{{Short description|Extinct Indigenous tribe of the Southeastern Woodlands}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = | native_name = Sewee | native_name_lang = | image = | image_caption = | total = extinct as a tribe | total_year = | total_source = | total_ref = | genealogy = | regions = South Carolina | languages = regarded as speakers of one of the eastern Siouan languages.<ref name="Swanton, 98">Swanton, 98</ref> | philosophies = | religions = Native American religion | related_groups = Catawba,<ref>Swanton, 99</ref> merged with the Wando people<ref name="olexer116"/> | footnotes = }}

The '''Sewee''' or "Islanders" were a historical Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in present-day South Carolina in North America.

Their territory was on the lower course of the Santee River and the coast westward to the divide of Ashley River, around present-day Moncks Corner, South Carolina.<ref name="Swanton, 98">Swanton, 98</ref>

== History == Ethnologist John Reed Swanton estimated there were 800 Sewee in 1600.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Swanton|first1=John Reed|title=The Indian Tribes of North America|date=1952|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com|isbn=9780806317304|page=99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xpx6WoPz7xIC|access-date=20 September 2017}}</ref>

In 1670, the English founded the coastal town of Charleston in the Carolina Colony on land belonging to the Sewee, the Etiwan people, and neighboring tribes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Butler |first=Nic |date=November 19, 2021 |title=The First People of the South Carolina Lowcountry |url=https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/first-people-south-carolina-lowcountry |access-date=March 10, 2023 |website=Charleston County Public Library}}</ref> Sewee and other Native peoples began participating in the Deerskin trade with English colonists shortly thereafter. The Sewee hunted, processed, and exchanged deer hides for manufactured goods and glass beads from the English. However, they felt that English traders had become middlemen. Noting that the English ships always landed at the same location, the Sewee believed that by rowing to the point on the horizon where the ships first appeared, they could reach England and negotiate better trading prices. Therefore, the Sewee people decided to construct canoes with woven mat sails for their expedition.<ref name="Nations">{{Cite book |last=Merrell |first=James H. |title=The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8078-7142-3 |edition=2nd |location=Chapel Hill |pages=49–50}}</ref>

English land surveyor John Lawson, having heard the story from a Carolina trader, described the process in his book ''A New Voyage to Carolina'':

<blockquote>It was agreed upon immediately to make an addition of their fleet by building more canoes, and those to be of the best sort and biggest size as fit for their intended discovery. Some Indians employed about making the canoes, others to hunting – everyone to the post he was most fit for, all endeavors towards an able fleet and cargo for Europe.<ref name="Lawson">{{cite book |last= Lawson|first= John|date= 1709|title= A New Voyage to Carolina|url= http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/menu.html|location= University of North Carolina|publisher= London|pages= 11–12|access-date= 17 October 2014}}</ref></blockquote>

Eventually, the Sewee completed their navy of canoes, and they filled the vessels with hides, pelts, and provisions. Most able-bodied Sewee men boarded the boats and took to the sea, while children, the sick, and the elderly stayed home. As the Sewee entered open ocean, an abrupt storm engulfed their canoes and caused many to drown. The survivors were picked up by a passing English slave ship and sold into slavery in the West Indies.<ref name="Nations"/><ref name="Lawson"/><ref name="olexer116">{{cite book |last1=Olexer |first1=Barbara |title=The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times |date=2005 |publisher=Joyous Pub. |isbn=9780972274043 |page=116 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2aIwX_MkT4C}}</ref>

The surviving Sewee settled with the Wando people, with whom they later intermarried.<ref name="olexer116"/>

== Language == {{main|Sewee language}}

== See also == * Catawba * Cheraw * Moneton * Mosopelea * Occaneechi * Saponi * Tutelo * Waccamaw

== Notes == {{reflist}}

== References == * {{cite book|last1=Swanton|first1=John Reed|title=The Indian Tribes of North America|date=1952|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com |isbn=9780806317304 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xpx6WoPz7xIC}}

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Category:Extinct Native American tribes Category:Native American tribes in South Carolina Category:Native American history of South Carolina Category:History of Charleston, South Carolina Category:Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands