YAMASEE

Many SOUTHEAST INDIANS, especially of the Musko-gean language family, no longer exist as tribal entities. Some among them died out from the effects of disease and warfare. Some scattered and merged with other tribes, usually of the same language family. The Yamasee, as a result of both Spanish and British colonization, are considered an extinct tribe. Their name, pronounced YAM-uh-see, is thought to mean “gentle.”

When Europeans first settled among them—Spanish missionaries in the late 1500s—the Yamasee lived along the Ocmulgee River above the junction with the Oconee in territory that was to become the southeastern part of Georgia. In 1687, they became discontented with Spanish regulations and headed northward to British territory in the colony of South Carolina, settling on the north side of the Savannah River.

In South Carolina the Yamasee became valuable allies of the British, trading with and working for them. They even fought alongside them against the TUSCARORA in the Tuscarora War of 1711—13. Yet as it turned out, the British mistreated them as the Spanish had earlier. Settlers cheated them by taking land without payment. Traders forced the Yamasee at gunpoint to help carry trade goods through the wilderness. And slavers took them into captivity. Their method was to give Yamasee men all the rum they wanted plus trade goods. Then they demanded immediate payment. When the men could not pay off their debts, the slavers seized their wives and children for the slave market.

The Yamasee organized a surprise attack. They asked the help of some neighboring tribes, including CATAWBA, APALACHEE, CREEK, CHOCTAW, and CHEROKEE, who were also victims of the colonists’ methods of trickery. On Good Friday, April 15, 1715, warriors raided many outlying settlements, killing more than 100 whites. Other settlers fled to the port city of Charleston.

The governor of South Carolina, Charles Craven, organized a militia that, during a summer campaign and then a second fall campaign, attacked Yamasee villages and tracked bands of warriors through the wilderness. Surviving Yamasee fled back southward to Georgia and Florida. One group settled near St. Augustine in Florida, once again becoming allies of the Spanish. Their village was destroyed by the British in 1727. Other Yamasee settled among the Apalachee, Creek, and SEMINOLE, and eventually lost their tribal identity. A community of Native Americans in Burke County, Georgia—the Altamaha-Cherokee—perhaps include some people of Yamasee ancestry.