The Beaver Creek Indian Tribe or Beaver Creek Indians is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization headquartered in Salley, South Carolina, that represents the Beaver Creek Indians.[1][3] The organization was awarded the status of a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006.[5] They are not a federally recognizedNative American tribe[6] and are one several recognized nonprofit organizations within South Carolina that allege to be descended from the historic Pee Dee.[4] The organization is not to be confused with the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek, a "state-recognized group" recognized by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs in 2007.[7][8]
The tribe claims descent from a band of Pee Dee who settled between the forks of Edisto River in Orangeburg County, South Carolina during the eighteenth century. This claim is entirely through their "earliest known ancestor" Lazarus Chavis.[9] However, according to genealogical research, he was most likely the son of John Chavis, a free Black man from Virginia.[10][11]
Government
On January 28, 1998, the organization was first chartered as a nonprofit organization, being originally called the Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians.[2] The tribe is governed by a chief, vice chief, and tribal council.[12] Every two years the organization holds an election for these positions, each lasting for a term of four years, with the chief in one category and the vice-chief and tribal council in another.[12] Additionally, an elders council provides the tribal council with consultation and advice. While the tribe traditionally inhabited lands near Neeses, South Carolina, the organization today is headquartered in Salley.[12]
In 1999, the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek split from the government of the tribe following an administrative disagreement and was later recognized by the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs as an independent state-recognized tribal group in 2007.[7][8]
History
The tribe claims descent solely through Lazarus Chavis, who they claim was a Native American and their earliest known ancestor.[9] However according to genealogical analysis, Lazarus Chavis was most likely the son of Granville migrant John Chavis, who after proving his status as a free Black man, was known as a "free negro carpenter from Virginia". His father was Bartholomew Chavis, a man from Henrico County, Virginia, who had migrated to North Carolina.[11]
Mary, Richard, and Elijah Chavis moved from Granville County like John Chavis, who was most likely their father according to genealogical analysis. They filed land patents in Orangeburg County near the forks of the Edisto and settled there. Elijah and Lazarus Chavis were recorded together as free people of color on the Orangeburg census in 1710.[11][13]
Ancestry of the Chavis family
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Migration path of the Chavis Family to Orangeburg County, SC
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1685-1708: Bartholomew Chavis (born approx. 1685), was living in Henrico County until atleast 1708[11]
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1712-1714: Bartholomew Chavis sued for trespass in 1712, and for debt in 1714, both in Surry County.
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1719/1720-1726: Bartholomew Chavis received a patent for 300 acres in Northampton County on 1719/1720. He purchased another plot in 1721, sold 100 acres in 1722, and had 1000 acres in the county by 1726.
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1726: Bartholomew Chavis patented 630 acres in Halifax County. He died between 1743 and 1750
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1748: John Chavis (born 1712, to Bartholomew Chavis) was tithable in Granville County in 1748, but not taxed there again
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1751: John Chavis applied for land on Stevens Creek after performing improvements on it. Referred to as "John Chevis a free negro carpenter from Virginia"
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1751-1764: John Chavis granted land on Long Cane Creek after proving his freedom. Referred to as "John Cheves (Free Black)" in 1764
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1756-1859: Lazarus Chavis (born 1756, most likely to John Chavis) was enlisted in the Revolutionary War, and received a pension in 1835. He headed a household in Orangeburg County in 1790, and owned land in the fork of the Edisto River in 1802.[11]
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1784-1790: Elijah, Richard, and Mary Chavis (most likely the offspring of John Chavis) settle in Orangeburg County in 1790, 1784, and 1786 respectively.[11]
Post-settlement to State recognition
Tribal lands of the Beaver Creek Indian Tribe
In 1859, Fredrick Chavis, son of Lazarus, filed a petition with the state of South Carolina on the behalf of his relatives (including his son and daughter) residing near Edgefield County, South Carolina.[13] The petition inquired as to whether "persons of Indian descent are considered to be free persons of color" and must pay the poll tax.[13] During this era, the ancestors of the Beaver Creek were recorded as "mulatto".[13] Additionally, several early 20th century birth and death certificates designated them as "Croatan", similarly to the Lumbee. Two Orangeburg residents were recorded as "Indian" on World War I civil enlistments.[13]
Within an article written by Brewton Berry in 1948 entitled "The Mestizos of South Carolina", the author refers to the ancestors of the modern Beaver Creek Indian Tribe as tri-racial "outcasts" that did "not fit into the biracial caste system" then prevalent in South Carolina.[14] Berry notes that sometimes individuals within Orangeburg County were commonly called racial slurs by local whites but that he preferred to use the term mestizo for academic purposes when referencing similar people throughout the state.[14]
By the late 1990s, more than one hundred future members of the Beaver Creek Indian Tribe, then led by J. Barry Chavis, began to meet in Neeses to plan to petition the government for proper recognition as the Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians.[15] Members, often referred to as mulatto, had previously been referred to as Redbone or the racial slur Brass Ankle. When people knew of their "Indian" affilation, they sometimes mistakenly considered them Cherokee or Lumbee. Author Tim Hashaw notes the Chavis line originates with free Black people from Tidewater Virginia, and is present among Melungeons, Brass Ankles and the Lumbee, in families related to Louisiana Redbones.[15][16] The tribe achieved state recognition in the early 21st century. The organization was awarded the status of a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006.[5]
12Gleaton, Sonja (12 March 2007). "The Great Spirit...NEVER FORGETS". The Times and Democrat. Vol.126, no.71. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
12Chavis, Louie. "BEAVER CREEK INDIANS A SOUTH CAROLINA STATE RECOGNIZED TRIBE THEN AND NOW". Beaver Creek Indians. Orangeburg County, SC. Archived from the original on 26 December 2025. Retrieved 26 December 2025. Our earliest known ancestor is Lazarus Chavis. [...] Our entire genealogy begins with Lazarus Chavis and his children. [...] Although the descendants of Lazarus Chavis have been a presence throughout the twentieth century in the Beaver Creek area, we are only now receiving our rightful respect for our Indian lineage. [...] The state recognizes that our ancestor, Lazarus Chavis, is the common ancestor for the members of our tribe.
123456Heinegg, Paul (2021). Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820. Sixth Edition. Vol.I - Families Abel to Drew. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company. pp.360–373. ISBN9780806359298. Retrieved 26 December 2025. The Chavis family probably originated in Virginia before 1650 since there were free, mixed-raced members of the family in Amelia, Brunswick, Charles City, Henrico, James City, Prince George, and Surry counties, Virginia, as well as Edgecombe, Granville and Bladen counties, North Carolina, before 1750. And there were several Chavis households in South Carolina in the 1750s. The earliest recorded mixed-race ancestor was probably Elizabeth Chavis who petitioned the General Court of Virginia on 28 March 1672 to release her son Gibson Gibson from an unlawful indenture. [...] John Chavis (Bartholomew), born say 1712, was tithable in the earliest Granville County, North Carolina list of Jonathan White, circa 1748 [CR 44.701.1] but not taxed again in Granville County. On 7 May 1751 he was in South Carolina where he was called "John Chevis a free negro carpenter from Virginia" when he applied to the Governor and Council for land on the rights of himself, wife, nine children and a foundling infant, stating that he had begun improvements on Stevens Creek. After proving his freedom, he was granted land on Long Cane Creek, a branch of Little River, near Stevens Creek [Meriwether, The expansion of South Carolina, 1729-1765, 133-4]. He sold 600 acres in Granville County, South Carolina, to John Scott by deed proved in 1753 [DB N-N:446]. He was called "John Cheves (Free Black)" on 18 July 1764 when Henry Brazile recorded a memorial for 200 acres on Long Cane Creek near the Savannah River adjoining his land [S.C. Archives series S111001, 6:289]. He may have been the father of [...] Lazarus, born about 1756, enlisted with Captain Moon in South Carolina for fourteen months in 1778 under General Andrew Williamson. He was in the battles of Stono and Savannah. He applied for and received a pension in Orangeburg on 4 March 1835. A lawyer contacted the pension office in Washington on 12 November 1859 stating that it was highly important to prove that Lazarus Chavis received a pension [NARA, S.9316, M805, reel 180, frame 153]. He was head of an Orangeburg District household of 6 "other free" in 1790 [SC:100]. He owned land in the fork of the Edisto River near Rockey Swamp in Orangeburg District on 13 July 1802 [S.C. Archives series 8213192 39:6].
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