Ittiwan people

Last updated
Ittiwan
Regions with significant populations
South Carolina
Languages
unattested
Religion
Indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
possibly Cusabo

The Ittiwan people, also spelled Etiwan, [1] were a Native American tribe, who lived near present-day Goose Creek. Sometimes they were referred to as Summerville Indians. They were located approximately 30 miles northeast of Charleston, South Carolina. [2] Members of the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians, a state-recognized tribe in South Carolina claim descent from Ittiwan among other groups.

Contents

Culture

Burial customs

In a letter written on February 1, 1710, the Anglican missionary Francis Le Jau wrote [3] "Our Indian Neighbours call their Nation Ittiwan: when any of them dies they anoint him all over with Oyl, either of Bear or Ikkerry nuts for they have no other, thats' a constant practice and the Women's employment."

Ceremony and dance

In a letter written on January 4, 1712, Le Jau described an Etiwan ceremony: [3]

"40 of them trimd painted and dress'd in their fineryes Coming from the Woods near a little hut Supported upon Pillars all painted and adorned. There after a paus and a speech 3 young men holding one another under the Arms begun a Dance followed by the rest in a long train, & serpenting abt. sevl. times with pritty motion, Steps and figures, they had rattles for their Musick, and sung after a Pause onely four Notes saying the same again."

An elderly Etiwan man who was present at the ceremony explained to Le Jau that the three dancers who were holding each other's arms represented three men from whom all the other dancers were descended. He also explained that the little painted square hut represented a ship and Le Jau noted that the story reminded him of Noah's Ark, which he then shared with the Etiwan man.

In a separate letter written two years earlier Le Jau describes another dance which was done yearly and took place over the course of three days and three nights. The men would dance during the day while the women danced during the night. When Le Jau asked a man about the meaning of the dance he was told that it was to remember a time when man was without woman. [3]

History

17th century

Historian William Ramsey referred to them as the Itewans and considered them to be part of the "settlement Indians" which were smaller people groups that lived surrounded by South Carolina plantations. In the 1670s these smaller nations had sought refuge from the powerful Westo nation by living among the colonists and relations seem to have continued on well enough that the Etiwan chose to side with the colonists again at the outset of the Yamasee War. Ramsey speculates that anti-Indian sentiments among the colonists may have grown to such a level during the first half of the war that relations with the Etiwan may have been shattered. [4]

18th century

At the outbreak of the Yamasee War in spring of 1715, the Etiwan sided with South Carolina and played a role in defending Port Royal against the initial Yamasee offensive. By July of that year, however, the Etiwan switched sides and joined the Yamasee War effort against the South Carolinians. [4]

In 1724 the journal of the Commons House of Assembly reported that the Etiwans wanted their own land. [2] By then the Etiwans were scattered in small groups in St. James Goose Creek Parishes, St. Thomas Parish, St. Johns Parish, St. Andrews, St. Paul Parish, and St. Helena Parish. Some Natives wanted a single settlement area to bring the tribe members together and provide a means of support for their dwindling number. The Commons House of Assembly granted the request and issued land on the western side of Wassamasaw Swamp. Governor Glen makes the last historical mention of them as a tribal nation in 1751, as he proclaimed the "Etavans [sic] as a tribe in alliance with the English Government."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuscarora people</span> Indigenous Peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands

The Tuscarora are an Indigenous Peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands in Canada and the United States. They are an Iroquoian Native American and First Nations people. The Tuscarora Nation, a federally recognized tribe, is based in New York, and the Tuscarora First Nation is one of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuscarora War</span> 1711–15 conflict between European settlers and indigenous people in colonial North Carolina

The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711, until February 11, 1715, between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamasee, and other allies on the other. This was considered the bloodiest colonial war in North Carolina. The Tuscarora signed a treaty with colonial officials in 1718 and settled on a reserved tract of land in Bertie County, North Carolina. The war incited further conflict on the part of the Tuscarora and led to changes in the slave trade of North and South Carolina.

The Waxhaws is a geographical region extending beyond both sides of the border between what now is North Carolina and South Carolina, United States. It encompasses the areas currently known as Lancaster, Union and Mecklenburg counties. The name is derived from that of the Indigenous people who first inhabited the landbase, the Waxhaw people. Much of the area is now the territory of the Catawba Indian Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Moore Sr.</span> Governor of Carolina from 1700 to 1703

James Moore Sr. was a military officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Carolina from 1700 to 1703. He is best known for leading several invasions of Spanish Florida during Queen Anne's War, including attacks in 1704 and 1706 which wiped out most of the Spanish missions in Florida. He captured and brought back to Carolina as slaves thousands of Apalachee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apalachee</span> Historical Native American tribe from Florida and Georgia, US

The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River, at the head of Apalachee Bay, an area known as the Apalachee Province. They spoke a Muskogean language called Apalachee, which is now extinct.

The Yamasee War was a conflict fought in South Carolina from 1715 to 1717 between British settlers from the Province of Carolina and the Yamasee, who were supported by a number of allied Native American peoples, including the Muscogee, Cherokee, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and others. Some of the Native American groups played a minor role, while others launched attacks throughout South Carolina in an attempt to destroy the colony.

The Yamasees were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamasees engaged in revolts and wars with other native groups and Europeans living in North America, specifically from Florida to North Carolina.

The Winyaw were a Native American tribe living near Winyah Bay, Black River, and the lower course of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The Winyaw people disappeared as a distinct entity after 1720 and are thought to have merged with the Waccamaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians</span> State-recognized tribe in South Carolina

The Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians or Wassamasaw Tribe is a state-recognized tribe and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The organization was awarded the status of a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs in November 2009, becoming the sixth state-recognized tribe within South Carolina. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Catawba Indian Nation is the only tribe in South Carolina that is federally recognized by the U.S. Government.

The Santee were a historic tribe of Native Americans that once lived in South Carolina within the counties of Clarendon and Orangeburg, along the Santee River. The Santee were a small tribe even during the early eighteenth century and were primarily centered in the area of the present-day town of Santee, South Carolina. Their settlement along the Santee River has since been dammed and is now called Lake Marion. The Santee Indian Organization, a state-recognized tribe within South Carolina claim descent from the historic Santee people but are not presently federally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century.

The Wateree were a Native American tribe in the interior of the present-day Carolinas. They probably belonged to the Siouan-Catawba language family. First encountered by the Spanish in 1567 in Western North Carolina, they migrated to the southeast and what developed as South Carolina by 1700, where English colonists noted them.

Port Royal Sound is a coastal sound, or inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the Sea Islands region, in Beaufort County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the estuary of several rivers, the largest of which is the Broad River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cusabo</span> Group of American Indian tribes

The Cusabo were a group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston and south to the Savannah River, at the time of European colonization. English colonists often referred to them as one of the Settlement Indians of South Carolina, tribes who "settled" among the colonists.

The Waxhaw people were a Native American tribe who historically lived in present-day counties of Lancaster, in South Carolina; and Union and Mecklenburg in North Carolina, around the area of present-day Charlotte.

The Sissipahaw or Haw were a Native American tribe of North Carolina. They are also variously recorded as Saxahapaw, Sauxpa, Sissipahaus, etc. Their settlements were generally located in the vicinity of modern-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina on the Haw River in Alamance County upstream from Cape Fear. They are possibly first recorded by the Spaniard Vendera in the 16th century as the Sauxpa in South Carolina. Their last mention in history is that the tribe joined the Yamasee against the English colonists in the Yamasee War of 1715. Some scholars speculate that they may have been a branch of the Shakori due to being so closely associated with that tribe but others disagree with this assumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial American military history</span> Military record of the Thirteen Colonies from their founding to the American Revolution in 1775

Colonial American military history is the military record of the Thirteen Colonies from their founding to the American Revolution in 1775.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian slave trade in the American Southeast</span>

Native Americans living in the American Southeast were enslaved through warfare and purchased by European colonists in North America throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, as well as held in captivity through Spanish-organized forced labor systems in Florida. Emerging British colonies in Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia imported Native Americans and incorporated them into chattel slavery systems, where they intermixed with slaves of African descent, who would eventually come to outnumber them. The settlers' demand for slaves affected communities as far west as present-day Illinois and the Mississippi River and as far south as the Gulf Coast. European settlers exported tens of thousands of enslaved Native Americans outside the region to New England and the Caribbean.

Francis Le Jau was a missionary to South Carolina with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). Born into a French Huguenot family in the La Rochelle region of France he later fled to England during the persecution of Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He subsequently converted to Anglicanism and eventually graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1700 he moved to St. Christopher's Island where he served for 18 months at the request of Bishop Henry Compton. From 1706 until his death in 1717 Le Jau served as a missionary to South Carolina based in Goose Creek.

The Barbadian Adventurers were groups of English-descended colonists who migrated from the English colony of Barbados to establish and settle the Province of Carolina.

References

  1. Klingberg, F. (1939). "The Indian Frontier in South Carolina as Seen by the S.P.G. Missionary". The Journal of Southern History. 5 (4): 479–500. doi:10.2307/2191829. JSTOR   2191829.
  2. 1 2 Hicks, T.M. (1998). South Carolina Indians, Indian traders, and other ethnic connections beginning in 1670. Spartanburg, South Carolina: Reprint Company Publishers.
  3. 1 2 3 Le Jau, Francis (1956). The Carolina Chronicle of Dr. Francis Le Jau, 1706-1717. University of California. pp. 105–06.
  4. 1 2 Ramsey, William (2008). The Yamasee War . University of Nebraska. pp.  161–162.