Sissipahaw

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Sissipahaw
Sissipahaw
Total population
Extinct [1] [2] ()
Regions with significant populations
On Haw River in present-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina. [2] Possibly in South Carolina. [3]
Languages
Probably Siouan [2]
Religion
Native American religion
Related ethnic groups
Shakori, [2] Catawba [2]

The Sissipahaw or Haw were a Native American tribe of North Carolina. 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. [2]

Contents

They are possibly first recorded by the Spaniard Vendera in the 16th century as the Sauxpa in South Carolina. [3] Their last mention in history is that the tribe joined the Yamasee against the English colonists in the Yamasee War of 1715. [1]

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. [2] [4]

Name

The meaning of sissipahaw is unknown but it probably derives from a Siouan language. [2] Colonel John Barnwell reported in a letter that the Sissipahaw were called Shacioes by some during the Tuscarora War. [4] Linguist Ives Goddard proposed that this may be the Sissipahaw's endonym, but he acknowledged that it was impossible to ascertain how Barnwell originally spelled the term due his letter surviving only as a copy. [4]

Their name is also recorded as Saxahapaw, Sauxpa, Sissipahau, Haw, etc.

History

A c. 1724 annotated copy of a deerskin Catawba map of the tribes between Charleston (left) and Virginia (right) following the displacements of a century of disease and enslavement and the 1715-17 Yamasee War. The Sissipahaw are labeled as "Saxippaha". Indians NW of South Carolina.jpg
A c. 1724 annotated copy of a deerskin Catawba map of the tribes between Charleston (left) and Virginia (right) following the displacements of a century of disease and enslavement and the 1715–17 Yamasee War. The Sissipahaw are labeled as "Saxippaha".

The Sissipahaw were possibly first encountered and recorded as the Sauxpa by the Spanish officer Vandera in 1569 as a placed visited by the explorer Juan Pardo. [2] If true, this would imply a historic migration from coastal South Carolina. [4] However, Goddard argued that this assumption is unfounded and primarily based on a misreading of a 19th-century rendering of "Sauapa" which itself is likely a misrendering of "Sanapa". [4] Regardless, the tribe is later referred to as the Sissipahau in 1701 by English explorer John Lawson, who had likely heard of them as living on the Haw River from his guide, Enoe Will, the chief of the Shakori. [5] Will had a Sissipahaw servant or slave who traveled alongside him and Lawson. [5] [1]

On January 28, 1712, during the Tuscarora War, an army of 450 Native Americans and 33 Europeans are noted to have rested at a recently abandoned Sissipahaw town on the Neuse River. [6]

The final mention of the tribe is in 1715, when they united with other tribes of the region to fight against the English in the Yamasee War. [2] [1] It is thought that the Sissipahaw, along with other remnants of Siouan tribes, joined the Catawba after the war. [2] In 1728, the site of the former Sissipahaw village was known as the Haw old fields and was noted as being the largest body of fertile land in the region. [1] Present-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina probably corresponds to the site of these old fields. [1]

Culture

The Haw River area was the homeland of the Sissipahaw Tribe Haw River.jpg
The Haw River area was the homeland of the Sissipahaw Tribe

Very little is known of the Sissipahaw, aside from a few notes in history. Archaeological evidence from Alamance County indicates that the Sissipahaw, much like the Shakori, lived in wigwam-like structures, farmed corn and beans, and hunted the woods for turkey, venison, and bear.[ citation needed ]

Language

While the Sissipahaw were probably of the Siouan linguistic family, their language is extinct, with no words being known. [2] Four numbers attributed to the Sissipahaw are given by the historian, Sallie Walker Stockard, in The History of Alamance, however, these numbers appear to be taken from John Lawson's word list of "Tuskeruro" which has been identified as the first substantial documentation of the Tuscarora language. [7] [8] [9]

Legacy

There is no recorded history of the Sissipahaw after the Yamasee War of 1715, other than to mention the tribe's participation against the English colonists. [6] Stockard states that the tribe is remembered through local names such as Haw River, Saxapahaw, and Altamahaw, North Carolina. [7] She also alleges the town of Ossipee, North Carolina derives its name from the tribe but the term "Ossipee" occurs in other states and has been thought to possibly derive from Abenaki. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamance County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Alamance County is a county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county seat is Graham. Formed in 1849 from Orange County to the east, Alamance County has been the site of significant historical events, textile manufacturing, and agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haw River</span> River in North Carolina, United States

The Haw River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River, approximately 110 mi (177 km) long, that is entirely contained in north central North Carolina in the United States. It was first documented as the "Hau River" by John Lawson, an English botanist, in his 1709 book "A New Voyage to Carolina." The name is shortened from Saxapahaw, from the Catawban /sak'yápha:/, "piedmont, foothill", from /sak/, "hill", plus /yápha:/, "step". The river gives its name to a small town that formed on its banks.

<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 Waccamaw people were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in villages along the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers in North and South Carolina in the 18th century.

The Cape Fear Indians were a small, coastal tribe of Native Americans who lived on the Cape Fear River in 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">Pedee people</span> Indigenous people of the Southeast United States

The Pedee people, also Pee Dee and Peedee, were a historic Native American tribe of the Southeastern United States. Historically, their population has been concentrated in the Piedmont of present-day South Carolina. It is believed that in the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists named the Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina for the tribe. Today four state-recognized tribes, one state-recognized group, and several unrecognized groups claim descent from the historic Pedee people. Presently none of these organizations are recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with the Catawba Indian Nation being the only federally recognized tribe within South Carolina.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coree</span> Extinct Native American tribe in North Carolina

The Coree were a very small Native American tribe, who once occupied a coastal area south of the Neuse River in southeastern North Carolina in the area now covered by Carteret and Craven counties. Early 20th-century scholars were unsure of what language they spoke, but the coastal areas were mostly populated by Iroquois and Algonquian peoples.

The Machapunga were a small Algonquian language–speaking Native American tribe from coastal northeastern North Carolina. They were part of the Secotan people. They were a group from the Powhatan Confederacy who migrated from present-day Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheraw</span> Historical Native American tribe from the Carolinas, U.S.

The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura, were a Siouan-speaking tribe of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, in the Piedmont area of North Carolina near the Sauratown Mountains, east of Pilot Mountain and north of the Yadkin River. They lived in villages near the Catawba River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occaneechi</span> Historical Native American tribe from Virginia and North Carolina

The Occaneechi are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands whose historical territory was in the Piedmont region of present-day North Carolina and Virginia.

The Congaree were a historic Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who once lived within what is now central South Carolina, along the Congaree 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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakori</span>

The Shakori were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. They were thought to be a Siouan people, closely allied with other nearby tribes such as the Eno and the Sissipahaw. As their name is also recorded as Shaccoree, they may be the same as the Sugaree, as both are Catawba people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woccon language</span> Extinct Catawban language of North Carolina

Woccon was one of two Catawban languages of what is now the Eastern United States. Together with the Western Siouan languages, they formed the Siouan language family. It is attested only in a vocabulary of 143 words, printed in a 1709 compilation by English colonist John Lawson of Carolina. The Woccon people that Lawson encountered have been considered by scholars to have been a late subdivision of the Waccamaw.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mooney, James (1894). The Siouan Tribes of the East. Johnson Reprint Corporation. pp. 64–66. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
  3. 1 2 Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 100. ISBN   9780806317304 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Goddard, Ives (2005). "The Indigenous Languages of the Southeast". Anthropological Linguistics. 47 (1): 25. ISSN   0003-5483. JSTOR   25132315 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  5. 1 2 Lawson, John (2010). A New Voyage to Carolina. BoD – Books on Demand. pp. 54–60. ISBN   978-3-86195-398-2 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  6. 1 2 Hicks, Theresa M.; Taukchiray, Wes (1998). South Carolina Indians, Indian Traders, and Other Ethnic Connections: Beginning in 1670. Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company. p. 44. ISBN   978-0-87152-508-6 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  7. 1 2 Stockard, Sallie Walker (1900). The History of Alamance. Capital Printing Company.
  8. ↑ Lawson, John (2010). A New Voyage to Carolina. BoD – Books on Demand. pp. 236–241. ISBN   978-3-86195-398-2 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  9. ↑ Rudes, Blair A. (1 January 1999). Tuscarora-English/English-Tuscarora Dictionary. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press. p. XV. ISBN   978-0-8020-4336-8 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  10. ↑ Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 358. ISBN   978-0-8061-3598-4 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
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