| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| US (North Carolina,South Carolina) | |
| Languages | |
| unattested, possibly anEastern Siouan language, perhaps closely related toWoccon[1] | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Winyaw,[2]Catawba[1] |
TheWaccamaw people were anIndigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in villages along theWaccamaw andPee Dee rivers inNorth and South Carolina in the 18th century.[1][3]
The meaning of the nameWaccamaw is unknown.Francisco of Chicora, a 16th-century Indian man kidnapped by Spanish colonists, wrote it asGuacaya.[1]
The Waccamaw language was not recorded and remainsunattested. The language likely belonged to theSiouan language family.[1] English explorerJohn Lawson published a 143-word vocabulary of the possibly relatedWoccon language in 1709.[4]
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People in the area have built sedentary villages since at least 3,000 to 500 BP[a].Maize became a staple crop in the regions. Complex chiefdoms first arose in the area between 1150 and 1200 AD. Tribes neighboring the Waccamaw included theSewees,Santees, Sampits (Sampa),Winyahs, andPedees.[5]
According toethnographerJohn R. Swanton, the Waccamaw may have been one of the first mainland groups of Natives visited by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Within the second decade of the 16th century, Francisco Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos captured and enslaved several Native Americans, and transported them to the island ofHispaniola where they had a base. Most died within two years, although they were supposed to have been returned to the mainland.
One of the Native men kidnapped by the Spanish in 1521,Francisco de Chicora was baptized and learned Spanish. He worked forLucas Vázquez de Ayllón. The explorer took him to Spain. Chicora told the court chroniclerPeter Martyr about more than 20Indigenous peoples who lived in present-day South Carolina, among which he mentioned the "Chicora" and the "Duhare". Their tribal territories comprised the northernmost regions.[6]
Swanton believed that Chicora was referring to the peoples who became known as the Waccamaw and theCape Fear Indians, respectively.[7]
European contact decimated the Waccamaw. Having no naturalimmunity to endemic Eurasianinfectious diseases, such assmallpox andmeasles, the Waccamaw, like many southeastern Native peoples, had high mortality rates from the new diseases. The 1715 Carolina colonial census listed their population as 610 total, with 210 men.[8]
By the early 18th century, theCheraw, a relatedSiouan people of the Southeastern Piedmont, tried to recruit the Waccamaw to support theYamasee and other tribes against English colonists during theYamasee War in 1715. The Cheraw made peace with the English.[1]
The English colonists founded a trading post in Euaunee, "the Great Bluff," in 1716. The 1720 census recorded that they had 100 warriors.[8] The Waccamaw engaged in a brief war against the South Carolina colony in 1720, and 60 Waccamaw men, women, and children were either killed or captured by the colonists as a result.[9]
In 1755, John Evans noted in his journal thatCherokee andNatchez warriors killed some Waccamaw andPedee "in the white people’s settlements."[8]
While the Waccamaw were never populous, the arrival of settlers and their diseases in the 16th century resulted in devastating population loss and dispersal. AnthropologistJames Mooney estimated the 1600s population of the "Waccamaw, Winyaw, Hook, &c" at 900 people, while the 1715 census records only one remaining Waccamaw village with a total population of 106 people, 36 of them men.[10]
In the later 19th century, the ancestors of theState-recognized tribe claiming descent from the historic Waccamaw, known as the "Waccamaw Siouan Indians", cultivatedcorn,tobacco and cotton as commodity crops, as well as swine, oxen, poultry, and sheep, similarly toyeomen among the neighboringAfrican-Americanfreedmen andEuropean-Americans. They slowly sold off their land due to rising taxes and debt, and increasingly turned to wage labor by the end of the century. Men collectedturpentine from pine trees to supplement their income, while women grew cash crops, including tobacco and cotton, and worked as domestic laborers or farmhands.[11] In 1910, they organized a council to oversee community issues. A school funded byColumbus County to serve their children opened in 1934. At the time, public education was still racially segregated in the state. Before this, they had been required to send their children to schools for African Americans.[12]
North Carolinarecognized the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe of North Carolina in 1971.[13] The community is centered inBladen andColumbus counties, North Carolina.[3] They have unsuccessfully tried to gainfederal recognition.[14] They hold membership on the NC Commission of Indian Affairs as per NCGS 143B-407, and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1977.Lumbee Legal Services, Inc., represents the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe in its administrative process for seeking federal recognition.[15][16][17]
In 2005 South Carolina recognized theWaccamaw Indian People,[18] a501(c)(3) nonprofit organization inConway, South Carolina.[19][20] with an office inAynor, South Carolina.
Both organizations claim to descend from the historic Waccamaw people.
The Waccamaw Sioux Indian Tribe of Farmers Union is anunrecognized tribe based in Clarkton, North Carolina, that incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2001.[21]
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