Strangers in Their Own Land: South Carolina’s State IndianTribes

Harsh racial segregation during the Jim Crow era prevented South Carolina’s Indian groups from assimilating. Due to their three-fold genetic admixture, they were labeled with such fanciful names as Red Bones, Brass Ankles, Croatans, Turks, and not real Indians at all. For generations, South Carolina’s remaining Indians struggled to avoid reduction to the oppressed social status of Negroes. Their desperation eventually fostered anti-Black sentiment within some of the groups, an affliction that still infects a few of the older community members.

Generations have passed since the Jim Crow era. Today, the Palmetto State’s Indians focus less on imagined racial purity and more on the welfare of their communities, preserving their customs, and honoring their ancient traditions.

Much work remains to be done by and for all of the tribal groups of South Carolina. The tribes strive to convert state recognition, which now serves only as a morale booster, into a true vehicle to promote tribal educational, economic, and healthcare improvement. South Carolina’s state-recognized tribes are now hard at work to accomplish this goal.

When the author has spent many years traveling to Indian communities around the Southeast and talking to Indian elders, as Pony Hill has done, he must be admired not only for his authenticity, but also for his scholarship. This book, then, is where an authentic perspective is enhanced by thorough scholarship. – John H. Moore, Ph.D, Anthropology Department, University of Florida.

This is the third edition of Pony Hill’s ground-breaking study of the Indian tribes of South Carolina.