King Yanabe Yalangway was the ''eractasswa'' (chief) of the

Catawba Indian Nation The Catawba, also known as Issa, Essa or Iswä but most commonly ''Iswa'' (Catawba: '' Ye Iswąˀ'' – "people of the river"), are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, known as the Catawba Indian Nation. Their current lands a ...

, sometime around the 1740s. Not much is known about him other than the fact that he preceded

King Hagler King Hagler (also spelled Haiglar) or Nopkehee (c. 1700–1763) was a chief of the Catawba Native American tribe from 1754 to 1763. Hagler is known as the "Patron Saint of Camden, South Carolina." He was the first Native American to be indu ...

as chief. His training was evidently under "king" Whitmannetaughehee's leadership. As a warrior he served during a longstanding state of warfare with northern tribes, particularly the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

, and the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

(aka Delaware), an Algonquian-speaking people who had occupied coastal areas and had become vassals of the Iroquois after migrating to Ohio Valley. The Catawba chased their raiding parties back to the north in the 1720s and 1730s, going across the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

. At one point, a party of Catawba is said to have followed a party of Lenape who attacked them, and to have overtaken them near

Leesburg, Virginia Leesburg is a town in the state of Virginia, and the county seat of Loudoun County. Settlement in the area began around 1740, which is named for the Lee family, early leaders of the town and ancestors of Robert E. Lee. Located in the far northea ...

. There they fought a pitched battle. Similar encounters in this tireless warfare were reported to have occurred at present-day

Franklin, West Virginia Franklin is a town in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 486 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Pendleton County. Franklin was established in 1794 and named for Francis Evick, an early settler. History ...

(1725),

Hanging Rocks Hanging Rocks are perpendicular cliffs rising nearly above the South Branch Potomac River in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Hanging Rocks are located four miles (6 km) north of Romney at Wappocomo on West Virginia ...

and the mouth of the Potomac South Branch in West Virginia, and near the mouths of

Antietam Creek Antietam Creek () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Potomac River located in south central Pennsylvania and western Maryland in the ...

(1736) and

Conococheague Creek Conococheague Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, is a free-flowing stream that originates in Pennsylvania and empties into the Potomac River near Williamsport, Maryland. It is in length,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset h ...

in Maryland. Mooney asserted that the name of Catawba Creek in Botetourt came from an encounter in these wars with the northern tribes, not from the Catawba having lived there. The colonial governments of Virginia and New York held a council at

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

in 1721, attended by delegates from the Six Nations (''

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

'') and the Catawba. The colonists asked for peace between the Confederacy and the Catawba, however the Six Nations reserved the land west of the

Blue Ridge mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

for themselves, including the

Indian Road The Great Indian Warpath (GIW)—also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail—was that part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appala ...

or Great Warriors' Path (later called the

Great Wagon Road Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

) through the Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia backcountry. This heavily traveled path, used until 1744 by Seneca war parties, went through the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...

to the South. In 1738, a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

broke out in South Carolina. It caused many deaths, not only among the Anglo-Americans, but especially among the Catawba and other related tribes, such as the Waxhaw, Wateree, Congaree,

Sugeree Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an Ethnography, ethnographic classification for Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now ...

Santee Santee may refer to: People * Santee Dakota, a subgroup of the Dakota people, of the U.S. Great Plains * Santee (South Carolina), a Native American people of South Carolina Places * Lake Santee, Indiana, a reservoir and census-designated place * ...

Waccamaw The Waccamaw people were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in villages along the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers in North and South Carolina in the 18th century.Lerch 328 Language Very little remains of the Waccamaw ...

Winyaw The Winyaw were a Native American tribe living near Winyah Bay, Black River, and the lower course of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The Winyaw people disappeared as a distinct entity after 1720 and are thought to have merged with the Wacca ...

Sissipahaw The Sissipahaw or Haw were a Native American tribe of North Carolina. They are also variously recorded as ''Saxahapaw'', ''Sauxpa'', ''Sissipahaus'', etc. Their settlements were generally located in the vicinity of modern-day Saxapahaw, North ...

Shakori The Shakori were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. They were thought to be a Siouan people, closely allied with other nearby tribes such as the Eno and the Sissipahaw. As their name is also recorded as Shaccoree, they can be co ...

, Enoke, Cheraw, Peedee, Dawhee, etc. Eventually after this epidemic, Yanabe Yalangway became the paramount chief of the Catawba people, not necessarily as Whitmannetaugheehee's direct successor. The Sissipahaw, Shakori, Enoke and possibly some other small tribe were absorbed into the Catawba people to survive themselves and to strengthen Yanabe Yalangway's people. Yanabe Yalangway was paramount chief of the Catawba people when, in 1744, the

Treaty of Lancaster The Six Nations land cessions were a series of land cessions by the Haudenosaunee and Lenape which ceded large amounts of land, including both recently conquered territories acquired from other indigenous peoples in the Beaver Wars and ancestral ...

, made at

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

, renewed the

Covenant Chain The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. Fi ...

between the Iroquois and the colonists and the governor of Virginia, who had not been able to prevent settlers going into Iroquois territory, offered the tribe payment for their land claim. The peace was probably final for the Iroquois, who had established the

Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

as their preferred hunting ground by right of conquest, but the more western tribes continued warfare against the Catawba, who were now so reduced as for their own number that they could raise little resistance. In 1744 the

Natchez Natchez may refer to: Places * Natchez, Alabama, United States * Natchez, Indiana, United States * Natchez, Louisiana, United States * Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States * Grand Village of the Natchez, a site o ...

and Pedee attacked and killed several Catawba people and the Catawba drove them into European settlements.John Reed Swanton, 1952, The Indian Tribes of North America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution (Reprinted by Genealogical Press)=s97 During the "King George's War" (1744-1748) the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

and, eventually, the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

(but southern Shawnee were sometimes called "Cherokee") made their attacks against the Catawba and, when the Catawba tried to find a refuge in the Carolinian settlements, against these settlements too. "King" Yanabe Yalangway had to deal with these very difficult years and led the Catawba through a crucial period. He was murdered in 1750 by a band of

, during a period of conflict with the Iroquois from the North. He was on his way home from Charleston following a conference with South Carolina's Colonial Governor James Glen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yanabe Yalangway, King 1750 deaths 1750 crimes Catawba people Native American leaders Murdered Native American people People murdered in South Carolina Year of birth unknown 18th-century Native Americans