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.