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The Pee Dee

Please note that while we cannot do research, we hope to provide assistance, through data and links, to Native Americans with roots in South Carolina.

NOTE: the publication date for the source information contained in the following article was 1920.

Contributed by: 
Paul R. Sarrett, Jr. Aug. 11, 1998                         (prsjr@aol.com)

Pedee tribe.- Meaning unknown, but Speck (1935) suggests from Catawba 
pi'ri, "something good," or pi'here, "smart," "expert," "capable."

Pedee Connections.- No words of the language have survived but there 
is every reason to suppose that it was a dialect of the Siouan linguistic 
family.

Pedee Loction.- On Great Pee Dee River, particularly its middle 
course.

Pedee Village. - No village names are known apart from the tribal 
name, which was sometimes applied to specific settlements.

Pedee History.- The Pedee are first mentioned by the colonists of 
South Carolina. In 1716 a place in or near their country called Saukey 
(perhaps Socatee) was suggested as the site for a trading post but 
the proposition to establish one there was given up owing to the weakness 
of the Pedce tribe, who were thought to be unable to protect it. In 
1744, the Pedee, along with Natchez Indians, killed some Catawba and 
were in consequence driven from their lands into the White settlements. 
Soon afterward most of them joined the Catawba, but some remained 
near the Whites, where they are mentioned as late as 1755. In 1808 
the Pedee and Cape Fear tribes were represented by one half-breed 
woman.

Pedee Population.- Mooney, 1900, estimates the number of Pedee as 
600 in 1600. The census of 1715 does not give them separate mention, 
and they were probably included among the 610 Waccamaw or the 106 
Winyaw.

Pedee Connection in which they have become noted.- The Great and 
Little Pee Dee Rivers and a station in Marion County, S. C., also 
a post village in Anson County, N. C., perpetuate the name of the 
Pedee.

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