Beaver Creek Indians

Beaver Creek Indians
Named aftertributaries of the Edisto River[1]
Formation1998 (1998).[1]
Typestate-recognized tribe,
nonprofit organization
Tax ID no. EIN 57-1063914[2]
PurposeA80: Historical Societies, Historical Preservation[2]
HeadquartersSalley, South Carolina[2]
Location
Members950[3] (2006)
Official language
English
LeaderLouie Chavis[1][4]
Vice Chief
Helen Jeffcoat
Websitebeavercreekindians.org
Formerly called
Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians[5][6][7]

The Beaver Creek Indians[2], formerly known as the Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians[5][6][7], is a nonprofit organization, and state-recognized tribe headquartered in Salley, South Carolina. The organization was designated a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006.[1][8][9][7]

The Beaver Creek Indians are among several state-recognized tribes within South Carolina.[4] The organization is not to be confused with the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek, a state-recognized group designated by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs in 2007.[6][10]

Organization

On January 28, 1998, the organization was first chartered as a nonprofit organization, being originally called the Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians.[5][6][7][1] The Beaver Creek Indians are governed by a chief, vice chief, and council.[1] Every two years the organization holds an election for these positions, each lasting for a term of four years, with the chief in one category and the vice-chief and council in another.[1] Additionally, an elders council provides the council with consultation and advice. While the Beaver Creek traditionally inhabited lands near Neeses, South Carolina, the organization today is headquartered in Salley.[1]

In 1999, the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek split from the organization following an administrative disagreement and was later recognized by the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs as an independent state-recognized group in 2007.[6][10]

Background

The Beaver Creek Indians say they descend from Pedee who served as Native American trade liaisons, then fought as Patriots in the American Revolutionary War.[5][6][7] They have common origins and ancestry from Lazarus Chavis, who lived in the 1700s. The Croatan Indian tribe of Orangeburg also claims descent from Chavis.[11][7] In an interview, the current chief stated some ancestors of the tribe were in the 22nd Infantry Company I of the Civil War, possessing similar surnames to modern membership.[12] By the late 20th century they were referred to by various labels, such as Cherokees, Lumbees, Brass Ankles, Redbones, "mulattoes", or triracials.[5] Chavis, Hutto, Williams, Barr, Bolin, Jackson, Hoover, Huffman, and Gleaton are names common within the tribe, and some interviewed members linked the tribe or themselves specifically to the Chavis family.[7][13]

Culture and identity

In archived interviews by the University of South Carolina Lancaster, a few members of the tribe discussed either seeking out or becoming root doctors, and burial traditions of surrounding graves with seashells, sometimes specifically around Chavis graves.[14][15] They also spoke about the Beaver Creek Baptist and Mt. Beulah Pentecostal Holiness churches, which have been previously noted to have played a large role in keeping them together as a community. The interviewees described them acting as schools for darker-skinned people in the area who could not attend local white schools, and referred to the Mt. Beulah school as "Four Pines".[16] The handful of members gave accounts of their identities before tribal formation, ranging from either not thinking they were Native, not identifying with a specific tribe, or identifying as Cherokee.[17][18][19] A few interviewees also discussed previously identifying themselves or family members as Native American specifically due to their visual appearances.[20]

Formation and recognition

The Pee Dee region, within SC.

Beginning in 1965, Barry Chavis researched his family genealogy, later concluding he was Pedee after consulting websites online. In an interview, he also credited individuals involved in early tribal organization who had spoken of their relation to Chavises in the Pee Dee region.[21] By the late 1990s he was leading more than one hundred descendants of the Chavis, Williams, and Jones families, with other allied families. They began to meet in Neeses to plan to petition the government for recognition as the Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians.[5] Chief Louie Chavis stated it was difficult and tedious to acquire enough birth certificate records for the recognition process, as the certificates were labelled "White" or "American" rather than "Indian".[1]

The Beaver Creek Indians were designated a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006.[8][1]

Federal recognition

Chief Louie Chavis receiving gift at Fort Jackson luncheon.

The tribe submitted a letter of intent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1998, which BIA historian Virginia DeMarce said would lead to recognition in five years in a best-case scenario.[5] In 2000, members said it may take seven to eight years to achieve recognition.[6] They were still seeking recognition in 2014.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Peters, Sherryl M. (23 February 2006). "Chief: State gives tribe 'right to hold head up'". The Times and Democrat. Vol. 125, no. 54. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com. Retrieved 16 May 2026. In 1998, the Beaver Creek Indians were chartered as a nonprofit group...
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Beaver Creek Indians". CauseIQ. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  3. ↑ Holleman, Joey (27 January 2006). "State recognizes Indian tribes". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Spartanburg, SC: USA Today Co. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
  4. 1 2 "South Carolina's Recognized Native American Indian Entities | Commission for Minority Affairs". cma.sc.gov. Archived from the original on 9 August 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Schohn, J. Michelle (16 February 1998). "The Forgotten People: Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians ready for recognition". The Times and Democrat. Vol. 117, no. 47. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023. more than 100 of these people, the descendants of the Chavis, Williams, Jones and other allied families, met at Mt. Beulah Pentecostal Holiness Church in Neeses to plan to petition for federal recognition as an Indian tribe...
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Barker, Carol B. (26 July 2000). "Breaking the Silence: Federal recognition remains the quest of Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee Indians". The Times and Democrat. Vol. 199, no. 208. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Beaver Creek Band of Pee Dee arrived in area 250 years ago". The Times and Democrat. Vol. 133, no. 338. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2026. Common names within the tribe are: Chavis, Hutto, Williams, Barr, Bolin, Jackson, Hoover, Huffman, and Gleaton.
  8. 1 2 Holleman, Joey (28 January 2006). "Three S.C. Indian tribes win recognition". The State (Columbia, South Carolina). No. 115, No. 38. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  9. ↑ Pounds 2006.
  10. 1 2 Gleaton, Sonja (12 March 2007). "The Great Spirit...NEVER FORGETS". The Times and Democrat. Vol. 126, no. 71. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Pounds 2006
    "The problem that the committee kept noting was that the petition claimed that members of the Croatan group were descended from a Lazarus Chavis who lived in the 1700s. But this is the same Lazarus Chavis who is the ancestor of the Beaver Creek Indians of Salley, a group that has already received state recognition as a Native American Tribe"
    Jeffcoat, Helen (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "And it's the Chavis family primarily." Helen Jeffcoat: "Right." SC: "So your great grandparents...your mother's grandparents were both Chavis's. They were first cousins." HJ: "Yes. My grandmother, both her parents were Chavis. And even when her father died, her mother married another Chavis. So, they kept it together." SC: "The tribe goes back to one particular [inaudible]. Is that right?" HJ: "Oh, I knew, before I even joined, back to James Chavis, and then being with them for this study, going on back about two more generations. Everybody agrees to Lazarus."
  12. ↑ Chavis, Louie; Chavis, Kathleen. "Louie Chavis". Native American Studies Center: University of South Carolina Lancaster (Interview). Interviewed by Criswell, Stephen; Judge, Chris. Lancaster, SC: Native American South Carolina Archive. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
    Kathleen Chavis: 'Louie's great grandfather was in the 22nd infantry Company I of the Civil War.' KC: 'And a lot of his cousins and brothers and uncles and [sic] were in that company. And it was a lot of the surname basis of what this tribe is today.'
  13. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Chavis, Louie (Interview)
    Louie Chavis: "See, my grandmother and grandfather, all my Chavis kin..."
    Jeffcoat, Helen (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "And it's the Chavis family primarily." Helen Jeffcoat: "Right." SC: "So your great grandparents...your mother's grandparents were both Chavis's. They were first cousins." HJ: "Yes. My grandmother, both her parents were Chavis. And even when her father died, her mother married another Chavis. So, they kept it together."
    Ms. Williams (Interview)
    Miss Williams: [...] "We got what we call a family cemetery. It's called the Chavis Cemetery in the Cedar Creek Cemetery."
    Chavis, John (Interview)
    John Chavis: "But I think we are sent back from the original Chavises, from where I don't know." [...] Stephen Criswell: [...] "the Chavises show up in North Carolina, South Carolina."
    Schohn 1998
    "I had heard that the Chavises had some Indian connections, but that's all I knew," Stuart said.
  14. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Chavis, John     (Interview)
    John Chavis: "I know my dad said one time he was going to see the root doctor" [...] Stephen Criswell: "Is that the term they use though? Root doctor?" JC: "I think it is. The person who's supposed to use all the spells and different medicines"
    Jeffcoat, Helen (Interview)
    Helen Jeffcoat: "Roots like sassafras and stuff like that, yeah. We used them...my grandmomma [sic], even when I was young. And her grandmother was considered a root worker." [...] Stephen Criswell: "How would your family define root worker?" HJ: "Well she would pitch the medicines and she would dabble in the spirits [gestures with hands]."
  15. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Ms. Williams (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "Well, to go back to what you were talking about, the grave cemetery plots with the shells on them. Tell us a little bit about that if you've seen them." Ms. Williams: "Well, we don't have none in our cemetery, but I've seen them in other cemeteries." SC: "Just with the shells on the cement? MW: Somebody said cement but all I ever saw was just the dirt." [...] CJ: "Just circling the grave itself?" MW: [nods]
    Chavis, John (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "I remember reading on the website about grave decorations, the shells." [...] John Chavis: "Well the ones that I've seen decorated have got to be...the place where my grandfather's buried or the other Chavis relatives". JC: "They just take and kind of go on the outside, all the way around with seashells." SC: "Are they seashells—ocean seashells?" JC: "That's what it looks like to me." [...] JC: "All the way around the perimeter." [...] SC: "Are there ever jars in those—upside down jars?" JC: "Yeah." [...] "I have seen them on the graves. Not very many, but I have seen them." SC: "And this is where? At that—?" JC: "Beaver Creek Baptist Church."
  16. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Ms. Williams (Interview)
    Ms. Williams: "I went to school a bit in Four Pines and I went a little bit in Neeses and Magnolia was a country school back over in town." Stephen Criswell: "Four Pines was the Indian school?" MW" "Yeah, [inaudible]." [...] SC: "And were the students mostly from this area, Neeses?" MW: "Yeah, and that area in there."
    SC: "When you say not ours do you mean Beaver Creek or do you mean a specific church?" MW: "Uh, I went to Mt. Beulah — I was born and raised in Mt. Beulah church, Mt. Beulah Pentecostal Holiness church on (highway) 389."
    SC: [...] "I mean, you grew up not knowing you were Indian." MW: "That's right." SC: But you went to the Indian school. MW: "Well, there was other people there that was not Indian, in that school." SC: "And so when you recently found out— " MW: "I didn't know about it when I was going to school."
    Schohn 1998
    "Hunnicutt said the churches, including Beaver Creek Baptist and Mt. Beulah, had played a big role in keeping the community together..."
    Chavis, Louie (Interview)
    Louis Chavis: "We're within twelve miles of the town of Neeses but even closer would have been the place called the Arbors. Now it's known as Mount Beulah Pentecostal Holiness Church." LC: "Before that it had a name, Four Pines. A lot of my family people know exactly where we're talking about and exactly agree that this would be true."
    LC: "Pretty much because of skin color right here where they probably — eight miles it was, was an Indian school" Stephen Criswell: "This is the Pine Hill, no—what is the name of the school? LC: Four Pines. SC: And the church started that, or the community? [...] SC: Oh the school system. SC: Who could not go to—" LC: "Who could not go to regular, public, white schools we'll say. And that might be an ugly or bad term." [...] SC: "Okay, so the church was involved"
    Kathleen Chavis: "But we recently found out about Beaver Creek School too." LC: "Right, okay. Another one—" SC: "There was another?" LC: "It would be more towards, kind of in between North and Neeses." LC: "It was in that area" SC: "Okay, so another school set up in a biracial society for that third group because they aren't allowed in." [...] LC: "And then, of course, the larger shots of say the third grade or the fourth grade or the fifth grade. You know, just something extremely stand offish that everyone was pretty much of the same skin hue." SC: "You think that was the basis, pretty much, for this school? Just based on skin color?" LC: "It had to be..."
    Chavis, John (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "And there wasn't a separate Indian school?" John Chavis: "No. Now from what I understand around here, the town of Neeses [inaudible] Pentecostal church, Four Pines School." JC: "And I've seen a photograph, there was a school there and they were related to my grandfather, I mean, that was all in that community there." JC: "People down there were just dark skinned, You could tell they were Native Americans." SC: "So they weren't going to be accepted into the white school." JC: "Yeah..."
  17. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Thornton, Hazel (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "Same area. And when she—she called herself Indian. Did she just say Indian or did she say Edisto or a tribal group or did she use the word Indian?" Hazel Thornton: "Yes."
    Barker 2000
    "Even growing up we knew we were Indian, we just didn't know what tribe..."
  18. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Chavis, Louie (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "Well, did he identify himself or did your father identify himself as Indian? Native American?" Louie Chavis: "Dr. Criswell, I don't think so. I really, truly don't think so."
    Ms. Williams (Interview)
    Chris Judge: "Ms. Williams, did you always know you were an Indian?" Ms. Williams: "No, I certainly didn't." [...] CJ: "How'd you find out?" MW: "With this ordeal here, I think." [...] CJ: [...] "[laughing]. She's waving her hand at Louie's office" [...] "Louie's office. So they told you you were Indian?" [...] MW: "That's right."
    Stephen Criswell: [...] "What about your brothers—you had brothers and sisters? Five of them?" MW: "Um-hm." SC: "Did they—have any of them known they were Indian?" MW: "No, no, I don't think so."
    Thornton, Hazel (Interview)
    Chris Judge: "At what point did you find out that you were Indian? How old were you?" HT: "Oh I was...Betty? [sic] Um, you know I didn't know I was Indian until they helped tracing it back." CJ: "Oh, so you found out recently?" HT: "Yeah..."
  19. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Jeffcoat, Helen     (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "Did she identify with any particular tribal group?" Helen Jeffcoat: "Yes, she was told she was lower Cherokee mixed. There wasn't a pure line. That lower Cherokee mixed, that's what she always would say."
    Barker 2000
    "... We always assumed we were Cherokee ..."
  20. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Chavis, Louie (Interview)
    Louie Chavis: "Who could not go to regular, public white schools we'll say." [...] Stephen Criswell: "Okay, so another school set up in a biracial society for that third group because they aren't allowed in." [...] SC: "You think that was the basis, pretty much, for this school? Just based on skin color?" LC: "It had to be..."
    SC: [...] "How did you know you were some kind of Indian?" LC: "There were just some distinct features. Okay high cheeks bones [sic] would be part of it. Hair would be one. Facial structure, high cheek bones." LC: "I think my granddaddy's [cheek bones] was so high, [...] of he were to blink his eyes, his eyelids might actually get on his cheek bones. That's how high—"
    Ms. Williams (Interview)
    Stephen Criswell: "But your mother and father, you think they were Indian?" Ms. Williams: "No, my daddy wasn't." SC: "Your daddy wasn't But your momma was?" MW: [nods yes]. SC: "Did she ever talk about that? Mention it?" MW: [nods no]. SC: "That's something you just know from remembering what she looked like." MW: [nods yes].
    Chavis, John (Interview)
    John Chavis: "And I've seen a photograph. There was a school there and they were related to my grandfather. I mean, that was all in that community there." JC: "People dont there were just dark skinned. You could tell they were Native Americans."
  21. ↑ Multiple sources:
    Chavis, John (Interview)
    John Chavis: "Well I started in 1966. September of 66." JC: "Tracing back my family—side of the family—my grandfather—because I was interested in the background of the Indian."
    Stephen Criswell: "Where'd the Pee Dee part come from?" JC: [...] "some of the folks that help organize and bring the tribe all back together, they were saying that we were related to the ones, the Chavises in the Pee Dee area."
    Barker 2000
    "Chief Barry Chavis of Lexington, who is in the third year of a four-year term as leader of the Beaver Creek band, said he first began researching his family genealogy in September 1965 and was finally able to determine he was a Pee Dee Indian after researching Web sites on the Internet..."
    Chavis, Louie (Interview)
    'Stephen Criswell: "How did this group become as distinct community?" Louie Chavis: "I think the community was already there." LC: "There's an old boy in this room right here people, John Barry Chavis. At somewhere about sixty-two he kind of got got [sic] interested but really got strong at it by 1966." LC: "He's probably the foremost reason that we're here..."

References

  • Chavis, John Barry. "John Barry Chavis". Native American Studies Center: University of South Carolina Lancaster (Interview). Interviewed by Criswell, Stephen; Judge, Chris. Lancaster, SC: Native American South Carolina Archive.
  • Jeffcoat, Helen. "Helen Jeffcoat". Native American Studies Center: University of South Carolina Lancaster (Interview). Interviewed by Criswell, Stephen; Judge, Chris. Lancaster, SC: Native American South Carolina Archive.
  • Williams. "Ms. Williams". Native American Studies Center: University of South Carolina Lancaster (Interview). Interviewed by Criswell, Stephen; Judge, Chris. Lancaster, SC: Native American South Carolina Archive.
  • Pounds, Keith A. (13 June 2006). "Not a tribal community". The Times and Democrat. Orangeburg, SC: Newspapers.com.
  • Thornton, Hazel. "Hazel Thornton". Native American Studies Center: University of South Carolina Lancaster (Interview). Interviewed by Criswell, Stephen; Judge, Chris. Lancaster, SC: Native American South Carolina Archive.
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