Santee (South Carolina)

[1] The tribe has sometimes been confused with the Santee, another Siouan speaking people primarily situated within the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Manitoba, Canada, due to the similarity of their names.

The Santee people's earliest documented presence with a high degree of certainty can be traced back to the early seventeenth century, specifically through the accounts of Captain Francisco Fernandez de Eçija.

[3] On January 15, 1675, Mathews submitted a report to the Council, indicating that the Santee people had approached him with a request for guidance in selecting a location to establish a town.

[3] Mathews served as the overseer of Mepkin Plantation, a substantial estate spanning 3,000 acres situated along the Western Branch of the Cooper River, directly opposite the present-day location of Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

[3] Lawson described encountering King of the Santee as well as the chief doctor of the tribe, in addition to other tribal members, including a hunter and his wife.

[3] Jack and his wife escorted Lawson and his party to a town of Congaree people, thought to be located near present-day Camden, South Carolina.

[6] Traditionally, it was widely believed that the tribe had been completely annihilated as a result of the Yamasee War, influenced by a statement from the British Public Record Office suggesting their extinction before 1716.

[7] A notice describes a man named Simon Flowers as an American Indian or Mustee, aged thirty-six, born at Santee River.

[2] Notably, Santee rulers were interred atop mounds constructed in accordance with their status within the tribe, with a roof supported by poles sheltering their graves from the elements.

[8] Thomas Ashe, who published a report on South Carolina in 1682 under commission of the King of England, described the religious beliefs of the Santee as centering on the adoration of the sun and moon, noting that at the appearance of the new moon he witnessed tribal members "with open extended arms, then folded, with inclined bodies, to make their adoration with much ardency and passion".