Pee Dee (tribe)

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The Pee Dee tribe (also spelled Pedee and Peedee) are a nation of Native Americans of the southeast United States. The Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina were named for the nation.

Contents

[edit] Pre-Contact History

Anthropologist Charles Hudson describes the prehistoric and protohistoric Pee Dee as a "southern chiefdom" of the southeastern Mississippian type.[1] Around 1550 A.D. the Pee Dee migrated from the lower Pee Dee River of the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the upper Pee Dee River of the Piedmont, where they remained for about a century.[2]

[edit] Colonial and 19th Century History

Francis Marion, the general under whom Pee Dee men fought in the American Revolution.

The Pee Dee fought along side many other American Indian nations and colonial settlers against the Tuscarora people during the Tuscarora War of the early 18th Century. The political relationships formed between the Pee Dee and other tribes in the area at this time carried over into the Yamasee War. The Yamasee War of 1715-1717 caused major changes among the southeastern tribes. By some accounts the Pee Dee, along with many other tribes, were "utterly extirpated". But at least some of the survivors found refuge with the Catawba.[3] Other survivors either remained along the lower Pee Dee River or returned in the years following the Yamasee War.

In 1737, the tribe petitioned South Carolina for a parcel of land to live upon. They, along with the Notchees, were moved to an 100 acre reservation provided by James Coachman in 1738. This reservation was in Berkeley County, along the Edisto River.[4] An altercation in 1744 between youths of the Catawba and Pee Dee tribes led to the Catawba forcing the Pee Dee off of their lands and back into white settlements.[5] South Carolina referred to Indians living within the colony's settled areas as "Settlement Indians", and a 1740s list of such tribes included the Pee Dee. Additionally, in 1752 the Catawba asked South Carolina to encourage the Pee Dee "Settlement Indians" to move north and rejoin the Catawba.[6] During the American Revolution, a company of Pee Dee men fought for the United States under the American general Francis Marion. Their company of riflemen was known as the Raccoon Company and was headed by Captain John Alston.[7] A group of Pee Dee men who had lived on John Coachman's land were under the command of Colonel William Thompson. Many of these men received grants of land following the conclusion of the war.[8]

An image of members of the Catawba Nation at the 1913 Corn Exposition in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Following the American Revolution, there is but one mention of the Pee Dee tribe in governmental documents.[9] Members of the tribe began assimilation into white society, helping to avoid removal to present-day Oklahoma in the early 19th Century.

[edit] Modern Tribe

The legacy of this assimilation led to a number of issues in the 20th Century. During segregation, it was seen as advantageous to identify as "white." Since many Pee Dee were already of mixed ancestry, people began to pass in order to make their day to day lives easier. Those whose complexions were darker were often forced to go to "black" schools. However, there were a few Indian schools around the Neeses, South Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina areas during that time.[10] Some other Pee Dee establishments were also created and continue to be maintained to this day. One of these is the Rocky Swamp Methodist Church. Currently, a combination of Methodist and Native American Church religions is observed there. Many Pee Dee people are buried in its historic cemetery.[11]

The 2007 Senior Princess/Ambassador of the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek (right) at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) conference powwow in Phoenix, Arizona.

No branch of the Pee Dee tribe is recognized by the United States Federal government. However, many remanents of the original tribe are now listed as state recognized tribes or groups by the state of South Carolina. The descendants of the historic tribe are currently split into several different tribes with members living mostly in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. These tribes are the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek (recognized in 2007), the Beaver Creek Indians (recognized in 2006), the Pee Dee Nation of Upper South Carolina (recognized in 2005), and the Pee Dee Indian Tribe of South Carolina (recognized in 2006).[12] There are presently a number of political tensions between these groups which has prevented a reconciliation and reunion of the complete tribe.

The only tribe in South Carolina that has regained United States federal recognition is the closely-related Catawba tribe. Recently, an ethnography of the Pee Dee in the northern part of South Carolina was completed.[13] This work has been used as a springboard by the tribal government of the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Upper South Carolina to begin the process of obtaining federal recognition.[14]

[edit] Language

Little is known about what kind of language the historic Pee Dee spoke. Based on a theory proposed by James Mooney in his 1894 Siouan Tribes of the East, and reinforced by John R. Swanton in his 1936 essay Early History of the Eastern Siouan Tribes, the Pee Dee are often said to have spoken a Siouan language, specifically an "Eastern" or "Southeastern" Siouan language. However, Mooney's theory had no linguistic evidence and only very tenuous ethnohistoric evidence to back it up.[15]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hudson, Charles M. (1970). The Catawba Nation. University of Georgia Press. p. 16. 
  2. ^ Hudson (1970), pp. 16-17
  3. ^ Hudson (1970), pg. 42
  4. ^ http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sccyauha/history/brittonferry.htm
  5. ^ http://www.sciway.net/hist/indians/peedee.html
  6. ^ Hudson (1970), pp. 47-48
  7. ^ O'Kelley, Patrick (2004). Nothing But Blood and Slaughter Military Operations and Order of Battle of the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas 1771-1779. Book Locker. p. 54. 
  8. ^ http://www.geocities.com/wm9600/peedee.html
  9. ^ http://www.sciway.net/hist/indians/peedee.html
  10. ^ http://www.sciway.net/hist/indians/wassamasaw-varnertown-indians-sc.html
  11. ^ http://www.interment.net/data/us/sc/orangeburg/rocky_swamp/index.htm
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Native-Americans-Carolina-Borderlands-Ethnography/dp/1891026100/ref=sr_1_105?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229052149&sr=1-105
  14. ^ http://www.scnow.com/scp/news/local/pee_dee/article/pee_dee_indian_nation_might_get_federal_recognition/9529/
  15. ^ Hudson (1970), pp. 6-8

[edit] External links

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