
Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a conflict between British settlers of colonial South Carolina and various Native American Indian tribes, including the Yamasee, Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and...
in 1715. The Waccamaw engaged in a brief war against the South Carolina colony in 1720 to stem the tide of English incursions into the Piedmont. Colonial accounts state that the English killed, or took captive numerous Waccamaw men, women and children.
Such events occurred again. Caught in the middle of the accelerating deerskin
Deerskin trade
The deerskin trade between Colonial America and the Native Americans was one of the most important trading relationships between Europeans and Native Americans, especially in the southeast. It was a form of the fur trade, but less known, since deer skins were not as valuable as furs from the north...
and slave trades, the Waccamaw were forced into slavery. While George II of Great Britain
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
ordered all plantation owners to free their Native American slaves in 1752, some slaveholders refused to do so without compensation. Slave owners simply insisted that they did not own any Native American slaves and proclaimed their Native American slaves to be Negro.
In 1755, John Evans noted in his journal that the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
and Natchez
Natchez
Natchez may refer to:* Natchez people, a Native American nation* Natchez language, the language of that Native American tribe* Natchez, Mississippi, United States* Natchez, Louisiana, United States* Natchez, Indiana, United States...
killed some Waccamaw and Pee Dee Native Americans "in the white people’s settlements." Their location at this time is uncertain, but some (WHO?) believe that the Waccamaw were living near present-day Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Moncks Corner is a town in and the county seat of Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 5,952 at the 2000 census....
.
Nineteenth century
By the mid-eighteenth century, the Dimery settlement, near Dog Bluff, South Carolina, was formed. There, a core community of allied Waccamaw families: Dimery, Cook, Hatcher, and Turner, was formed. It was commonly called an "Indian" community. In 1809, John Dimery married Elizabeth Hardwick in Marion County, South Carolina. By 1813, John and Elizabeth Hardwick Dimery had moved to Horry County, where they purchased 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land on the east side of the Little Pee Dee RiverPee Dee River
The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in North Carolina and South Carolina. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course above the mouth of the Uwharrie River is known as the Yadkin River. It is extensively dammed for flood...
. John Dimery and his sons added to their land holdings in subsequent years—lands that formed the heart of the Waccamaw Dimery Settlement.
By 1850, the Dimery Settlement had grown to at least four families: that of John Dimery, Willis Thompkins, Cockran Thompkins, and Sara Cook, for a total of some 27 individuals. Oral tradition states that around this time John Dimery donated the land for the raising of Pisgah Church. The Waccamaw grew cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, and later tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, much the same as their neighbors. They participated in community activities such as hog killings, barn raising
Barn raising
A barn raising is an event during which community men come together to assemble a barn for one or more of its households, with the support of women. The event was particularly common in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. In the past, a barn was often the first, largest, and most costly...
s, and lumbering in which community members combined their efforts to help individual members of the settlement.
Census classifications that listed the Waccamaw as "free persons of color," threatened their native identity in the nineteenth century, as the census did not use "Indian" as a category for non-reservation Indians until 1870. John Dimery first appeared on the Horry County Census in 1820 as a "free person of color." Historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and genealogist Virginia DeMarce and Paul Heinegg have found that 80 percent of the individuals listed as free persons of color in 1790 and 1810 were descended from African Americans free in colonial Virginia. Most of those were descended from unions and marriages between white women and African men, people who lived and worked together as free, servants, or slaves. Some of the Africans were freed as early as the mid-17th century.
The example of members of the Hatcher family show the variability of identification as Indians in official records of the Waccamaw of the Dimery Settlement, and other Native peoples in the South, as they were seldom asked how they identified. In the 1920 federal census, William I. Hatcher, who lived in Galivants Ferry Township, was classified as white. His brothers Noah, Julius, Robert and Vander, living in Dog Bluff Township, were recorded as "mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
;" and their uncles, Peter and William Hatcher, who lived in Robeson County, NC, were enumerated as "Indians". Such classifications may also have been accurate representations of their appearances and ethnic affiliations at the time. With intermarriage with other races, some Americna Indian descendants became more affiliated with other ethnicities.
Today
Today, the Waccamaw of South CarolinaSouth Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
consist of about 400 members. The Waccamaw petitioned the state for recognition as a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe, and received formal recognition from the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs on February 17, 2005. The tribe is headquartered and bounded by the Waccamaw River
Waccamaw River
The Waccamaw River is a river, approximately 140 miles long, in southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina in the United States. It drains an area of approximately 1110 square miles in the coastal plain along the eastern border between the two states into the Atlantic Ocean...
and the Little Pee Dee River
Pee Dee River
The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in North Carolina and South Carolina. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course above the mouth of the Uwharrie River is known as the Yadkin River. It is extensively dammed for flood...
in Aynor, Horry County
Horry County, South Carolina
Horry County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. This name honored Revolutionary War Hero, Peter Horry. Brigadier General Horry was born in South Carolina sometime around 1743 and started his distinguished military career in 1775 as one of 20 captains the Provincial Congress...
.
The majority of tribal members live along the Waccamaw River in Georgetown and Horry counties, especially near the area now known as Dog Bluff. In May 2004, the Waccamaw people of South Carolina received 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of land in the tribe's ancestral homeland in the Dog Bluff community near Aynor
Aynor, South Carolina
Aynor is a town in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 647 in September 2011. The surrounding Aynor area of Galivants Ferry has a population of 5,429 as of September 2011.-Geography:Aynor is located at ....
in Horry County.
The Waccamaw of South Carolina are one of the founding members of the South Carolina Indian Affairs Commission, the National Organization for the Unification of Native Americans (NOUNA), and the National Coalition for Indian Sovereignty.
Sources
- Milling, Chapman J. Red Carolinians. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1969.
- Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984, pp. 100–101
External links
- The Waccamaw Tribal Website—The Official Waccamaw Indian People Tribal Website
- The Waccamaw Tribal Archive—Waccamaw Indian People Tribal Archive