What Muriel Hazel Wright said about the Catawba

Here is what Muriel Hazel Wright wrote of the Catawba who came to Oklahoma in her famous book, A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. For those who don't know of her, her grandfather was once the Principle Chief of the Choctaw Nation, and he was the man who suggested naming the future state "Oklahoma".

Here one can find a little about that:

Choctaw Place Names in "Oklahumma" - School of Choctaw Language (choctawschool.com).

It states: The first Choctaw name that we must mention is "Oklahoma" itself. Following the Civil War, delegates from the 5 Civilized Tribes traveled to Washington D.C. to resume formal relationships with the US government. During the meeting, federal officials proposed the creation of an Indian Territory. Choctaw delegate Rev. Allen Wright suggested naming it "Oklahumma" (Meserve 1941:319). In the Choctaw language "okla" means "people" and "humma" means "red". Thus, the area would be named Oklahoma Territory, or literally "Territory of the Red People". Today "The State of Oklahoma" literally means "The state belonging to Red People".

If you ever attend a Choctaw pow-wow or ceremony -- even if like me, you know nothing of their language -- you might literally hear the words "Okla [short pause] Homa" repeatedly used.

Ms. Wright was the Lead Editor of Oklahoma's Historical Journal; "Chronicles of Oklahoma" for many years. She was the utmost authority on Oklahoma's history during her lifetime and is still well respected, locally. Her book, "A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma" is where all research of Oklahoma's Native peoples must begin. Since the Catawba were never recognized in Oklahoma, one wonders why she mentions us at all. Well, she always knew of us. With her being Choctaw, and a historian, she is more qualified than most to talk bout the Catawba, seeing as how the Choctaw adopted a few Catawba into the Choctaw Nation. She wrote only two pages about us -- but that's enough. This is copyrighted material and I am hoping they don't mind me sharing this small part of the history of a forgotten people. Although I'd like to add comments on it as parts need an explanation -- I'd like to leave it as she said it. I just this morning finished transcribing those two pages she wrote referring to the Catawba in Oklahoma. That transcription is below:

Catawba

The name Catawba is said to be from the Yuchi term “kotaba”, “strong people” from the Yuchi words ka -- people and taba – strong.

The Catawba comprise one of the most important Eastern tribes of the Siouan linguistic family. Their original historic home was in South Carolina, where they consisted of two bands, the Catawba and the Iswa, the latter name derived from the Catawba word iswa, “river”, which was their only tribal name for both the Catawba and Wateree rivers.

Eary descriptions of the Catawba vary according to their changing fortune in history. Generally they were praised for their bravery, courage and honesty. Their warlike disposition led them into constant wars with the northern Iroquois and Shawnee. Their advantageous location and their strength as a tribe made them the dominant group that absorbed the weakened remnants of some twenty smaller neighboring tribes in a loose confederacy by 1763. In early tribal days the Catawba were sedentary agriculturalists. Their men were good hunters, and their women were noted as makers of pottery and basketry.

Present location: The descendents of some of the Catawba who settled in the Choctaw Nation are now absorbed into the Indian population of Haskell and Leflore counties. The descendants of some of the Catawba who settled in the Creek and Cherokee Nations have been reported living southeast of Checotah in McIntosh County. The main portion of the tribe live in the eastern part of York County, South Carolina.

Numbers: There are few Catawba in Oklahoma, and these are counted in the general Indian population of the state. They were last enumerated as a separate tribe in this region in 1896, their total population in Indian Territory being given as 132. The largest portion, or 78, living in the Choctaw Nation, most of them in the region between the present cities of Stigler and Spiro. Seventeen of them gave Checotah, Creek Nation, as their post office, and fifteen lived around Texanna, in the southwestern part of the Cherokee Nation, now included in McIntosh County. In the same year (1896) there were 125 Catawba living in Arkansas, most of them in and around Greenwood and Barber. The numbers steadily declined from 4,600 in 1682 to 250 in 1784 through wars and epidemics. Their entire population in 1820 was recorded as 450 on the South Carolina Reservation. In 1900 at the same location, there were about 100. In 1944, 320 Catawba were reported living in South Carolina, on and around their reservation in York County.

History: The traditional history of the Catawba indicated that the migrated from the northwest to their present historic abode in western South Carolina where the Ysa or Iswa were first reported by Juan Pardo’s Spanish expedition in 1566-67. Although they were one of the tribes allied with the Yamassee against the English in the war that ended in 1715, at all other times the Catawba were loyal to the people of South Carolina.

Their last great tribal Chief, Haiglar, described as a man of sterling character and greatly beloved by his people, was murdered by the Shawnee on August 30, 1763. He had offered his services and had been of great assistance to the South Carolina troops to the defeat of the Cherokee in 1759. During the Revolutionary War, the tribe fought on the side of the colonist against the British. In the 20 year period before 1840, the tribe was at the lowest ebb of its existence. In March of that year, a treaty was signed with South Carolina by the Tribal Chief, Colonel Samuel Scott, a grandson of Chief Haiglar, providing for the cession of more that 100,000 acres of the most fertile lands in the state for a few thousand dollars and the removal of the tribe to North Carolina. When North Carolina would not provide a location for the Catawba, nearly all of them returned to the region of their old homes, a few of them continuing to live in 652 acres in York County, called ‘the Old Reservation,” which was the only tract retained by the tribe in 1840. In October 1848, William Morrison, chief of a band of Catawba (42 persons) living at Quallatown, Hayward County, North Carolina, addressed a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking for the appointment of a superintendent to remove his people to Indian Territory under the provisions of an Indian Act of July 29th, 1848, appropriating $5,000 for the removal of the Catawba “living in the limits of North Carolina.” These people expressed their preference for settlement among the Chickasaw, but the Chickasaw Council took no action on the subject. In December 1851 a party of 19 Catawba reached Skullyville in the Choctaw Nation, 6 of the 25 who had left Carolina having died on the way west. A peaceful law abiding people seeking a location for their homes, they asked for admittance into the Choctaw Nation and the right to settle permanently in this part of Indian Territory.. On November 9, 1853, the Choctaw General Council enacted legislation investing William Morrison, Thomas Morrison, Sarah Jane Morrison, and eleven other Catawba bearing the family names of Redhead, Heart, Ayers, and Keggo, all with the rights and privileges of Choctaw citizens. A further act of the Choctaw Council on Nov. 12th, 1856 declared all fourteen Catawba adopted in 1853”jointly entitled to a full participation in all funds arising under the treaty of 1855 between the Choctaws and the United States.”

The government never assigned a definite location for the Catawba in the Indian Territory, but some of them settled in the Creek Nation. Living in the vicinity of Checotah in the 1880s was Judge LeBlanche, a Catawba who married a Creek and became prominent in Creek tribal affairs. He was a prosperous cattleman and merchant and served as judge in the court of the Creek Nation for several years.

In 1944 the South Carolina legislature granted the Catawba all the rights and privileges of citizens of that state, and their children attending public schools and institutions of higher learning. They are primarily of mixed White and Indian blood, thoroughly Americanized in speech, dress and custom. In the public park at Rock Hill, Catawba Township, York County, a handsome monument was erected around 1900 to the memory of 17 Catawba who served faithfully in the Confederate Army from South Carolina.

Suggested reading: Bradford, The Catawba Indians of South Carolina; 54th Congress, 2nd session, Doc. # 144; Grant Foreman, Last Trek of the Indians; Hodge, Handbook of the American Indians; Milling, Red Carolinians; Swanton, Indians of the Southeastern United States.