Wateree is an Indian tribe that was one of the first to meet Europeans on the East Coast. For the first time, the tribe mentions in 1567 Bandera, the scribe of the Spanish captain Juan Pardo, in a report on an expedition to the interior of Carolina, called Guatari , as well as the village in which they lived. [1] Bandera wrote that the tribe was ruled by two women leaders. [2]
Researchers conclude from the few surviving information that the Wateries were native speakers of one of the Sioux-Catoban languages . The name Wateree , perhaps, comes from the word wateran from the Katoba language, meaning "swim in water" [2] .
According to the observations of the Spaniards, the waters in Guatea lived far from the coast. Their settlement is believed to have been located on the territory of the modern Rowan County in North Carolina. Later English colonists noted that in 1670, the Watery lived in the upper reaches of the Yadkin River , northwest of their later habitat. In 1700, as members of a group of Englishmen led by John Lawson noted, the waters migrated south and settled near the modern city of Camden in South Carolina. [2]
According to the observations of Europeans, the leaders of the Watery had much broader powers than the leaders of the neighboring Indian tribes of the region.
During the Yamasian War, the Watery tribe was defeated, its remnants became part of the confederation, where the Katoba tribe dominated. The last time the term "Watery" was mentioned in 1744 in a document on the sale of land by the Watery tribe to white settlers. Watery was then assimilated by the larger Katoba people. [2]
Notes
- ↑ Catherine Clabby, “Dig finds evidence of Spanish fort” , News Observer , 1 Aug 2004, accessed 26 Jun 2008
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 “Wataree Indian Tribe History” , Access Genealogy, Indian Tribal Records, from Handbook of American Indians , 1906, accessed Mar 13, 2009
Links
- Wateree Native American Indians from South Carolina , SCIway.net
Literature
- Hodge, Frederick W. Handbook of North American Indians. '' Washington, DC .: Government Printing Press, 1910.
- Mooney, James. Siouan Tribes of the East . Washington, DC .: Government Printing Press, 1894.
- Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America . Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1952; reprint, 1984, pp. 90-92.