Who Are the Catawba?
The Catawba are a Siouan-speaking people of the Carolina Piedmont, with approximately 3,400 enrolled members in the Catawba Indian Nation (federally recognized, restored 1993). Their name means "River People"—referring to the Catawba River along which they lived. They spoke Catawba, an Eastern Siouan language that became extinct in 1996 with the death of the last fluent speaker. The Catawba are the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina and the only significant Eastern Siouan people to survive into the modern era. They are renowned for pottery—a tradition maintained continuously for over 4,000 years.
Pottery Tradition
Catawba pottery represents one of North America's oldest continuous artistic traditions—over 4,000 years of unbroken practice. Using clay from the Catawba River valley, potters shape vessels by hand (no wheel), fire them in open fires, and burnish surfaces to a distinctive sheen. Traditional forms—cooking pots, storage jars, pipes—gave way to tourist trade items in the 19th century, but the technique remained unchanged. Master potters passed knowledge through families; today, artists like Georgia Harris and her descendants maintain the tradition. Catawba pottery is collected by museums worldwide; it provided economic survival when other options failed.
Survival Against Odds
The Catawba should not have survived. Disease reduced them from perhaps 10,000 to fewer than 1,000 by 1760. Wars with the Iroquois and Shawnee took further tolls. A 1763 reservation—one of the earliest in the Southeast—was gradually reduced. The Catawba fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, hoping for better treatment that never came. South Carolina terminated their recognition in 1962; they lost their remaining land. Yet the Catawba persisted—maintaining identity through pottery, community, and memory through generations of poverty and marginalization until federal recognition restoration in 1993.
Contemporary Catawba
Modern Catawba have rebuilt since restoration. A 1993 land claims settlement provided $50 million and established a 1,000-acre reservation near Rock Hill, South Carolina. The nation operates Two Kings Casino (opened 2021), transforming economic prospects. Cultural programs maintain pottery traditions; exhibitions and sales continue. Language revival efforts work with limited historical recordings—Catawba cannot be fully revived, but words and phrases are preserved. The Catawba Cultural Center documents history and art. How this sole Eastern Siouan survivor maintains pottery traditions while building economic independence shapes this river people's resilient future.
References
- Merrell, J. H. (1989). The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal
- Blumer, T. J. (2004). Catawba Indian Pottery: The Survival of a Folk Tradition
- Hudson, C. M. (1970). The Catawba Nation