The Santee tribe were a historical tribe of

Siouan Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the entire ...

-language speakers from

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. Historically the Santee were a small tribe (est. at a population of 3,000 around AD 1600), and centered in the area of the present town of

Santee, South Carolina Santee is a town in Orangeburg County along the Santee River Valley in central South Carolina, United States. It has become a resort town of note located centrally north-south along the Atlantic Seaboard of South Carolina. The region has been rur ...

. Their settlement was along the

Santee River } The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of ...

, since dammed and called Lake Marion.

History

Historically, the great majority of various Siouan-speaking tribes were found in the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

states, where they had migrated and settled before European contact. Some Siouan-speaking tribes also inhabited territory in present-day

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The Santee had Lower Town connections to the Lower Town Cherokee and the Creek people, due to the westward movement of such American Indian groups during the Colonial Conquest era. An earthwork

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

believed to have been constructed by the

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...

(1000-1500 AD) stands on the shore of Lake Marion. This structure was likely built by

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of the area, before the coalescence of the Santee as a tribe. The mound was probably used for the burial of a chief or

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

. Historically the Santee spoke

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany * Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other ...

. The Santee Indian Mound near

Summerton, South Carolina Summerton is a town in Clarendon County, South Carolina, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 814. Geography Summerton is in southwestern Clarendon County at (33.605145, -80.352159). Interstate 95 passes just south of the to ...

was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1969.

Contemporary groups

The Santee Indian Organization, a remnant tribe, was officially recognized by the

Commission for Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006. In 2000 estimated Santee population was approximately 6,000.South Carolina - Indians, Native Americans - Santee
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References

External links

Native American tribes in South Carolina {{NorthAm-native-stub