Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-10-21
BEFORE PALE FACES,
Facts of Interest to the Student
of EthnoIogy.
Indian Tribes Who Havc Left Only silvery
and Soft Sounding Names to Ncighbor-
hoods Round About Charlotte.

l
esting sketch to the Charlotte OBJ
server:
To the student of ethnology there is
no field that Offers greater Inducements
than the region of country within q
radius OF hundred miles of Char
lotte. VI Sn"i
when the white man first settled in
america he found the country already
occupied by a race of peopLa that m,
uaS Is very few in number and that for
me most part is removed far west of
tneir original habitations. These abo-
riglnal tribes belonged to n few great
S.ocks OF which the Algonquin, the
lroquois and the Sioux were, the chief
| Ihose tribes which lived in the sec
tlon named above We're almost Wholly
OF the Sioux stock. strange as il may
seem on account OF the fact that now
me Sioux tribes are. With one eXcep-
| tion, found in the far West These
people have almost entirely disappeared
| rom this part of the country the re.
suit partly of the dcVaStatious OF dis
ease and war, partly because they have
Willingly or unwillingly migrated to
lands where the white man does not
care to 20 himself. There were orig
| inally more than thirty tribes in the
area mentioned. But while this race
OF people are no longer the inhabitants
OF this section, we Will never be with
| oNt tIdl tncN once were
here. The names of the counties. towns.
rivers and creeks, that are very com
| mon in the CarolinaS. will always be
| here to keep us from forgetting that
we are the posScSSors OF this region,
only because we were stronger and
shrewder than the people who were
here before us.
Many of these names are such as to
tell us at once of their origin. When IL
person hears the names Chcraw, Max
haw, Catawba. etc. he knows at once
that he is listening TO an Indian name.
But there are few who can tell YOU the
meaning or whether the word is the
name of the tribe or not. When the
writer first visited WaNhaw. he asked
the origin of the name and was told
that it was an Indian name that was
given To Il creek Il few miles below the
town and that it referred to the soil.
| That llaw was the Indian name for
clay or mud and that the prefix Wax
| was given because the soil was sticky
| like wax. liut, of course. this would
not do for ono can see at a glance that
! this would he a combination of the
English WAX" with the Indian
! "llaw.' which would at once prove it's
| absurdity
This name is given tn Il strip of coun-
| try extending along WaXhaw creek for
| several miles and the real fact is that
| 1t has nothing To do with the nature of
! the soil. but is the name of distant
! tribe OF Indians who lived along this
creek and whose principal village was
| located at or near the place where the
| Charlotte and Lancaster road crosses
This creek ana not far from the site OF
! the house in which Andrew Jackson
was born.
This tribe was so reduced by disease
and war that they joined the Catawbas
and We're finally amalgamated into
that tribe.
The town of Cheraw. in South Caro-
lima. Is named from the Cheraw or Sara
| tribe
Probably Their are few people living
III the vicinity of Sugar creek in Neck
lenburg county who can tell where the
name oris'ha'ed. In the seventeenth
century, according To the works of the
Bureau of American Ethnology. the
country along this creek was occupicd
by the Sugcree tribe. and though the
very fact of their former existence is
| known to few people now occupyinr
these lands. yet their name has been
perpetuated by the name of this creek
and the church which stands near IT,.
While Mt the recent meeting of Neck
lcnburg Prcsbytcry at sharon Church,
the writer heard different persons ask
as to the origin of the name that is
given to the church and the township
In which the meeting was held. No
answer was given. but in looking over
the tribal map OF this section published
by the Smithsonian Institute | find
that the Chcraws We're sometimes
called Saras Charrows. Sharawas.
etc. and that they roamed over n tract
of country from the village of Chernw
rs far as the Catawba river. Ii would
not be hard to get the name from this
| tribe. / do not say that such was the
origin of the name. but simply make
this suggestion. in the making of