Waccamaw
The Waccamaw tribe, from which the Waccamaw River and many other local place names were given, inhabited the territory of present northeastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. The tribe was never large, and was much depleted and somewhat dispersed by contact with European settlers and their diseases. A remnant of the tribe consisting of about 365 members, headed by Chief Buster Hatcher has been petitioning for recognition as a tribe by South Carolina and won this formal recognition from the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs on February 17, 2005. The tribe is headquartered in Dimery, South Carolina in Horry County. The recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and can apply for grants that are specifically for Native Americans. Formal recognition as a tribe is extrememly difficult because of a Catch-22 in the process. To be established as a tribal groups, members have to submit extensive genealogical proof of tribal descent, yet in past years many Native Americans denied their Native American heritage, because identification as an Indian would have deprived them of many rights, such as the right of probate, according to South Carolina laws which existed up into the 1980s.
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