Native Americans – Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek
South Carolina SC Native Americans SC Indian Tribes SC Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek
- Alternate spellings: Pedee, Peedee, Peadea, Pidees
- Possible meanings: From pi'ri, Catawba for "something good" or pi'here, for "smart, expert, capable"
- Language family: Muskogean
- Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek
P.O. Box 396
Neeses, SC 29107
SC Location, Territory
- The Pee Dee Indians of Beaver Creek are not native to the Edisto River but originally called the area around the Great Pee Dee River home. They were known by neighboring tribes as great farmers and traders. When European colonists began to arrive, the Pee Dee were quick to establish friendly trading relationships with their newest neighbors.
- In 1738, the Pee Dee moved from Pee Dee Indian Old Town in Marion County to a reservation set up for them by the colonial government on the lands of James Coachman in Indian Field Swamp on the Edisto River in what is now Dorchester County.
- They soon began moving upriver, to the forks of the Edisto, to better serve as trading liaisons between the colonists and neighboring tribes. Many members of the tribe received land grants in that area for service in Captain John Alston's "Raccoon Company," a company of 50 Pee Dee Indian riflemen, during the Revolutionary War. In 1813 Chief Lewis Jones moved from the Pee Dee River and received grants totalling 2,000 acres. Many tribal members still reside on these original grants.
- (Special thanks to the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek for providing this information.)
Beliefs and Practices
Related Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek Resources