A Wandering Tribe: Dispersal of the Catawba Nation in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

No group of Native Americans has figured more prominently in the history of South Carolina than the Catawba Nation. This tribe’s unerring military, economic, and symbolic support for the fledgling Carolina colonies was crucial during early conflicts with hostile tribes, and eventually their struggle for Independence. While the Palmetto State unabashedly profited from this relationship with the Catawba Nation, the association was not mutually beneficial. In the hundred-year time span between 1740 and 1840, the population of the Catawba reservation decreased by more than seventy-five percent. At least half this decrease was due to the mortality of old age, accident, and disease. A significant portion of that population reduction, however, was the result of outmigration, as Catawba left the confines of the reservation to explore life in other areas. At various times in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, no more than a handful of Catawba Indians were physically residing on their ancient reservation.

While thousands of pages have been dedicated to memorializing the history of those Catawba who remained, the pen of the historian has remained silent in regard to those Indian families and individuals who left the reservation. What happened to those Catawba who abandoned their ancient homeland? Where did they ultimately settle down? Did they continue to self-Identify as “Catawba” or, in some respects even more importantly, were they recorded as “Catawba” or even as “Indian” by the census enumerator, tax collector, or court officials in these new areas? This book attempts to answer these questions, and memorialize the documentation of those who became “A Wandering Tribe.”