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John Lawson’s visit with the “Kadapau King” was brief, but it is with his account that one usually begins the history of the Catawba Indians on the new Anglo-American frontier. Lawson clearly describes a group of apparently ®ourishing tribes—the Esaw, Sugaree, and Kadapau—in the vicinity of the con®uence of Sugar Creek and the Catawba River. These tribes are the core groups of what became known over the next half century as the Catawba Nation (Figure 2). Charles Hudson (1965:75–76) suggests that the Catawba Nation or, more accurately, Catawba confederacy (i.e., the association of Esaws, Sugarees, Catawbas) had existed for several decades prior to 1701; it had developed in response to and was supported by their control of trade with the Virginia and Carolina colonies in the backcountry. In 1701, Lawson viewed these people as distinctly named groups living in close proximity with one another. On the other hand, South Carolina colonial of¤cials often referred to the Wateree/Catawba region Indians collectively as the Esaws (Merrell 1989:92–94). In fact, the Esaws were thought to be strong enough to pose a threat to the security of the Charles Town settlement. Hudson (1965), Wright (1981), and Merrell (1989) emphasize the extreme stress placed upon the interior tribes in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as a result of the competition between the Carolina and Virginia traders. The effects of that competition were compounded by the colonial efforts to reduce the perceived threat of the Indians upon the Charles Town settlement. In particular, the Carolinian tactics of favoring particular tribes in trade and of arming one Indian group against another, as well as the colonists’ widespread slaving raids, wreaked havoc with native geopolitics on the colonial frontier. These stresses culminated in the Yamasee War of 1715. Incensed by the actions of abusive traders, the Yamasees, Creeks, Choctaws, and some Cherokees initiated a concerted effort to attack and wipe out traders and plantations in the South Carolina backcountry. Early in the war a group of Catawbas, Cheraws, and Waterees killed a number of South Carolina traders . South Carolina ultimately repulsed the Indian offensive and crushed the Yamasees. In their effort to protect their new frontier, South CaroCatawba Valley Ethnohistory and Catawba Origins 1 lina forces were particularly ruthless with those Indians located closest to Charles Town; the Congarees, Santees, Sewees, Peedees, and Waxhaws suffered devastating losses (Hudson 1965:98). Survivors ®ed south into Florida or north to join the Catawbas, continuing the amalgamation of the Catawba confederation. Despite having survived the Yamasee War, the peoples of the Wateree/ Catawba had entered a new period in their history, and the balance of power on the frontier had shifted. The Catawbas were no longer powerful trading partners with the colonies; Hudson (1965:98) describes them as a “colonial satellite, a military dependency whose affairs were shaped by the interests of various factions in the Colony of South Carolina.” In addition, the Catawbas had become completely dependent upon the colonial trade and would necessarily accede to more and more colonial dictates (Merrell 1989:88–81). Another glimpse of the early eighteenth-century Catawba world is revealed in the Catawba Deerskin Map presented to South Carolina Governor Francis Nicholson around 1721, probably by a Catawba headman (Waselkov 1989:322). The central towns represented on the map are those associated Figure 2. Location of eighteenth-century Catawba and Cherokee Indian territories. 12 / chapter 1 with the Catawba confederacy. Nasaw (later Nassaw) was the principal town of the Catawbas at this time and was closely surrounded by Nustie, Succa, and Sutterie. Waselkov (1989:323) describes Nustie as equivalent to Neustee, one of the six Catawba towns in 1754. According to Waselkov (1989:323), the Succas represent the group also known as Shoccories, Sughas, or Tansequas, and the Sutteries represent the Sugarees. Waselkov also points out that many of the other names on the map represent groups that were eventually assimilated by the Catawbas. These include the Charras (Saras or Cheraws), Saxippahas, Waterees, Casuies (Coosahs), Wasmisa (Waccamaws), and Wiapies. This is a far cry from the numbers of towns implied by Lawson and, signi¤cantly, the term Catawba appears nowhere on the map; it was not a term used or recognized by the native people of the Catawba/Wateree River. On the other hand, prior to the Yamasee War, Anglo-Americans had referred to those people as Esaws, Catawbas, and Usherees, but “by 1715 even Esaw/Usheree disappeared, to emerge...

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