Abstract

On September 21, 1959, the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina’s federal recognition ended through the Division of Assets Act. Termination, first proposed in the early 1950s, theoretically allowed Native American tribes to become self-sustaining and assimilate into mainstream society as citizens. In practice, termination had numerous negative social consequences for these tribes, especially on their cultural identity. However, unlike other tribes in the Carolinas such as the Lumbee, who were denied federal recognition and have yet to achieve it, the Catawba successfully resisted the policy, eventually regaining recognition in 1993. Although Native American scholars have documented the ways in which the Catawba preserved their culture prior to 1959, the thirty years between termination and restoration have received little attention. The termination period, perhaps more than any other in the Catawba’s history, reveals how the tribe’s pottery tradition played a crucial role in maintaining the tribe’s cultural identity and viability. Coupled with a long and hard-fought settlement with the state of South Carolina–at the time, the largest of its type in history–this helped to usher in “a Catawba renaissance” during the 1990s.

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