Native American SC Standard 8-1.CC

The culture, political systems and daily life of the Eastern Woodlands (named so because they were forest dwellers) were affected by the geography of the region in which they lived. Waterways, flora, and fauna were plentiful. They used rivers for transportation and fishing. They used rocks, wood, and animal pelts to create tools for hunting and farming and to make clothing. They used tree trunks to build dugout canoes. Housing was made from natural resources available in the area such as tree bark and animal hides. The land was fertile, with rolling hills and clay soil, which allowed the people of the Eastern Woodlands to developed farming. The men used sharp points carved from rocks and animal bones for hunting as well as bows and arrows because they had not yet discovered iron. Because Eastern Woodlands natives farmed, they settled into more permanent villages than did their nomadic ancestors. The nation worked the land together and did not have a sense of private ownership of the land, believing instead that the land was held in trust by tribal groups. The Native Americans of the Woodlands cut trees and burned the brush (called slash and burn agriculture) to create farmland or to drive out animals and clear a field for farming. Women of the village, who gathered fruits and nuts, were also the principal farmers, using simple hoes made of bone. Their primary crops were corn, pole beans, squash, (known as the “three sisters”), pumpkins, and bottle gourds which they planted together using corn stalks as poles for the beans. They also grew tobacco.

There were many Eastern Woodlands tribes in South Carolina. Each had specific ways of living depending upon where they lived. South Carolina tribes spoke different languages, but all preserved their history through the oral tradition of storytelling. The three most important tribes were the Cherokee of the mountains, the Catawba of the Piedmont region, and the Yemassee who lived along the coast. The Cherokee was a Native American nation that lived in the foothills and mountains of South Carolina at the time of the encounter with Europeans. The Cherokee called themselves ‘the real people’ and were a powerful nation. The Cherokee lived in villages of up to six hundred people

surrounded by a palisade for protection. Their summer homes were open to the air; their winter homes were round structures with thick walls made of a mixture of grass and clay called daub. The roofs were made of bark and branches called wattle. The men fished by poisoning the water with walnut bark. This stunned the fish and made them rise in the water to be gathered. Leaders of the village, including women, met as a council to make rules for the nation. In times of peace, the village was led by a White leader; in times of war, the Red leader took over. Each village also had a holy man or woman.

The Catawba tribe, who called themselves the “river people”, lived along the rivers of the Piedmont region in villages surrounded by a palisade. Their homes were wigwams made of sapling frames covered with bark or mats made of grasses and reeds. The Catawba also had council houses in their villages where leaders made the rules for the people. The Catawba were great potters, using clay that they shaped into pots.

The Yemassee nation was originally from Spanish Florida (present day Georgia) but later moved to the coast of South Carolina near the mouth of the Savannah River to escape the Spanish governor. During the summer the people lived on the beach in wigwams covered with palmetto leaves which were plentiful in the area. During the fall, winter, and spring they lived farther inland in wattle and daub homes like the Cherokee with a roof of palmetto leaves. Clams and oysters were part of their diet. The Yemassee also had a council that sometimes included women. The Yemassee fled to Florida after the Yemassee War with the settlers.

When Europeans arrived, the people of the Eastern Woodlands traded furs and deerskins for iron tools, weapons, and guns. As the settlers became more prosperous and numerous, they took over more of the native peoples’ lands, cheated them in trade, and forced some of the natives into slavery, leading to hostilities between the settlers and the people of the Eastern Woodlands nations.