State

Indians In Carolina There were numerous tribes sea tiered throughout the state, and iu the accom¬ panying article* Mr. I-awrence tells some¬ thing of their activities. WHEN’ the expedition under Am id as and Barlowe. Waring the first English settler*, sailed into the Carolina sounds in 15*4. the region was then populated by the Red Men from the coastal plains to the heights of the high western mountains, some thirty different tribes inhabit¬ ing our state. Today practically all nro gono. It is a sad commentary upon our boasted civilization that nowhere has the Indian Wen able to stand close contact with the white race. Tt is almost axiomatic that upon such con¬ tact being made, the Indian absorbs all the vices hut none of the virtues ol the superior race. This is true upon the world-wide theatre. Read that de¬ lightful hook, White Shadows in the South Seas, and you’ll understand just why thi* is. What happened through¬ out the island of thp South Seas also happened in Carolina — the white man’s liquor, smallpox and pestilen¬ tial blood diseases decimated the In¬ dian. The child of the forest could Wt- tor stand the bullets of the whites than their bottles. For the purposes of this article I will roughly divide the Carolina tribes into those of the East. Piedmont and Mountain regions respectively. Indians of the East The first Indian' met by the Eng¬ lish on Oranoke Island were of the tribe known as 1 1 at terns- — a name still preserved ill our famous cape of that name. They wore friendly to the whites, ami from them the English first obtained “uppowoc" or tobacco, “pagatour" or Indian corn, and “openauk” or the white potato, which is not a native of Ireland at all. These were great gifts, and in exchange the English gave to the Indians firearms and firewater. Lawson tells us that these Indians claimed they were descended from the whiles, that their ancestors could “talk in n book" (read), that they had grey eyes— signs of amalgamation Wtwocn this tribe and the "Lost Col¬ ony" of Sir Walter Raleigh. These people were но friendly with the whites thnt when reduced by vice and By R. C. LAWRENCE sickness to misery, they were sup- jKirted at public expense. The Albemarle section was in¬ habited largely by the Nottoways, Mcherrins, Pnsquotanks and Chow- anoce — the names of the first two be¬ ing preserved in the rivers of those names; the last two in Carolina counties. Of tlie.e the Chowanoca were the strongest, having a population of some 3,500. Warfare I «tween this tribe and the Colonists in 1075 re¬ sulted in defeat for the Indians, and for a century they eked out a wretched existence struggling against extermi¬ nation. In the great war of 1711 against the Tuscaroras they were allies of the whites and as a reward were given 50.000 neres of land. Between the Albemarle and Pam¬ lico sounds, dwelt the Machapunga and the Pamlico*, the former living around Lake Mattamuskect in Hyde; the latter along Pamlico River or sound. For fifty years thee tribes prevented the whites from extending southward, but by 1090 smallpox had so reduced their numbers thnt they ceased to be a factor in Colonial life. Of the eastern tribes by far the most powerful and dangerous were the Tuscnrorns. This tribe was of froquoian stoek and were near kins¬ men of the great Five Nations of New York, who finally received them hack into the fold when they were driven from Carolina. At one time they owned 24 towns and mustered 0,000 warriors. They lived along the Roanoke, the Tar, the Neusc; hunting even so far south ns Cape Fear. The other eastern tribe- were small and gave ground in sullen anger l«fore the inroads of the whites, but the Tuscaroras were strong enough to strike for themselves. They did strike on September 11. 1711. and in one day one hundred and thirty-two whites were tomahawked and slain between the Chowan and Roanoke rivers. A long and devastating war ensued which lasted two years and which exhausted both the Indians and the whites. In 1718 n treaty was entered into whereby the tribe entered its formal submission to English rule and wore granted large tracts of land in what is now Bertie County. Around 1800 those lands were bought back from the Indians by the state, and the final remnant of this once mighty tribe went to New York where they were incorporated in the Confedera¬ tion of the “Long House” — the Five Nations. Indians of the Piedmont The great Catawba tribe had their seat* partly in North and partly in South Carolina. Most of the smaller Piedmont tribes, when decimated by vice and disease, were incorporated into the Catawbas. Among these were several tribes of Siouian stock living between the Eno and the Yadkin, such as the Saponi, who lived near Salisbury; the Keyauwoe who had a palisaded town near High Point; the ( Continued on page twenty- fire) 4