104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOCI [Bdll. 137 



to them, this identification would not be surprising, since there is 

 every reason to suppose that the Biloxi, as well as the related Ofo 

 of Yazoo River, lived originally in the same general region in the 

 upper Ohio Valley. 



CATAWBA 



About the beginning of the eighteenth century, the tribe later known 

 as Catawba seems to have consisted of two bands, one called by the 

 name generally employed and the other Iswa, the word meaning 

 "river" in their language. Their own traditions and other evidence 

 indicate that they had entered the country later occupied by them 

 from the northwest. In 1566 and 1567 the Spanish captain Juan 

 Pardo found a tribe or town known as Ysa north of the present 

 Augusta, Ga., in western South Carolina, and another, Usi, toward the 

 mouth of the Santee. The former, and possibly the latter, may 

 have been the later Iswa, though neither is in the historic location 

 of that tribe on Catawba River near the present line between the 

 two Carolinas. They are certainly the "Ushery" visited by Lederer 

 in 1670. In 1701 John Lawson found them divided into the two 

 bands or subtribes mentioned above, the distinction between which 

 was soon obliterated. They were engaged in constant wars with 

 the Iroquois and Shawnee, but remained firm allies of the English 

 colonists of South Carolina except for a short period at the beginning 

 of the Yamasee uprising. Early writers concede that they were 

 the largest of the eastern Siouan tribes, but they fell off rapidly in 

 numbers after white contact. They aided the English colonists 

 against the Tuscarora in 1711-13, and though they joined the con- 

 spiracy against them in 1715, peace was made in April of the following 

 year and it was never afterward broken. In 1738 they suffered from 

 a great epidemic of smallpox and during the middle of the century 

 there were constant fights between them and the Iroquois and 

 Shawnee. They took the part of the English against the French 

 and northern Indians at Fort Duquesne. In 1759 nearly half of the 

 tribe was destroyed by another attack of smallpox and after that 

 time they ceased to play a prominent part in history, their last great 

 chief, Haigler being killed August 30, 1763. The same year a reserva- 

 tion 15 miles square was set aside for the tribe as a permanent home. 

 During the Revolution they took sides with the Americans against 

 both the British and the Cherokee, served as scouts throughout the 

 war, and assisted in the defence of Fort Moultrie June 28, 1776. 

 When South Carolina was overrun by the enemy, they fled to Virginia. 

 After the war, white men began to crowd into their country and 

 lease their lands for terms of 99 years, renewable, and on March 13, 

 1840, a treaty was signed with the State of South Carolina by the 



