Catawba Wayside

An important detail to know is that the Historic Site rests on the ancestral lands of the Catawba Indians, with whom the Polks most certainly interacted. Certain skills and techniques such as basket weaving, fishing techniques, gardening and herbal remedies, including their use of whitewashing the kitchen house with an oyster shell and lime mixture as a pest prevention, were all either learned or enhanced through their interactions with the native people. While the Catawba now reside on a reservation in Rock Hill, just slightly south of the NC/SC border, they would have at one time been extremely populous and thriving on the land. Other tribes in the area included the Waxhaw, Sugaree, Cheraw, Lumbee as well as the Cherokee.

The story of Indigenous people during President Polk’s lifetime is difficult one. By the time of Polk’s birth the Indigenous population had been decimated by diseases such as smallpox and influenza, which wiped out many communities, in some cases by more than 90%. Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of the 1830 forced  Indigenous people in the area off their homelands and farther west to lands such as Kentucky and Oklahoma. James Polk, while younger than Jackson, and just beginning his political career, was a supporter of the Indian Removal Act and continued to support it throughout his presidency.

While this Historic Site focuses on the childhood of President Polk and the life of those living in the Carolina back country it is important for us to take a moment remember there was a thriving population of Indigenous people, prior to European colonization, that have largely been written out of the history books, even though they still have a lasting impact

Our next stop will be the cemetery. Turn around and walk toward the white building and out to the parking lot. To your left you will see a black metal fence. This is the cemetery.