South Carolina – Indians, Native Americans – Yemassee

South Carolina SC Native Americans SC Indian Tribes SC Yemassee Indians

Name, Language

Extinct - though some of their descendants remain in South Carolina others may have formed the Oklawha band of the Seminole in Florida

Traditional: Near the mouth of the Savannah River in Beaufort and Jasper counties. Altamaha Town along the Okatie River was the principal settlement

Towns of Pocotaligo and Okatee (now spelled Okatie) in Beaufort County and Yemassee which is located in both Hampton and Beaufort Counties

Offended by the Spanish Governor from 1684 to 1685 in their home of Georgia, the Yemassee moved to South Carolina and were given land at the mouth of the Savannah River.
87 warriors fought with the colonists in the Tuscarora War of 1712.
Angered by unfair trade practices, slavery and whipping of Indians, and encroachment on their land, the Yemassee and several other Indian tribes rose against the British and killed approximately 100 settlers in 1715. They were defeated by Governor Craven and fled to Florida. The uprising becomes known as the Yemassee War.

Huts made of logs with thatched, palmetto roofs. Round community building or town house in the center of town.

Altamaha Town Unearthed - article detailing history and archaeologists' findings
Yemassee nation composed of two separate nations - outlines history and locations tribe settled
County spends $3.1M to protect Yemassee Indian site - area now called Altamaha Town Heritage Preserve
Hudson, Charles. The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976.
Hudson, Charles and Carmen Chaves Tesser. The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1521-1704. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.
Milling, Chapman J. Red Carolinians. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1969.
Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Instition Press, 1984.
Wright, James Leitch. The Only Land They Knew: The Tragic Story of the American Indians in the Old South. New York: The Free Press, 1981.

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