The Sewee or "Islanders" were a
Native American tribe that lived in present-day
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
in North America.
Their territory was on the lower course of 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 ...
and the coast westward to the divide of
Ashley River, around present-day
Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Moncks Corner is a town in and the county seat of Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 7,885 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Moncks Corner is included within the Ch ...
.
[Swanton, 98]
History
Ethnologist
John Reed Swanton
John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethn ...
estimated there were 800 Sewee in 1600.
In 1670, the English founded the coastal town of
Charleston in the
Carolina Colony
The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...
on land belonging to the Etiwan people and neighboring tribes like the Sewee. Sewee and other native peoples began participating in the
Deerskin trade shortly thereafter. The Sewee hunted, processed, and exchanged deer hides for manufactured goods and glass beads from the English. However, they felt that English traders had become middlemen. Noting that the English ships always landed at the same location, the Sewee believed that by rowing to the point on the horizon where the ships first appeared, they could reach England and establish better trading prices. Therefore, the Sewee nation decided to construct canoes with woven mat sails for their expedition.
English land
surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...
John Lawson, having heard the story from a Carolina trader, described the process in his book ''A New Voyage to Carolina'':
It was agreed upon immediately to make an addition of their fleet by building more canoes, and those to be of the best sort and biggest size as fit for their intended discovery. Some Indians employed about making the canoes, others to hunting – everyone to the post he was most fit for, all endeavors towards an able fleet and cargo for Europe.
Eventually the Sewee had completed their navy of canoes, and they filled the vessels with hides, pelts, and provisions. Most able-bodied Sewee men boarded the boats and took to the sea, while children, the sick and the elderly stayed home. As the Sewee entered open ocean, an abrupt storm engulfed their canoes and caused many to drown. The survivors were picked up by a passing English
slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...
and sold into slavery in the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
.
The surviving Sewee settled with the
Wando people, with whom they later intermarried.
Language
The Sewee language is poorly attested and unclassified. Some Sewee words were recorded in 1670 by Nicholas Carteret and William Owen.
*''appada'' ‘friend’ (?) (recorded by Carteret)
*''hiddie dod'' ‘a word of great kindness among them’ (recorded by Owen)
*''hiddeskeh'' ‘sickly’ (recorded by Owen)
* ‘English very good friends,
Westoes are nought’ (recorded by Carteret) ( is a Spanish loanword, from 'comrade')
Based on the geographical location of the Sewee people, Zamponi (2024) hypothesizes that the Sewee language may have been a
Siouan
Siouan ( ), also known as Siouan–Catawban ( ), is a language family of North America 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 ...
language, although he could not find any evidence of Siouan morphemes in any attested Sewee words and phrases.
See also
*
Catawba
*
Cheraw
The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura,Sebeok, Thomas Albert''Native Languages of the Americas, Volume 2.''Plenum Press, 1977: 251. were a Siouan-speaking tribe of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands,Swanton''The Indians ...
*
Moneton
The Moneton were a historical Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late 17th century, they lived in the Kanawha Valley near the Kanawha River, Kanawha and New River (Kanawha River), New Rivers.
...
*
Mosopelea
The Mosopelea or Ofo (also Ofogoula) were a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically lived near the upper Ohio River. In reaction to Iroquois Confederacy invasions to take control of hunting grounds in the late 17th century, they ...
*
Occaneechi
The Occaneechi are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands whose historical territory was in the Piedmont region of present-day North Carolina and Virginia.
In the 17th century they primarily lived on the large, long Occoneechee Island ...
*
Saponi
The Saponi are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.Raymond D. DeMaillie, "Tutelo and Neighboring Groups," pages 286–87. They spoke a Siouan language, related to the languages of the Tutel ...
*
Tutelo
The Tutelo (also Totero, Totteroy, Tutera; Yesan in Tutelo) were Native American people living above the Fall Line in present-day Virginia and West Virginia. They spoke a dialect of the Siouan Tutelo language thought to be similar to that of th ...
*
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
Name
The meaning of the name ''Waccamaw'' is ...
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewee
Extinct Native American tribes
Native American tribes in South Carolina
Native American history of South Carolina
History of Charleston, South Carolina
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
Unclassified languages of North America