The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-08-26

! out-thaI was before was born. My
father was in it. He said the foreign
Indians slipped in and killed some OF
our people and when we saw them we
went upon them and killed them.
"When the Revolutionary war was
over George Washington gave fifteen
square miles of land here. We have
been cheated out of it.
IT was living during the war of 1872
was only boy. 1 heard talk of the
fighting when it was going on.
[ was not in the late war. Other In
dians were though; good many went,
about twenty.
II have married twice and have five
children in all. We can't have but
one wife, and that ain t right. "
Uncle Billy lives with his family in
little hut near the river; large oak
and few fruit trees shade his door
steps; wild rosebush near the chin
ney perfumes the air; the tall pine
trees in the forest sigh, and more
pathetic scene is not to be found in
natures abode than Uncle Billy sit
ting in his cabin door with his hand
upon the head of a little Indian girl
beside him, the breeze from the river
playing alike with grizzled hair and
raven locks. As the old man turns
his eyes to the forest and speaks Of his
generation already gone before, the
stranger, who is listening is more apt
to feel deeper interest in those he,
too, will soon leave behind.
Uncle Billy manages to keep the
wolf from the door by selling pipes,
and occasionally an old.fashioned To-
Gust bow, with feathered arrows.
With one of these bows his feeble
hand can send an arrow across the Ca
tawba, or if shot vertically upward,
until lost to sight.
The bent form and inGrm step of
the old Indian indicate that it Eill not
be long before he will sit under the
trees near his cabin, as he is wont to
do, and watch the sunset on the Ca
tawba for the last time.
The condition Of the Catawba tribe,
both financially and morally, is pitt
full. They have good lands it is true,
but just as well put boy in an office
we'll equipped with legal literature,
and tell him to be lawyer, as to give
an Indian land and tell him to be a
farmer-both need a guiding hand.
It is said that the Catawbas are
more or less addicted to the morphine
habit, and they often beg for simple
household medicines, which they take
for the sake of the opium they con-
tain. 1t is not an uncommon sight to
see these people, and often the wo-
men, on the streets of Rock Hill after
dark starting on foot in a pouring
rain for the reservation 9 miles away.
The tribe has neither schools nor
churches, and it is shame that in a
Christian country they never hear the
Gosrel. In our ardor for foreign
missions we should not pass by and
neglect the heather in our midst.
It is time for South Carolina to take
some steps to better the condition Of
these much wronged and mistreated
people. If anyone is entitled to the
States bounty they are! At least
give them a school and a chaplain,
and encourage them to become en-
lightened.
The following is an extract from the
annual report of the bureau of eth
nology, (18S3-94:)
"By the terms of an Act of Con-
gress, approved July 20, 1848, an ap-
preparation Of $4,000 was made to de-
fray the expenses of removing the
Catawba Indians from Carolina to the
country west Of the Mississippi River,
provided their assent should be OBJ
tained, and also conditioned upon sue
cess in securing a home for them
among some congenial tribe in that re-
gion without cosO to the Government.
"Their possessions have been cur
tailed to tract Of some fifteen square
miles on the Catawba River, on the
northern border Of South Carolina,
and the whites of the surrounding re-
gions were generally desirous Of see
ing them removed from the State.
"In pursuance, therefore, of the
provision of the Act of 1848, an effort
was made by the authorities of the
United States to find home for them
west of the Mississippi River. Cor
respondence was opened with the Cher
okee authorities on the subject during
the summer of that year, but the
Cherokees being unwilling to devote
any portion of their domain to the
use and occupation of any other tribe
without being fully compensated
therefor the subject was dropped.
Had the Catawbas been removed it
is likely that they would have profited
by the Government schools and by re-
ceiving the attention of the Govern
ment, which, perhaps on account of
their isolation, they do not now re-
ceive.
Let the General Government be ap-
pealed to, and let the next Legislature
do something for our Indians. Let a
commission be appointed to look into
their affairs, and let something be done
promptly in their behalf.
The Catawba Indians should be
dealt with justly, and their traditions
and customs should be rescued from
oblivion before they are forever lost.
However grand or however simple they
may be, they are important and they
should be collected and preserved.
For this task there is probably no one
in the State better fitted than MIR.
Mcdonald Furman, who has long been
making the Catawba tribe study.
If the Indians are to be civilized,
let it be done at once, else carry them
to the wilds and turn them loose!
Half century ago William Crafts
prepared a petition to the Legislature
of South Carolina for Peter Horriss, a
Catawba Indian. Let us read it and
reflect:
II am one of the lingering survivors
of an almost extinguishcd race. Our
graves will soon be our only habita-
tions. I am one Of the few stalks
which still remain in the field after
the tempest of the Revolution is pass
cd. | fought the British for your
sake. The British have disappeared,
nor have I gained any thing by their
defeat. I pursued the deer for sub
sistencc; the deer are disappearing and
T ,,,,c4 st,r,,o I'D orJ poJ mn. Gov