Description
The Congaree were a historic group of Native Americans who once lived within what is now central South Carolina, along the Congaree River. They spoke a language distinct from and not mutually intelligible with other local Siouan languages. The tribe joined the Catawba Nation in company of the Wateree several years after temporarily migrating to the Waccamaw River in 1732. During the middle of the eighteenth century, Congaree was considered one of the languages spoken within the Catawba Nation. The Congaree lived along the Santee and Congaree rivers, above and below the confluence of the Wateree River, in central South Carolina. According to James Mooney's 1894 history of the Siouan tribes, the Congaree occupied territory between the Santee tribe downriver of them and the Wateree tribe above. In Native American practice, people taken as captives in warfare, particularly women and children, were often kept or sold as slaves.
Language
They spoke a language distinct from and not mutually intelligible with other local Siouan languages. The language today is generally considered unclassified, though, some linguists believe that the language was related to Catawba.
Culture
Their town consisted of not more than 12 houses, with plantations up and down the country. Several tribes were generally small and lived closely adjoining one another, they differed in features, disposition, and language, a fact which renders the assignment of these small tribes to the Siouan family conjectural. They were a friendly people, handsome and well built, the women being especially beautiful compared with those of other tribes. In 1698, the Congaree lost most tribe members to smallpox. The Native Americans suffered high mortality from new infectious diseases that had become endemic for centuries among Europeans, leading to some acquired immunity for the latter.