Congaree people

The Congaree were a group of Native Americans who lived in what is now central South Carolina of the United States, along the Congaree River. Although early European observers thought they were likely of the Siouan language family given their geographic location and characteristics of neighboring tribes, later scholars have suggested they were non-Siouan. Their language was a dialect distinct from Siouan language, and not intelligible to their immediate Siouan neighbours, the Wateree.^[1]

In early 1715 the English colonist John Barnwell took a census that listed the Congaree as living in one village and having a population of 22 men and 70 women and children.^[2] During the Yamasee War of 1715, the Congaree joined in the fight against the colony of South Carolina. Over half were either killed or enslaved by the colonists and Cherokee.

In the subsequent decades, Congaree survivors merged with the larger Catawba people. Different tribes lived in their own villages within the loose Catawba federation. The Congaree tribe was able to maintain their distinction until the late 18th century. The tribe is now considered extinct. Some members of the present-day Catawba and other tribes of the Carolinas may be genetically descended from the Congaree.

Citations

1. ^ James Hart Merrell, The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. p.110
2. ^ Gallay, Alan (2002). The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South 1670-1717. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10193-7. 

External links

• http://sciway.net/hist/indians/congaree.html South Carolina Indians - Conagree
• http://sciway3.net/proctor/state/natam/congaree.html SCGenWeb - The Congaree