SANTEE INDIANS IN SOUTH CAROLINA

THE SANTEE TRIBE PROBABLY SPOKE SIOUAN AND FORMERLY RESIDED ON THE SANTEE RIVER WHERE LAWSON IN 1700 FOUND THEIR PLANTATION EXTENDING FOR MANY MILES. ONE OF THEIR VILLAGES WAS HICKEREW. IN 1700'S THEY WERE AT WAS WITH SOME COASTAL TRIBES. LIKE THE CHEROKEE AND OTHER SOUTHERN TRIBES THEY KEPT CORN IN STOREHOUSES RAISED ON POSTS AND PLASTERED WITH CLAY. THEY MADE BEAUTIFUL FEATHER ROBES AND WOVEN CLOTH.

SOME SIOUAN SPEAKING TRIBES ALSO INHABITED TERRITORY IN VIRGINIA, MARYLAND AND NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA. AN EARTH MOUND ALONG THE SANTEE RIVER BELIEVED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH MISSISSIPPI CULTURE (1000 - 1500 AD) STANDS ON THE SHORE OF LAKE MANON. THE MOUND PROBABLY REPRESENTS THE BURIAL OF A SHAMAN IN PREHISTORIC TIMES, BEFORE THE SANTEE GATHERED HERE. DURING HISTORIC TIMES THEY SPOKE CATAWBA.

HISTORICALLY IT WAS A SMALL TRIBE OF ABOUT 3000 AROUND 1600 AD. THEY HAD A TRIBAL RELIGION AND LATER ADOPTED CHRISTIANITY. DURING 1600'S THEY ENCOUNTERED THE SPANIARDS. BY 1700'S THEY WERE VISITED BY JOHN LAWSON WHO FOUND THEIR PLANTATIONS ALONG THE SANTEE RIVER FOR MILES.

THE SANTEE HAD ELABORATE BURIAL RITUALS. THEY BURIED CHIEFS, SHAMANS, WARRIORS ON MOUNDS. A STRUCTURE MADE ON TOP OF WOODEN POLES WAS PLACED ON TOP OF THE MOUNDS TO PROTECT THE BODIES. THE RELATIVES HUNG FETHERS AND RATTLES ON POLES. COMMON PEOPLE WERE WRAPPED AFTER THEY DIED AND THEIR RELATIVE WOULD KEEP A VIGIL AT THE GRAVE FOR SEVERAL DAYS. THEY CLEANED THE BONES AND PLACED THEM IN BOXES.

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