Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1916-05-24
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
CDR. ]. w. Daniel, in Southern Chris
tian AdYOCate.)

Is not very reliable expositor of the
legends OF the State, If his assertions
relative to the legend Of Cateechee Is
a sample.
If James Henry Rice has confessed
that he created that legend out Of
his poetic fancy" he must have been
dreaming. Having been reared not
a great way from Ninety-Six, l have
been familiar with the legend from
earliest boyhood. When was about
16 years old heard Gen. McGowan
relate the story Of Cateechee's ride.
In the year 1880. a Mr.. Robbins,
who lived above Gap Hill, in Pickens
county, and near the site Of the an
cient lower capital Of the Cherokees,
pointed out to me the site of the
town from which Cateechee was sup
posed to have begun her journey He
also told me Of the legend which he
had known from boyhood. Mr.. Rob
bins was then nearly 90 years old.
The late Col. r. A. Thompson, who
signed the "Ordinance Of Secession"
was familiar with the legend. His
oldest daughter told me Of the leg
end as she had learned it from her
father, when was freshman at COL
lege. Surely then, there must be
some mistake if James Henry Rice
claimed to have created it. Hon. j.
w. Powell, who was director Of the
Bureau OF Ethnology, United States
Government, in the SOS and SOS,
wrote me relative to the legend in
1891.
But all else aside, the editor of the
Greenwood Index seems to have for
gotten, or is ignorant of the fact, that
20 ri oI.. f<,l
as place names, with the legend and
end of the line, and not from Ninety
Six-OneMile Creek, just one mile
below the site of the old Cherokee
town, from which Cateechee is re-
ported to have fed; next SiX-Mile
Mountain; then in the order in which
they are mentioned-Twel lie
River, the Eighteenth Creek, Three
and-Twenty Creek. and Six-and-
Twenty Creek-all respectively those
distances from the Cherokee town.
Fort Prince George was not far
from where Clemson College now
stands-below where the Twelve
Mile empties into the Keowee, and
was not built until after the tradi-
tiOnal trip Of Cateechee.
l make one bold challenge to the
editor of the Index: If James Henry
Rice claims to have invented the leg
end Of Cateechee, then he invented
also the name of the heroine, which
Is pure Cherokee word. If he, or
the editor of the Greenwood Index,
Will invent, by pure, poetic fancy or
otherwise, just one other pure, intel
ligible Cherokee word, conforming to
the ancient dialect Of that tribe, then,
"the dogs theirs"
In the year 1880 an old noun
taineer, living in the upper part of
Pickens county, told me the legend
of Cateechee, but instead Of the hero
inc, Cateechee, he credited the deed
to Issaquena. His statement led me
ultimately to write "Cateechee of
Keowee." My idea was not so much
to perpetuate the old legend as to
work out translation Of the Indian
place-names in the upper part of the
State. l took the old legend and
wove these place-names into it. Very
much, therefore, to my surprise, l
found that Issaquena was not Chero-
kee, but pure Choctaw, and the only
Choctaw place-name which survives
in the ancient territory OF the Chero-
KEGS. This fact Interested me. BY
the help of j. w. Powell and Prof.
Mooney, both connected then with
the Bureau Of Ethnology, | translat-
eel every place-name in upper Caro-
lima, and very much to my surprise,
1ssaquena, the Choctaw word, and
Cateechee, the Cherokee word, were
identical in meaning, signifying
"Deer's Head" l, therefore, assum-
ed, having heard the two versions Of
the legend, and having the statement
of Adair, that the Cherokees, at the
time OF his visit to the nation, held
many Choctaw girls as slaVes-that
Cateechee was not the daughter OF
Kuruga, but captive Choctaw slave
girl, which made it all the more rea-
sonable that she revealed the plot to
destroy the trading-post of Ninety
Six.
If traditions could be proved, they
would no longer be legends, but his
tory. | would not be so foolish as to
undertake to prove the legend Of Ca
teechee, nor any other legend, as to
that matter; however, ! see no rea-
son for trying to disprove them. The
legend Of Cateechee is better estab-
lished than most Of the Indian leg
ends of America.
'It is SO anyway YOU read it," said
an old Legislator when there was an
effort to change the name. Road it
as 1t is written, 90, and then turn it
upside down and it is still o." and
they did not change 1t, nor will the
editor Of the Index demolish the ira
dition on which it is founded.
Marion, S. c.