As with other parts of the New World, settlers in colonial South Carolina quickly encountered the native people of the land. While early estimates of the aboriginal population in the Carolinas place approximately 11,000 or 12,000 in the area during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, modern calculations estimate that there were actually more than 20,000 scattered throughout the territory. These indigenous peoples are thought to have been very linguistically diverse, operating within a highly sophisticated and culturally advanced civilization, which historian Robert Weir claims, can be attributed to a long period of development beginning as early as 50,000 years ago with the human migration from Asia to North America. It is believed that nearly fifty tribes representing four major language groups inhabited the area, but despite the linguistic variation, the American Indians of this region seem to have shared a fairly similar culture that included participating in the Carolina Indian trade, sustaining themselves with a diet of corn, beans, squash, and wild plants, and practicing various hunter-gatherer methods for securing both big and small game animals.
Originally relying solely on bows and arrows, Indians were soon introduced to, and came to prefer, the firearms of the European world. The primary game animal for the natives, which contributed to both their diet and economy, was the white-tailed deer. In addition to comprising more than half of the animal protein in their diet, the white tailed deer also began the deerskin trade, which developed through Charles Town and quenched an apparently insatiable thirst in England for buckskin breeches during the mid eighteenth century. As their contact with natives increased, the Europeans struggled with understanding their ways of life, such as their legal systems, clans and kinship groups, and war 
practices. The aboriginal people sought balance between themselves and the natural world, and they granted their women much more freedom and authority than did the Europeans. Each of these practices were a combined effort to attain harmony within the native civilization, which appears to have been relatively successful despite colonial tendency to refer to the culture as verging on anarchy.
Religion, as tends to be the case, was also a source of tension early on between the natives and the settlers. Most Englishmen appear to have considered natives to be humans similar to themselves, but operating within a different, earlier stage of social evolution. This perception resulted in the colonists granting the natives religious toleration within the Fundamental Constitution, as long as they acknowledged the existence of a God. However, the Fundamental Constitution was never made the law of the land, so the natives, therefore, were never granted religious toleration but instead were believed to be frozen in a perpetual state of savagery, destined never to evolve and to eventually be crushed by European progress and industrialization. War between natives and settlers was often based on religious and cultural disputes, along with rampant disease resulted in drastic depletions on aboriginal populations. According to historian Peter Wood, the use of natives as labor sources also caused significant population reductions. The Indians could be purchased cheaply with no importation expenses, had impressive knowledge of the land, and could supply food, medicine, and safe passage through dangerous and unfamiliar territory for the Europeans. They could also help with hunting and fishing and could be traded in exchange for other resources such as livestock and more slave labor. 
Their trade value ultimately resulted in Carolina being the most active English colony in the export of Indian slaves in all the New World. This use of Indian slave labor dissipated by the end of the seventeenth century as Proprietors became increasingly fearful of igniting hostilities with other local tribes and interrupting their deerskin trade, which was the first source of revenue from the Carolinas to England.
As with all of the Indian tribes native to the Carolinas, the Catawbas had a similar experience. A Siouan people that first settled in the Catawba River Valley more than 6,000 years ago, the Catawbas first encountered white settlers in Virginia and Carolina. These settlers were mostly interested in trade, specifically for furs and other Indian goods, and because of their location, the Catawbas were able to set up and control lucrative trade routes that proved advantageous to both parties. However, as aforementioned with most tribes, the Catawbas became subject to exploitation as white slave traders captured them during the fur trade for free labor. In retaliation, the Catawbas entered a confederacy with the Yamassee in 1713 to attack settlers in North and South Carolina. The attacks were unsuccessful as the settlers were able to kill and capture many Indians from both tribes. The attacks with the Yamassee along with diseases such as smallpox resulted in a devastating depletion of the Catawba population, their numbers dwindling to below 1,000 by 1760. In the years following, the tribe entered into a land treaty with the government of South Carolina in which they ceded much of their territory in exchange for a 144,000 mile reservation. They battled alongside colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War, struggled through the Civil War, and continually fought the federal government throughout the twentieth century for their rights as an Indian nation, which they finally won in November 1993. Today, the 
Catawbas occupy a 600 acre reservation near Rock Hill, South Carolina with 2,800 enrolled members. They continue to practice their unique style of pottery, offering pieces for purchase within the community, and operate the Catawba Cultural Center as an outlet for Indian cultural and educational experiences.
As one of the first people to inhabit the area that is now South Carolina, having a clear understanding and knowledge regarding the history of the Catawba Indians goes hand-in-hand with studying colonial Carolina. The exchange between the Indians and the English, as well as their many conflicts and resolutions provides insight into this world of conquest and settlement, which has ultimately resulted in the South Carolina that is known today. Three key documents focusing on the Catawbas in early Carolina include a transcription of the Committee of Conference Upon Indian Affairs, the Treaty of Augusta, and a subsequent map of the Catawba Indian territory surveyed shortly after the treaty. These documents are of utmost importance to the archival study of colonial Carolina because they highlight a unique portion of South Carolina history that still partially exists today, and continues to greatly influence the people of the Carolinas. All spelling and grammar in each of the original documents has been modernized.
- The Treaty of Augusta and Map of the Catawba Indian Territory
- The Committee of Conference Upon Indian Affairs
Bibliography
Barr, Daniel P. Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Print.
Blumer, Thomas J. Catawba Nation: Treasures in History. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007. Print.
Brown, Douglas Summers. The Catawba Indians: The People Of The River. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1966. Library Catalog. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Calloway, Colin G. The Scratch Of A Pen [Electronic Resource]: 1763 And The Transformation Of North America. Oxford, England; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Library Catalog. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Coleman, Kenneth, and Milton Ready. “The Treaty of Augusta.” 1764. Colonial Records of the State of Georgia. 1st ed. Vol. 28. 1975. 453-460. Print.
De Puy, Henry Farr. A Bibliography of the English Colonial Treaties with the American Indians. Lenox Club, 1917. Print.
Martin, Jonathan. “Catawba Indians.” North Carolina History Project. John Locke Foundation, 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Miller, David W. The Forced Removal of American Indians from the Northeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Relocations, 1620-1854. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2011. Print.
Miller, David W. The Taking of American Indian Lands in the Southeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Forced Relocations, 1607-1840. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2011. Print.
“Report Of The South Carolina Committee Of Conference Upon Indian Affairs.” South Carolina Historical Society. 1751. Print.
Weir, Robert M. Colonial South Carolina: A History. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. Print.
Wood, Peter H. Black Majority. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1974. Print.
Wyly, Sam. “Map Of Catawba Indian Land 1764.” South Carolina Historical Society. 1764. Print.