Native American

The list of items below have been tagged as part of the Native American historical collection here at AccessGenealogy.

The Sokokis Indians

Before the encroachment of pale faced settlers, the entire valley of the Saco and its tributaries was peopled by the numerous Sokokis Indians. These were considered the parent tribe of the Abenaki Nation, which at one time peopled the whole of Maine. One of the most eloquent and statesmanlike of their chiefs once said in council, “We received our lands from the Great Father of Life; we hold only from Him.” Their title was unquestionable and unmolested, they roamed the valley from their village at the Lower Falls (Saco) to the settlement on the great bend, on the intervales of … Read more

The Maine Indians

Before the encroachment of pale faced settlers, the entire valley of the Saco and its tributaries was peopled by the numerous Sokokis Indians. These were considered the parent tribe of the Abenaki Nation, which at one time peopled the whole of Maine. One of the most eloquent and statesmanlike of their chiefs once said in council, “We received our lands from the Great Father of Life; we hold only from Him.” Their title was unquestionable and unmolested, they roamed the valley from their village at the Lower Falls (Saco) to the settlement on the great bend, on the intervales of … Read more

The Pequawket Expedition

On April 16, the company bade farewell to their friends and kindred in Dunstable, Mass., the home of many of the party, and proceeded to Contoocook, and to the west shore of Ossipee Lake. Here they halted and erected a fort which should serve as a rallying point and base of supplies. By this time two men had become disabled. One had returned home accompanied by a friend, Benj. Kidder was left at the fort, with the surgeon and a guard of eight. The remaining thirty-four men took up the trail to Pequawket with good courage. On Tuesday, two days … Read more

Catawba Indian History

A recent publication of the Smithsonian Institution (” Siouan Tribes of the East,” by James Mooney) asserts that the origin and meaning of the word Catawba are unknown. In 1881, the Bureau of Ethnology collected a vocabulary of 10,000 words from the tribe of Indians bearing this name, and, after critical examination by experts, their language was pronounced unmistakably of Siouan stock. The home of the Sioux family is believed to have been at one time in the upper Ohio valley, from whence one branch migrated east and the other west, and Mr. Mooney says that linguistic evidence indicates that … Read more

Catawba Indian Treaty of 1843

“A treaty entered into at the Nation Ford, Catawba, between the Chiefs and Headmen of the Catawba Indians of the one fart and the Commissioners appointed under a resolution of the Legislature, passed December, 1839, an acting under Commissions from his Excellency Patrick Noble, Esq., Governor of the State of South Carolina, of the other part; “ARTICLE FIRST. The Chiefs and Headmen of the Catawba Indians, for themselves and the entire nation, hereby agree to cede, sell, transfer, and convey to the State of South Carolina, all their right, title, and interest to their Boundary of Land lying on both … Read more

Catawba Indian Condition

Scarcely more than one hundred years ago the hoof prints of the buffalo became scarce in South Carolina, and it would, perhaps, have been well for the Catawba Indian had he followed him to the distant West; for the exterminating greed of the white man has almost driven him, too, from the boundless regions in which he used to roam, cruel legislation has allowed his lands to be sold and his money squandered, and, after all, he is in not much better condition morally, socially, or financially than when he was a savage in the woods, with God-given ability to … Read more

Catawba Indian Reservation

The reservation of the Catawba Indians was at one time in the remotest backwoods of South Carolina, but within the last twenty years the signs of civilization have been rapidly creeping toward it. Since the South began to draw Northern capital a few years ago, the development of this section of Carolina has been phenomenal. The nearest town of consequence to the reservation is Rock Hill, nine miles distant. Fifteen years ago there were scarcely half a dozen farm houses in the town today, Rock Hill is an important city with a number of cotton factories and a population of … Read more

Responsibility

Perhaps, after the Catawbas have become extinct, some one might ask who was responsible. Let us not wait until then to place the responsibility where it belongs. If it is South Carolina’s duty to cherish and guard with a fostering care the last vestige of her aboriginal inhabitants; if she owes anything to her earliest benefactors; if she owes anything to a disinterested people who have fought her battles a people who were courted when they were strong, but are now scorned because they are weak; if she owes anything to a people whose territory she has absorbed without due … Read more

Slave Narrative of Katie Rowe

Person Interviewed: Katie RoweLocation: Tulsa, OklahomaAge: 88 I can set on de gallery, what de sunlight shine bright, and sew a powerful fine seam when my grandchillun wants a special purty dress for de school doings, but I ain’t worth much for nothing else I reckon. These same old eyes seen powerful lot of tribulations in my time, and when I shets ’em now I can see lots of l’ll chillun jest lak my grand-chillun, toting hoes bigger dan dey is, and dey pore little black hands and legs bleeding whar dey scratched by de brambledy weeds, and whar dey … Read more