The Catawba Indian Agent (1840-1943) 

In 1763 the Catawbas signed the treaty of Augusta. Their numbers reduced greatly by disease and warfare, they ceded most of their lands and moved to a 15 square mile reservation. This reservation was on both sides of the Catawba river and encompassed territory in Lancaster and York Counties. Modern day Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay and Indian Land were all part of the Catawba Indian Nation. 

J Drayton Map, thought to be from the 1820s. 

As time progressed the Catawbas leased much of their tribal lands to white settlers. Their numbers continued to decline and eventually the settlers coerced them into ceding the reservation. In 1840, after 77 years the Catawba reservation was dissolved. 

The Catawbas had been promised a home in North Carolina but North Carolina refused them. They wandered homeless until South Carolina purchased a one square mile reservation for them. This "old reservation" is still part of today's lands. 

In 1840, the state began appointing an Indian agent to oversee and provide support for the tribe. The legislature provided a yearly amount which the agent distributed to tribal members.The agent also handled burials and medical expenses and submitted a yearly report to the comptroller general. A sample report below from Captain A. E. Smith, an early mayor of Rock Hill and the longest serving agent. 

Report of the Comptroller General of the State of South Carolina to the General Assembly for the Fiscal year Ending October 31, 1887: 

Agent reports and correspondence provide important information in a time of scarce historical documentation. When the Catawbas were federally recognized in 1943, the office of Catawba Indian Agent was no longer necessary after 103 years. 

Below is a listing of all known Catawba Indian agents. Some were strong advocates such as T.O. Flowers who testified for the Catawbas in the US Congress and tried to get Reservation children enrolled at Rock Hill High School. We know relatively little about some agents and may have their terms in office wrong. The older records are often sketchy or missing. 

The following chart was created by the archivist using research notes compiled by Dr. Thomas J Blumer many years ago. We are grateful for his research. 

SC Catawba Indian Agents, 1840-1943

SC Catawba Indian Agents, 1840-1943	Term:
Joseph White	1840-1848
Massey, Benjamin Sykes	1850-1854
Ivey, Rev. Adam (1798-1888)	1855-1860
Patton, John R	1861-1866
Whitesides, Thomas	Dec. 1866-1868
Morrow?
Pride, CJ	1871?
O’Connell, PJ (?-1875)	1869-1872
Owens, ML	Dec. 1873-Dec. 1874
Crook, RL	1875-1877
Whyte, William	1877-1882
Smith, AE (1844-1917)	1883-1897
Hayes, JH	1898
Boyd, Tom W	1899-1902
Simpson, JM	1903-1905
Lesslie, J Dixon	1906-1911
White, SH	1912-1915
Williams, OK	1915-1923
Spratt, JE	1924
Flowers, TO (?-10/21/1939)	1925-1936
Wingate, RE	1937-1938
Britt, Quince Edward	Jan. 1939-Jun. 1939
Leslie, D. Grier	Jun. 1939-1941
Neely, Roy	1942-1943
Other Agents:
Rice, David J – Catawba relocation to Choctaw lands	1859-1860

The Native American Studies Archive seeks to know more about these individuals, their lives and their work with the Catawba Nation. Please contact us with any additional information.   

                                Archaeology Society of South Carolina Records 

 The following two paragraphs are shamelessly copied from the ASSC web page:                

                                                Mission Statement 

The Archaeological Society of South Carolina is an association of professional and avocational archaeologists and concerned citizens uniting together in a cooperative effort to understand the prehistory and history of South Carolina. It is a Society of dedicated members exerting their combined efforts toward the interpretation and preservation of South Carolina's rich cultural heritage.

The Archaeological Society of South Carolina has been in operation since 1968. Our goal is to share information about South Carolina's archaeological heritage. We do this through our annual conference, which is held in the Spring, a Fall Field Day event, a quarterly newsletter, and via the internet with this web site, a blog, and a Facebook page.
                              
                                                                         Creating a Finding Aid:

The Archaeology Society of South Carolina (ASSC)  is now in it's 47th year. For many years society records were kept at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) but not catalogued. Anthropologist and society archivist, Meg Gaillard began the process of  organizing the society's records in 2008. In the Archivist Report to the ASSC board, she reported on the "Current state of ASSC Archives, What Needs to be done, and What Should be Archived in the Future." Meg's recommendations and work, served as a template for current society archivist Brent Burgin to complete the processing of ASSC records.

The early years of the society are documented very well in these holdings. There are holes in the records however, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hopefully our membership may be able to assist in this area. 

ASSC Finding Aid as of 7/31/2015: 

Please note that this is not yet a finished document. I'm still hoping to find additional materials before we add box and folder numbers. Our missing copies of Features and Profiles are also highlighted. 

ASSC FINDING AID                7/31/2015

I.  CONSTITUTION/CHARTERS (includes drafts and revisions)

II. MEETING MINUTES

Dec 1969-1991, 1994-2005, 2007-2009, 2012

III. CORRESPONDENCE

       1968-2008   

IV.  FINANCIAL

Grant-In-Aid Fund, 1993-2008, includes correspondence and statements

Life time members saving account, 1971-1982, includes passbook and statements

Treasurer’s Reports, 1971-1994, 1997-2000, 2005-2009       

Trust Fund Statements, 1988-1991, 1993-1997  

V.   MEMBERSHIP

Ephemera, applications and decals

Roster, 1971-1990, 1993, 2000, 2003-2007

VI. PROGRAMMING/EVENTS

ASSC Annual Conference, 1975-

        Flyers and Ephemera, 1975-1998, 2008-2009, 2011, 2013

ASSC Fall Field Day, 1988-

        Flyers and Ephemera, 1988-2001, 2003-2006, 2010, 2012

VII. CHAPTERS

Abbeville Chapter, Correspondence, 1994

Aiken Chapter, Correspondence, 1993

Allendale Chapter, Correspondence, 1987-1991

Anderson Chapter, Correspondence,1985-1992

Beaufort Chapter, Correspondence, 1994, 1997

Charleston Chapter, Correspondence, 1981-1982, 1987, 1990-1991, 2000, n.d.

Foothills Chapter

      Correspondence, 1998-2004, ps.

      Newsletters, 1998-2002, 2004-2014

Hilton Head

      Correspondence, 1993-1994, 2002-2013

      Newsletters, 2004-2005, 2010-

Lowcountry

      Correspondence, 1979-1987, 1994

      Financial, 1980-1996

Lower Pee Dee Chapter, Correspondence, 1990

Midlands Chapter

     Correspondence, 1995-2001

     Newsletters, 1995-2004, 2006 

York Chapter

     Correspondence and Miscellaneous, 1990-1992

     Newsletter, 1991-1998

VIII. PUBLICATIONS

1. SC Antiquities

    Vol. 01-45, 1969-2014  

    Occasional Papers, 1 (1981), 2 (1990), 3 (1995)  

    Working Files – contain drafts, edits, photographs some unpublished and correspondence

    1978-1980, 1982-1984, 1986-1996,      

2.  Features and Profiles

     1972, 1974-1997, 1999-2001, 2003-2006, 2009-2015

     Missing –    

     1973, 1974 Feb, Oct, Nov, 1975 Jan, 1982 Jan, Apr, 1984 Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec     

     1986 Mar, Apr, Jun, 1991 March/Apr issue, 1993 Nov/Dec issue, 1995 Jan/Feb, Jul/Aug,

      Nov/Dec , 1996 Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, 1997  Nov/Dec, 1998, 1999,

      Sep/Oct, 2000 Jul/Sep, Oct/Nov, 2001 Apr/Jun, Oct/Dec, 2005 Jan/Mar, Apr/Jun,

      Jul/Sep, 2006, Sep/Dec?, 2007 Missing, 2008 Missing, 2009 Jan/Mar?, 2010-2,3,4, 2011-1

   

IX. PHOTOGRAPHS and SLIDES

1. Annual ASSC Conference, 1978, 1988-1998, 2001-2003, 2005-2006

    1978, Apr. 15 (45 contact print sheet)

    1988, Mar. 26 (31 slides)

    1989, Apr. 22 (19)

    1990, Apr. (63 photos, 11 slides of Doug Scott Visit

    1991, Apr. 13 (6 photos,10 slides)

    1992, Mar. 28, (7 photos, 36 contact sheet)

    1993, Apr.   3, (32)

    1994 (6)

    1995, Apr. 1 (5 photos, 29 contact sheet)

    1996, Apr. 20, (49)

    1997 (33)

    1998, Feb. 21, (35)

    2001, Apr. 17, (25)

    2002, Feb. 23, (26)

    2003, Feb. 22, (37)

    2005, Feb. 19, (21)

    2006, Feb. 18, (11)

    Unidentified, 3 different conferences, (28)

2. Annual ASSC Fall Field Day, 1988-1995, 1997, 2001, 2004-2005

    1988, (1 photo, 71 slides)

    1989, Oct. 2 (65 photos, 51 slides)

    1990, Sep. 29 (18 photos, 94 slides)

    1991, Sep. 28 (18 photos, 41 slides)

    1992, (19)

    1993, (78 photos, 160 slides)

    1994, Oct. 1, (32 photos, 104 slides)

    1995, Oct. 7, (24 photos, 195 slides)

    1996, (291 slides)

    1997, Oct. 3-4, (72) Sadlers Creek State Park, (Anderson County)

    2001, Oct. 5-6, (68) Charlestown Landing State Park (Charleston County)

    2004, (22)

    2005, (33) Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site (Kershaw County)

    Unidentified, (26)  Catawba Indian Nation Drum and Dance Team, 1998, 1999, or 2000

    Unidentified, (64), 2003 or 2006

    Unidentified, (22)

3. Archaeology Week Kick Off, 1993, 1995

     1993, (72) Statehouse Grounds, Columbia, SC (Richland County)

     1995, Oct. 2, (35)

4. ASSC Anderson Chapter, 1991, (9)

5. Congaree Creek Canoe Trip, 1999, Sep. 26, (7)  

6. ASSC/NCAS Joint Meeting, Town Creek Mound, NC, 1995 Apr. 29 (12, 36 contact sheet)

7. Annual Picnic

    1980, Oct. 19 Ft. Watson (38 contact print sheet)

9. Photos for Fall Field Day Brochure (5 photos, 5 slides)

10. Unidentified (20)

X. South Carolina Archaeology Society (SCAS) Precursor to ASSC, 1958 -?

1. Clippings and Miscellaneous

2. Constitution and Certificate of Incorporation

3. Correspondence, 1957-1959, 1961-1964

4. Financial, 1959-1964

5. Meeting Minutes, 1958-1959, 1961-1964

6. Membership, 1959-1962

7. Newsletter, 1962

8. Clippings – includes 10 photographs from a Jan 1961 dig in Lexington County

XI. MISCELLANEOUS

Extra Ephemera, Newsletters (from other archaeological organizations), clippings

The Native American Studies Archive

Genealogical Materials

The following published works and archival material folders represent various genealogical resources available at the Native American Studies Archive. It should also be noted the archive contains several other texts devoted solely to identifying and researching one’s Native American ancestry.

Catawba Indians:  

I. Print Resources

Blumer, Thomas John. Bibliography of the Catawba. Meutchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987.

Head/Bentley Family: two cultures joined together to form one great family. [1995].

Martin, Judy Canty. Genealogy of the Western Catawba: Genealogy of the 5 Families and those who joined them in the west. Cortez, CO.  J Martin, [2002?].

Martin, Judy Canty. It's about time : the complete genealogy of the Catawba Indians early, 1700-1961 : (including both western and eastern families. Cortez, CO. J. Martin, [2000?].

Martin, Judy Canty. My Father’s People: A Complete Genealogy of the Catawba Nation.

        Cortez, CO.  J Martin, 2002.

Watson, Ian. Catawba Indian Genealogy. Geneseo Foundation: Dept of Anthropology, SUNY at Geneseo, 1995. Print.  This excellent resource is also available online at:

http://www.ianwatson.org/genealogy_downloads.html

II. Archival Resources

The following resources are all located in the TJ Blumer Collection on the Catawba Nation.

http://usclancaster.sc.edu/NASarchive/blumer/index.html

Census Information:

Analyses and Commentary

1820 (Hugh White Accounts)

1840s (Hutchinson Papers)

1849

1862 (J. R. Patton, Catawba Indian Agent)

1872 (Fairmount, Ga. – Oklahoma Removal)

1880 (United States Census)

1900 (United States Census)

1900 (Sanford, Co.)

1908 (Eastern Band Cherokee Indians of N.C.)

1910 (United States Census)

1930 (United States Census)

Genealogy Information:

Ballard/Harris Families (Western Catawba)

Beck Family

Blue Family – from Florence I. Speck trip of 22 Jan. 1942                  

Blue/Sanders Family – Records kept by Mohave Sanders Bryson and Arzada Sanders

Catawba Funeral Records kept by Garfield Harris (1950-1989) 

Cherokee Intermarriage          

Harris Family (1843-1979) Record kept by Bertha Mae George Harris

Harris Family (1872-1951) Record kept by Fannie Canty George

Harris Family (1756-1966) Georgia Harris family chronology

Harris Family Records compiled by Garfield Harris

Head Family Records kept by Harry and Beverly Head

Information from the Catawba Indian Plat and Account Book (c. 1805-1844)

Marsh/Mush Family (Pamunkey/Catawba)

Marsh/Mush Family includes Garcia, Patterson and White (Western Catawba)

Miscellaneous

Mormon Records

Olin Plyler Family Records (1867-1965)

Price Family                   

Scots-Irish Intermarriages – Smith, Pat and Dwight A. Radford (1999) – “The Scots-Irish

        as Catawba”

Walsh Family Records kept by Cynthia Walsh (primarily Western Catawba)

Biographical Files:

The TJ Blumer Collection on the Catawba Indian contains over 200 individual biographical files. These folders contain clippings, death certificates, and various ephemera.

Clippings Files:

Catawba Indian newspaper Clippings begins in 1875 and continue to present day.  

Cherokee Indians:

Print Resources:

Blankenship, Bob. Cherokee Roots. B Blankenship, 1978.

Jerry Wright Jordan Comp. Cherokee by blood : records of Eastern Cherokee ancestry in the US Court of Claims, 1906-1910. 3 vols. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1987-1988. Print.

Starr, Emmett. History of the Cherokee Indians and their legends and folklore. 1921. Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint Co., 1977.

Starr, Emmett. Old Cherokee Families: Notes of Dr. Emmett Starr. 2 vols. Oklahoma City: Baker Publishing Co., 1988. 

South Carolina Indians: 

I. Print Resources

Haithcock, Richard L and Vicki L Haithcock. Occaneechie Saponi and Tutelo of the Saponi nation, aka Piedmont Catawba : southeastern Indian refugees from Virginia, the Carolinas and Tennessee in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Haithcock, 1995.  

South Carolina Indians, Indian traders, and other ethnic connection: beginning in 1670.

Theresa M. Hicks ed. Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Co., 1998. 

II. Archival Resources:

The Wesley Taukchiray Collection contains genealogical information on several different South Carolina Tribes. Many of these folders contain extensive family documentation along with family trees created by Mr. Taukchiray.

Edisto Natchez Kusso Tribe of South Carolina  

http://usclancaster.sc.edu/nasarchive/taukchiray/Edisto-Natchez-Kusso.pdf

Taukchiray, Wes. Some of the Written Memory of the Natchez-Kusso Indians of Edisto River.

Ridgeville, SC: Natchez-Kusso Indian Tribe and Nation, 1980.

Santee Indian Organization

http://usclancaster.sc.edu/nasarchive/taukchiray/Santee.pdf

Sumter Tribe of Cheraw Indians

Benenhaley, Dr. Eleazer. An Analysis of Neophytes and Would Be Historians

Taukchiray, Wes. A History of the Turks who Live in Sumter, South Carolina from 1810 to 1972.

Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Man, Smithsonian Institution, 1975.

Wassamassaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians

http://usclancaster.sc.edu/nasarchive/taukchiray/Varnertown.pdf

Virginia:

I. Print Resources:

Monocan Indian Nation:

I. Print Resource:

Whitlock, Rosemary. The Monocan Indian Nation of Virginia. Tuscaloosa, U of Al Press: 2008. 

II Archival Resource:

The Rosemary Clark Whitlock Collection at USC Lancaster contains additional information.  

Pamunkey Indian Nation: 

From the TJB Collection on the Catawba Nation:

Censuses

1820 (United States Census)

1830 (United States Census)

1840 (United States Census)

1850 (United States Census)

1860 (United States Census)

1880 (United States Census, incomplete)

1900 (United States Census, includes some Mattaponi)

1910 (United States Census, includes some Mattaponi)  

Clippings (1884-2001) See also Virginia clippings file

The Native American Studies Archives at USC Lancaster

         The  Native American Studies Archive in 2015 

11 Collections

200+ Linear Feet of Material

5500 Letters

6500 Slides

4000 Photographs

170+ hours of oral history recordings

600+ Monographs 

Extensive historical documentation on the:

Catawba Indian Nation

Edisto Natchez Kusso Tribe of South Carolina 

Natchez Indian Tribe

Beaver Creek Indians 

Pee Dee Indian Tribe of SC

Pee Dee Indian Nation of Upper SC

Santee Indian Organization 

Sumter Tribe of the Cheraw Indians 

Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians 

The Native American Studies Archive is the largest grouping of Native American materials within the state of South Carolina. The Archive was founded with the acquisition of the Thomas John Blumer Collection in 2003. In the following decade strong efforts have been made to collect the archival papers of Native Americans, scholars and interested researchers  working with Native Americans. Our main collection area focus is South Carolina and surrounding areas. 

Holdings: 

Steven Guy Baker Collection (1.25 Linear Feet) 

Archaeologist Steve Baker made substantial published contributions to the ethnohistory and archaeology of Colorado’s Ute Indians and the Catawba Indians of South Carolina. As a graduate student he is credited with having accurately ordered the early ethnographic landscape of SC and identifying the location of the famed province of Cofitachique of the 1540 de Soto narratives. This work still stands at the root of much ongoing research in the Carolinas. He was also instrumental in planning the 1973 Columbia (SC) Museum of Art exhibit that helped revitalize and possibly save the ancient Catawba Indian Nation pottery tradition. 

Acquired April 2009. 

Dr. Thomas John Blumer Collection (101.5 Linear Feet): 

The T. J. Blumer Catawba Research Collection contains a wide variety of materials amassed and created by the donor over a 40-year period as he conducted his research on the Catawba and other Native American peoples, with a focus on the pottery of the Catawba Indians. The collection provides the best existing documentation on the life, work, techniques, and products of the Catawba potters; artists who have maintained the oldest existing continuous pottery tradition in the United States.  

James LaMont "Monty" Hawk Branham Collection (1.0 Linear Feet): 

Catawba Monty Branham is representative of the Catawba Cultural Renaissance that began in the 1990s. In 1996 he travelled to Oklahoma, visiting the Creek Nation and studying their rites and rituals. In 1997 along with Nola Campbell and former wife Anna, he travelled to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Clad in tribal regalia, the trio demonstrated Catawba arts and crafts and were very successful. Monty's journals of these trips chronicle his experiences and provide valuable insights into the everyday life experiences of a modern day Native American. Acquired September 2006.

Gene Joseph Crediford Collection (3.75 Linear Feet): 

Long time University of South Carolina anthropologist and noted photographer Gene Crediford was one of the first modern-day academic researchers to work with Native American tribes and tribal groups in South Carolina. For over twenty-five years he interviewed, photographed and worked with South Carolina’s Native People. This collection contains numerous photographs and slides. . 

Acquired June 2012. 

Alice Bee Kasakoff Collection (1.25 Linear Feet) 

Dr. Kasakoff was one of the first modern day academic researchers to work with non-Catawba Native American tribes and tribal groups in South Carolina. A long time professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina, Alice is perhaps best known as a historical demographer and has taught graduate and undergraduate course on Native Americans, anthropology, migration history, gender and theory. Acquired February 2010. 

David Livingston Pittman Collection (1.25 Linear Feet) 

David Pittman, a resident of Kershaw, SC,  has long been interested in the Catawba Indians. In 1993 he began videotaping the annual Yap Ye Iswa (Day of the Catawba) Festival. This collection contains important documentary video of important tribal personages and elders. Acquired August 2008.

Early Fred Sanders Collection (18.75 Linear Feet) 

Fred Sanders was Vice-Chief of the Catawba Nation for nearly twenty years and a large part of the Catawba Indian Nation's struggle to regain federal recognition. He was a fierce advocate for Native American rights and a consummate politician. This collection was created and amassed by Fred over a forty year period and is South Carolina's largest collection  of archival materials created by a Native American.  Acquired August 2007. 

Wesley Durant Taukchiray Collection (4.25 Linear Feet) 

A contract researcher, compiler and genealogist, Wesley Taukchiray has endeavoured to identify the historical predecessors of present day Indian groups in both South and North Carolina. His research efforts began wit the Four Holes Indian Community in Dorchester County, SC in 1969. This collection contains historical information from three South Carolina State Recognized Tribes.

Acquired February 2010, addition May 2012. 

Rosemary Clark Whitlock Collection (2.5 Linear Feet) 

Researcher, author, poet and independent scholar. At the age of 19, Rosemary Whitlock discovered her mother was a Monacan Indian. Virginia's Native Americans suffered greatly during the time of the state's Racial Integrity Law and often moved far away, hoping to pass for white and start over. Later in life, Rosemary reconnected with the Monacan Indian Nation, and published a series of oral-history interviews with her people. Her auto-ethnography, The Drums of Life: The Monocan Indian Nation of Virginia is an important source book for the Monocan people. Acquired April 2010. 

David Lindsay Pettus Collection (4.25 Linear Feet) Long time local historian, conservationist and founder of the Katawba Valley Land Trust. Anyone seeking historical information in Lancaster is usually referred to Lindsay. This collection contains the contents of the "Indian Drawer" a grouping of clippings, photographs, Native American land leases, and other materials. The donation also includes featured a 40 year run of the Lancaster News (1921-1922, 1925, 1928, 1930-1966, June 1970-1972). There are many clippings about the Catawbas in these newspapers that were not published elsewhere. Acquired February 2013. 

Claude Whitford Chavis Jr. Collection (6 Linear Feet - estimated)

Historian, educator and author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pee Dee After Contact. This collection contains extensive documentation on the Pee Dee Indian Nations of South Carolina. Clippings, articles, writings, genealogical materials, and digital documents comprise the majority of these materials. Acquired February 2015. 

      Reviving an Ancient Tradition     

Interviewing Steve Baker. Native American Studies Week, 2009.

The 1973 Columbia, SC Museum  of Art Catawba Indian

 Pottery Exhibit

"It's a dying art and perhaps the oldest in America. For while the shapes were chiefly inspired by objects in the white settlers' households, and their needs, the native potters made them their own, and their methods go back into pre-history" 
          Harriet Doar, The Charlotte Observer, Nov. 25, 1973 

Despite predictions like Harriet Doar's, the Catawba Indian Pottery tradition is alive and vibrant today with perhaps 40 individuals making pottery and teaching the craft to younger generations. This ancient craft has roots so far back in time that it's impossible to pinpoint it's origins. The Catawbas and their ancestors have been making pottery using clay from nearby the Catawba River for 4500 years. This tradition is the oldest continuous pottery tradition in the United States.  

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the craft and many elements of Catawba Indian lifeways were endangered. With the ending of segregation, new opportunities became available and most Catawba Indians went to work in local textile mills. Pottery commanded very low prices at this time and the craft declined until only two older Catawba women were still making pottery for sale. 

"By the time Keith Brown (now a noted potter in our time) was coming of age, (ca. 1960s) the Catawbas as a tribe were almost gone. Nobody spoke the language anymore, or performed the dances, or dressed any differently from their white neighbors. There were some potters still working with the clay, digging from the veins that ran near the river, straining and massaging the rust-colored soil, building their elaborate pieces by hand. But even these artists were starting to disappear - and with them a final link to the past." (As Long as the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and East, 1998). 

Steven Guy Baker was a graduate student in the History program at the University of South Carolina. He became interested in the Catawba, befriended these elderly women, and made efforts to try and promote their pottery through an art exhibit and sale. 
He applied for and received a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission. Some selected quotes from the grant application: 

"This "folk art" is today the oldest surviving art form in the State and is now in the last phases of becoming extinct." 

"On  a purely subject level the show will pay tribute to the Catawba potters of past and present and give them recognition as the representatives of those people who faithfully served the infant colony of South Carolina in the critical years of its founding" 

"The proposed project has an explicit goal of stimulating potential for survival and/or renewal of the Catawba pottery trade."   

The Columbia Museum of Art agreed to host the exhibit. Catawba Indian Trade Pottery of the Historic Period was the name of this brief 15 day exhibit. The November 1973 museum newsletter describes the upcoming exhibit:

Creating the exhibit was a large undertaking for Steve Baker. (The Steven Guy Baker Collection, housed in the USC Lancaster Native American Studies Archive contains many materials relative to this exhibit.) Mr. Baker did extensive field work for the exhibit. This involved numerous trips to the Catawba Reservation to interview the potters about their personal histories, families, and pottery techniques, Baker also had to encourage these somewhat reluctant ladies to make pottery for exhibit and sale at the upcoming exhibit. Pottery pieces had to be borrowed from several institutions. The Mint Museum, The Charlotte Nature Museum, the York County Children's Nature Museum, and the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology all contributed vessels. Items were also borrowed from several private collections. 

Four Catawba women agreed to make pottery for the exhibit. Sara Ayers (1919-2002),  Doris Blue (1905-1985), Georgia Harris (1905-1997),  and Arzada Sanders (1896-1989). 

Steve Baker photographed the potters working at, or in their homes. Many of these images were reproduced on posters created for the exhibit. 

                                                                         Arzada Sanders: 

Pottery of Sara Ayers: 

                                                                             Georgia Harris: 

                                                                                     Doris Blue: 

The exhibit focused on the historical and contemporary aspects of Catawba Indian Pottery.  The pottery tradition is usually transmitted through family lines and Baker made charts showing each show participant's pottery lineage: 

                                                      Pottery tradition of Doris Blue: 

The exhibit opened on Sunday, November 25, 1973. The four potters had made 61 pieces. Arzada Sanders donated two of her vessels to the Columbia Museum of Art. One of these was an elephant effigy, "an historically priceless piece" according to Steve Baker. (It should be noted that the USC Lancaster Catawba Indian Pottery collection, the world's largest at 1300 pieces, contains no elephants. Staff do not remember ever hearing of any potter making one). 
Pricing was the great success of the show. The Catawba potters priced their vessels before Baker picked them up. According to the potters, Baker significantly increased the prices on many pots before the show; In some cases, almost doubling them. 
The show was definitely a success. In the final grant report submitted by Baker to the South Carolina Arts Commission he stated that 39 out of 61(almost two-thirds) of the pots were sold. 

        Price List for show: 

Dr. Thomas J Blumer (our primary donor at the Native American Studies Archive) researched and worked with the Catawba Indians for several decades. Georgia and Tom were the best of friends and exchanged over 1100 letters. In March of 1980 he interviewed Georgia about the 1973 exhibit.   

Georgia Harris discusses the show  https://soundcloud.com/stream

Selected excerpts:  

“[Steve Baker] was wanting to put on that show. . . . And I told him, I said, ‘I’m working; I don’t have time to make [pottery]!’ And he kept on. . . . And so, one day, I sat down and I made about a dozen . . . . He told me to price my pots. . . . I was pleased [with the prices]. Baker just went wild with mine! After he took them, he even put them up higher than I had them! I got one hundred dollars for that headed bowl! . . . And so, the big headed one was the last one sold. . . . And the next week, I got a [check]. . . Now it went to two hundred and some dollars!” – (Georgia Harris Oral History Interview March 1980 )  

George Harris made about $200 from the sale of her pottery. Using the inflation calculator from the US Bureau of Labor, $200 in 1973 money is worth $1057.31 today (2015). Definitely a strong incentive to begin making pottery again. 

The 1973 Columbia Museum of Art Show was the beginning of a rebirth of tribal culture and tradition; the start of what later would be called the “Catawba Renaissance.”  

It was an important moment for the potters and the Catawba Indian Nation. Would the tradition have died out? One can only conjecture. The show strongly influenced its participants and others who had not made pottery in decades to return to the craft. They in turn trained a new generation who are the Catawba potters of today.    

                                                Exhibit photographs:

                                Arzada Sanders, Georgia Harris and Sara Ayers. 

                                                            Doris Blue with Steve Baker 

                                     Arzada Sanders with son Fred Sanders and
                         granddaughter Stephanie Sanders