Native American History Month

by Abigail Hardison  Rowan Public Library

 

This is a busy time for many of us. Leaves need raking, food needs preparing, winter clothes need to be pulled and swapped out with our flip-flops and tank tops. Election Day, Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving and the impending Christmas season can take up a lot of space in our schedules and our minds. But let us take a moment and look out our windows at the majestic fall foliage and imagine what our beautiful land was like a few hundred years ago and those people who made it home first.

November is Native American History Month, and it is easy to see how it could pass unnoticed by all of us. What is now Rowan County was home in a much earlier time to native people who lived, loved, fought, farmed and raised families here. It is not impossible to imagine what their world may have looked like considering the miles of undeveloped farmland and forests still intact in much of Rowan County.

North Carolina historically has several tribes associated with it, and the Cherokee, Catawbans and the Tuscarora are the most well-known. The lesser-known tribe that populated the Pee Dee River Basin from South Carolina all the way up to the Yadkin River was the Cheraw tribe, now considered extinct, but if you find an arrowhead in your backyard, it might be from a Cheraw. All of these tribes are considered to be part of the “South Appalachian Mississippian Culture” which was a loosely interconnected trade network in the Southeast, sharing similar languages and customs.

Here at Rowan Public Library, we have a sizeable collection of materials on the local native peoples in our History Room. Anyone interested can view historical books such as “History of the Old Cheraws” by Alexander Gregg, or “Natives & Newcomers: The Way We Lived In North Carolina before 1770” by Elizabeth A. Fenn and Peter H. Wood. The Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian, and the National Park Service are all providing exhibits and collections to celebrate our first peoples this month. More information is available at the website: nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov.

Though the legacy of our Native tribes can be hard to see at first glance, it is important to remember that for many of us, that legacy is within. Part of the reason so many of the tribes are “extinct” is because they intermarried with the incoming settlers, or with other tribes. Many of us do not know that when we celebrate and acknowledge the native tribes we are celebrating ourselves. When we eat many of the delicious foods that we know and love, such as corn, squash, blueberries and cranberries, peanuts and yes, our thanksgiving turkey, remember these are foods that were not on the dinner tables of our European ancestors across the ocean. These foods were shared with us by the first people here, and in the ensuing years they have become ours. Yes, we have heralded many a celebration with apple pies and hamburgers, but it was the squash, the corn, and the pole beans that got us through centuries of long, hungry winters. If our ancestors had not learned how to survive here from those first peoples they might not have lasted very long. Just ask the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

So as we feast this season, take a moment to consider what life would have been like, in that exact spot, three hundred years ago. Your central heat and smart phone would seem mighty strange to those Cheraws that were here back then, but the foods on your dinner plate might seem quite familiar.