Catawba counted as "black" by South Carolina census takers (York County, SC, early 1900s)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1900 · Places: Carolinas
SUMMARYCatawba counted as "black" by South Carolina census takers (York County, SC, early 1900s) [Connections: Carolinas, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDSouth Carolina Encyclopedia (Anne M. McCulloch): early twentieth-century census takers recorded Catawbas as "black" because the census had no category for Indians. Catawbas did not see themselves as Black, and after being barred from white schools they refused Black schools and built their own with Mormon Church help. Earlier, under the 1840 Treaty of Nation Ford, the Catawbas gave up their 1763 land (a tract "fifteen miles square") for promised land in NC or $5,000. NC refused, and most returned home without land or money. The federal trust relationship was terminated in 1962, and a 1993 Congress/1994 state settlement restored $50 million in trust funds. Hostile witness: census enumerators applying a two-race system
PATTERNEven a nation with a treaty and a reservation was written as "black" on the census when the form had no Indian box
LENS (WW9)A treaty nation was written "black" by a census taker's pen. That is renaming on paper as plainly as it gets
OPENPull the actual census sheets (1900/1910 York County) to quote the entries and see which years had an "In" column