LibGuides: Exploring the Indigenous South: Opportunities for Learning and Collaborating

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This page is broken into the following categories:

Resources for learning from and collaborating with Indigenous Peoples in SC

Today, our state and region are home to many Indigenous peoples whose present-day experiences and perspectives are poorly understood by many non-Native people. To attain a deeper understanding of these experiences and perspectives, it is essential to seek opportunities to listen to Native Americans’ perspectives and to participate in activities that individuals and Tribes may be gracious enough to open to outsiders. While this direct contact is highly beneficial, it is not automatically available to anyone who may wish it. If you are interested in hearing the perspectives of Native people in our region and developing personal connections, be sensitive to the fact that Native people may not always wish to meet or share their histories with outsiders.

Culture Card: A Guide to Build Cultural Awareness
This Culture Card is a good starting point for developing the cultural awareness needed for productive interactions between Native people and outsiders. This is a guide “developed by an ad hoc group of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officers, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) professionals, and family advocates working together from 2006-2007.”
South Carolina's Recognized Native American Indian Entities
Attending a public event may be a valuable learning experience. Some SC Tribes announce such events on their social media accounts (listed above). Some tribes also host events for which volunteers are needed, which could also foster relationship-building.
Wassamassaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians Upcoming Powwow

Additionally, CofC’s Center for Civic Engagement has facilitated several volunteering and service-learning opportunities including:

Snowbird & Cherokee County Services – Eastern Band of Cherokee
Students volunteered with the senior center, museum, and youth center. Maryville, TN: Snowbird/Cherokee
Quileute Tribe
Students worked with this community on projects like building a home for the Self Help Drumming Group, a support group for drug and alcohol recovery, an outdoor amphitheater, gardening and beach cleanup as well as supporting community elders on projects in their homes. La Push, Washington.

21st-Century Collaborations: South Carolina Tribes & College of Charleston

This section is a work in progress. As we continue to develop this Libguide, this section will be used to document the efforts made by C of C faculty, staff, and students to collaborate with and learn from interested members of Tribes in South Carolina. Because we are a mid-size, not small, institution with many departments and divisions, individuals do not always know all the projects others have undertaken. An inventory of past interactions and collaborations with SC Tribe members may be useful for those of us who wish to plan future interactions that can help C of C to learn more and when possible, to leverage our institution’s resources to benefit South Carolina Tribes.

2024

Indigenous Voices Programming
In 2023, the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program (CLAW) at the College of Charleston decided to pursue the programming theme of "Indigenous Voices" to underscore the rich history of Native Americans in SC and the Lowcountry. The goals are to connect the faculty, staff, and students at the College of Charleston, as well as the Charleston community, to their Indigenous neighbors, and to build community and make space for Indigenous voices to be heard.

2022

Hear Her, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
This exhibit included installations of 8 films of Native women on their tribal homelands speaking in tribal languages. Artist Dyanni White Hawk plans to continue adding to this project to create 24 videos. One, a video honoring the Catawba Nation in South Carolina, was commissioned for this exhibit by the Halsey Gallery. The program catalog includes an essay “Invisible Languages'' by Bryan Granger, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming at Halsey.
WGS Intersections: Dyanni White Hawk | A Conversation (01:36:35)
Together with the Halsey Gallery, our WGST program sponsored this panel discussion, now available on YouTube. This is their description of the program: “This conversation included members of the Catawba Indian Nation, Pine Hill Indian Tribe, Wassamasaw Tribe, and Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe, as well as CofC faculty. This panel is part of ongoing collaborations between the Halsey Institute and the Women’s and Gender Studies program over the 2021/2022 academic year that will consider intersections between art, performativity, gender, sexuality, race, (post-) colonialism, and power.
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“The panel was comprised of Beckee Garris, Catawba Nation Chief Michelle Wise Mitchum, Pine Hill Indian Tribe Lisa Collins, Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians Dana Muckelvaney, Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina and was moderated by the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies Dr. Kris De Welde, and College of Charleston faculty Dr. Brennan Keegan and Dr. Annette Watson.”
WGST Program’s AV Equipment Drive
AV materials are being collected to facilitate the work of “Elders Speak: A Wassamassaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians Oral History Project.”
Edisto Natchez-Kusso Powwow
April 23-24, 2022. Student volunteer opportunity with Professor Brennan Keegan. Six students from RELS 118 and RELS 105 helped sell entry tickets, sodas, and fry bread, as well as pick up trash and help with clean up. Tribal Board member Sabrina Creel facilitated.

2021

Solar Pavilion Unveiling Shines Light on Enslaved, Indigenous People
The unveiling of a new solar shade pavilion at the College of Charleston on Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, served as a platform to honor the Indigenous and enslaved people who labored and lived on and near the site throughout history. Members of the Edisto/Natchez-Kusso Tribe including Winne Mraz, Cathy Nelson, and Sarah Creel ‘22 participated in a land acknowledgement at the beginning of the event. This collaboration was facilitated by Charissa Owens, Office of Institutional DIversity.
“Rethinking Thanksgiving: The Forgotten Story of Indigenous South Carolina."
November 17, 2021. Sponsored by Multicultural Student Programs and Services, Departments of History, Political Science, and Religious Studies, and the Master of Environmental and Sustainability Studies program. Organized by Professor Brennan Keegan in the Religious Studies Department, this event brought together two tribal leaders–Sabrina Creel of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso and Lisa Leach of the Wassamassaw–and two faculty members (Drs. Annette Watson and Brennan Keegan) in a panel to discuss the history of Thanksgiving and contemporary realities of Native people in South Carolina, with suggestions for how to reflect on the holiday as a decolonial act.

2017-2019

SustainFest 2017
August 31, 2017. Hosted by the Office of Sustainability, this SustainFest! featured a talk from First Nations activist and author Clayton Thomas-Muller about "Indigenous perspectives on protecting the sacredness of water in the Climate Justice Movement."
Sustainability Literacy Institute's Land Acknowledgment Program
Hosted on April 8, 2019, this event was part of the CofC Sustain/Solves Theme for 2018-2019 of Social Justice and Fair Distribution and offered by the Office of Sustainability and the Sustainability Literacy Institute.
The Hidden Hands Project
Developed in 2019 by Annette Watson and undergraduate and graduate students in Environmental Studies programs, the garden serves to “demonstrate[s] the many techniques, seeds, and agricultural methods that were introduced by both African and Native American enslaved peoples.” The term “Hidden Hands” is intended to recognize the hidden labors of Lowcountry agricultural traditions. At Stono Preserve, the earliest enslaved laborers were the local indigenous tribes, such as the Yamassee.