![]() ![]() They lost half of these to an epidemic of smallpox, during 1738. Hence when the first British estimates were made in 1728 they had only 400 warriors and a total population of about 1,400. These numbers, however, declined rapidly during the next 70 years due to a combination of the white man’s diseases to which they had no immunity, and to addiction to the alcohol brought by the white trappers and traders. The Catawba flourished in this era numbering as many as 10,000 when first recorded by Lawson. Large areas were cleared by the Indians to improve the grazing by vast herds of deer, elk, and buffalo that pastured there. This battle brought about a treaty between the tribes that ended their bloody wars and declared all the land between the Catawba and Broad Rivers would remain unoccupied and would be peaceably available to both tribes for hunting and fishing. 1100 Cherokees and 1000 Catawbas braves where killed in a single day. One story contends that many years before the Englishmen came, a battle was fought at the Nation Ford. It was the cause of many skirmishes between the two groups. A hunter’s paradise foraged by both the Catawba on the east and the Cherokee to the west. The land between the Catawba and the Broad River was a prairie. In any event, they were definitely established along the Catawba River in the area now known as York County in 1650. Still other sources state that Catawba means 'river people,' and only came into common use in the Carolinas after its introduction by the white man about 1715. Their unique language and enduring hostility with the Cherokee tends to support this theory, also some Catawba cultural traits, most notably the forehead flattening of male infants, argues for a long time residence south of the Ohio River. By this theory, they are supposed to have arrived in the Carolinas about 1650. ![]() Some contend that Catawba is an Indian word meaning : divided or separated, which further supports the migration legend. There is a tradition in the tribe that they originally came from the north, (perhaps the upper Ohio Valley, but even Canada has been suggested), driven south by the Seneca at the beginning of the Beaver Wars. These are the people that have become known as the Catawba Indians. These natives called themselves Iyeye (people) or Nieye (real people). In 1701 while surveying in the Waxhaw area he contacted a Siouan-speaking aborigine tribe. The British Crown commissioned John Lawson, a young Englishman, as the first Surveyor General of the Carolinas. Names which continue in the lexicon of cities and counties of the Carolinas. In the order named in Charles' charter they were: the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley and Sir John Colleton. This huge section of the continent was granted absolutely to the following men, to be financed by them, and for them to profit from, and to rule, with the help or interference of such a local government as they might permit. On March 24, 1663, Charles II granted to the Lords Proprietors a slice of North America running from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lying between 36 degrees north latitude on the north and 31 degrees on the south.
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