Oral History and Catawba Women’s Stories

Oral history is often pushed to the side as weak evidence because it is not a written history. For Catawbas, oral history is our history, and it is one of our cultural traditions. It is our memory of life experiences within the tribal community, past and present. Therefore, incorporating oral history and moving beyond a narrative that focuses heavily on the Catawba male realm broadens our understanding of the lives of Catawba women and their contribution to the survival of the Catawba Nation of South Carolina. The lecture will provide a brief account of Catawba history that incorporates Catawba women’s stories and their interactions with non-Catawba men.

Time:

November 24th, 2pm-3pm (EST)

“This program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.”

Dr. Brooke Bauer is a citizen of the Catawba Nation of South Carolina, an Assistant Professor of U.S. History at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, and Co-Director of Native American Studies at USCL. Her research and teaching interests center on Native American History, Early American History, Women’s History, and Indigenous material culture. Her research concentrates on Catawba women’s crucial role in nation-building from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. She examines how Catawba Indian’s female ancestors adapted to an evolving geopolitical space, a world shattered by Indian slavery, warfare, disease, and population dislocation and decline. Bauer’s work reveals that some Catawba traditions persisted because of those women who helped to build the Catawba Nation that we know today.