1. The Earliest Americans
8-1.1
Summarize the collective and individual aspects of the Native American culture of the Eastern Woodlands tribal group, including the Catawba, Cherokee, and Yemassee.
The Earliest Americans
Native Americans and the New World

2. Native Americans in South Carolina
The first American Indians came to South Carolina about 13,000 B.C.
Native Americans were divided into regional groups based on where people lived & languages they spoke
South Carolina’s Native Americans = Eastern Woodlands

3. Native American Ways of Life
Tribes spoke different languages, but also had many things in common. They all:
Lived close to nature and adapted their life styles to the landscape.
Saw their own well-being as intertwined with the health of their natural environment.
Women had power.
Did not have a concept of personal land ownership. Land was held ‘in trust’, by the tribe.

4. Eastern Woodland Indians
1st to encounter European settlers, who called them Eastern Woodlanders, because they were forest dwellers
Used Natural Resources
Rivers – Transportation & Fishing
Clothing – Animal pelts/hides
Tools – Rock or Wood
Shelter – Tree bark & animal hides
Land – Fertile, rolling hills & clay soil

5. Roles of Men and Women MEN Men cleared the land and hunted for food
They fought when necessary
They trained boys to follow the same role
WOMEN
Planted and harvested crops
Cared for children and trained the girls
Some women even served as chiefs.

6. Native American Politics
Each group had a chief
There were separate chiefs for war (red) and peace (white).
Each group had a spiritual leader, or medicine man. He or she led the worship and healed the sick.
Met as a council to make rules (women were included)

7. Native American Land Use (Technology)
They used sharp points carved from rocks and animal bones for hunting as well as spears, and bows and arrows
Housing was made from natural resources available in the area such as tree bark and animal hides.
Clay and sand was used to make pottery.
How do we know this? The Artifacts left behind. Artifacts are objects remaining from a particular period made by humans.

8. Native American Spear Points

9. Movement of Native Americans
The groups never stayed in one area.
In many cases, groups would leave after wars.
The first Native Americans were hunters and gatherers. Nomadic: ______________________________
Over time they developed agriculture (farming) techniques and began to settle down in one area year round.
They cut trees and burned the brush to create farmland, (slash/burn agriculture) which was plentiful and fertile.
Rocks and bones were used for farm tools.
They grew corn, (pole) beans, squash, (known as the “three sisters”)pumpkins, tobacco and gourds.

10. South Carolina Eastern Woodland Indians
The 3 most important SC tribes are:
- Cherokee = mountains
- Catawba = Piedmont region
- Yemassee = Along the coast

11. The Cherokee They lived in the foothills and mountains of SC
Part of the Iroquoian language group
Called themselves the “Real People.”
Were a powerful nation
Lived in villages w/ up to 600 people in daub and wattle houses.
Summer homes = Open air
Winter homes = made of a mixture of grass and clay called daub.
Roofs made of bark and
branches called wattle.

12. Cherokee Lands in SC

13. The Catawba Part of the Siouan language grouped
Called themselves the “River People”
Lived along the rivers of the piedmont region (York & Lancaster County)
Homes were wigwams - sapling frames covered with bark or mats made of grasses and reeds.
They are famous for their clay pottery
Today, the Catawba are the only officially recognized tribe in SC

14. Wigwams

15. Catawba Pottery

16. The Yemassee Part of the Muskogean language group
Originally from Spanish Florida but moved to the coast of SC near the mouth of the Savannah River to escape the Spanish.
During the summer they lived on the beach in wigwams
Fall, winter, and spring - inland in wattle and daub homes like the Cherokee.
Clams and oysters were part of their diet.
They fled back to Florida after war with the settlers, called the Yemassee War.

17. Native American Nations

18. When Europeans Arrive
Eastern Woodland Indians traded furs and deerskins for iron tools, weapons, and guns.
As the number of settlers increased they took Native American land, cheated them in trade, and forced many into slavery. This led to hostilities between the two groups

19. Europeans Arrive
Native American life changed greatly when the Europeans began to come to South Carolina
Disease from the arriving Europeans began infecting the natives, and because their immune systems were not able to fight off the new strains of diseases, the Indians began dying by the thousands.
The most prominent disease was Smallpox.
Native American tribes in SC would never be the same

20. Countries that will settle SC
Spain
Great Britain / England
France