Martin and his nephew have contacted us. Here is Gene Martin's own account from his emails.
Each dividing line is a new email.
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I just want to say I am a guiene Traditional Chief and was duly elected as the Tribal Chief for 24 years. I am one of the original Indians leaders to seek Federal Recognitions from the US Gov. I won State recognitions for my people many years ago and they gave us a Chicora Indian Day.
I am also the Sacred Pipe Carrier for my people and a very Spiritual Man. Yes we rec. a resolution and a proclamation from the Great Sioux Nation in Aug. 1998. It was voted on by a concenus of all the Sioux present at Granite Falls Mn. Average people there was something like 10,000.
I read the page and it seems to be all false but like I told my nephew we don't have to prove anything to anyone.
I recieved 5 invitations to the White House and the United Nations back in the 90's. I spoke in the White House to 357 Indian Chiefs and the presidents Ex. Committe.
Sorry about all this confusion, but we are from SC and not the Pee Dee area, that is another Tribe.
Gene Martin, Chief
Ta'Igmu Sutanaji
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This link will take you to a site about me, if you want post the link.
http://www.myspace.com/cougarmanstandstrong--------------
This is from Gene Martin;
The Reclamation of A Native Tribe
by Patricia Tanner Candal, Ed.D.
Chief Igmu Tanka Sutanaji
Chicora Indian Tribe of South Carolina
Email: [deleted, though we will pass on requests for those wishing to contact Martin]
In an interview for South Carolina Educational Television, historian Dr. Jack Forbes stated that South Carolina should probably change its name to Chicora because of the history of its first inhabitants. The Chicora Indians were the aboriginal dwellers of South Carolina. Indeed, they were the natives who, in the early 1520's gathered in large numbers on the beach near what is today Pawley's Island to observe strange, heavily bearded Spaniards coming ashore.
According to writer Paul Quattlebaum, the Spaniards were led by Francisco Gordillo, a skipper for Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon. More than likely they entered through the north channel of what is now known as Winyah Bay in Georgetown, South Carolina. The name Chicora is said to have come from the natives themselves, though it has sometimes been seen as Shakori or Chiquola. Historians Oviedo and Peter Martyr used the word Chicora; Martyr also used Chicorana. The Frenchman, Laudonniere, who heard the names from the Indians at Port Royal in 1562, wrote it Chiquola.
Quattlebaum, in The Land Called Chicora, relates that the Indians who were on the beach when the first Spaniards arrived thought these newcomers to be "great sea monsters or gods" and ran to the woods. Two of them, overtaken by the Spaniards, were taken to the ships, dressed in Spanish clothing and given many presents. They were allowed to return to their people, thus presenting the Spaniards as friends.
Many natives then approached the Spaniards, who gave them gifts and began friendly exchanges. In confidence of this new relationship, the Chicora Chief sent fifty men to the ships to deliver gifts of skins, little pearls and a bit of silver. The chief provided guides to help the Spaniards cross the bay and explore the countryside, noticing its rich soil. On Sunday, June 31, 1521, Gordillo, with another captain, took possession of the land in the name of their king, cutting crosses in the trees. The hospitality of the people who called themselves "Chicora" was to be rewarded with cruelty. With one hundred and forty Chicorans aboard ship for entertainment, the Spaniards set out to sea with the first Chicoran slaves, destined for Hisponiola.
Ayllon, who did not approve of the taking of slaves, declared them to be free and issued an order for them to be returned to their land. Waiting for travel, these Chicorans were left in Ayllon's custody. Ayllon travelled to Spain with one of the Indians, whom he named Francisco Chicora. While in Spain they met historians Oviedo and Peter Martyr, both of whom wrote about Francisco Chicora. Martyr wrote that these Indians had no written language, but that traditions and tales were passed down from father to son.
The story of Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and the unsuccessful attempts to firmly settle on the rich land of south Carolina is the story of the beginning of the decimation of the Chicoras. Not only the Spanish but also the French were exploring the coast of south Carolina. Captain Jean Ribaut and his crew struck their sails, casting anchor at what is now Port Royal, which to the Spaniards was known as Snata Elena.
While there, Ribaut found the natives to be hospitable and friendly, inviting him and his men to their homes and showering the Frenchmen with well-tanned skins, some pearls, and baskets made of palm leaves. Two young Indians, who were serving to guide Ribaut and one of his lieutenants, Rene de Laudonniere, offered to take the Frenchmen "to see the greatest Lord of this country whom they called Chiquola," who lived within the land toward the north.
The French-Spanish contention for the Santa Elena section of the land of the Chicoras resulted in many battles. The Spaniards are said to have attacked and either killed or drove the Frenchmen into the sea. Those who retreated into the interior of the land were said to be conquered later by the Spanish. There followed several renewed attempts by the French to take the land from the Spaniards; in the midst of these battles and revolts, the native Chicorans were forced to take sides. In the process many were massacred.
One hundred and fifty years after the first discovery of the land the Indians called Chicora, the English settlers came to stay. With them came many diseases the natives had no immunity to withstand, such as smallpox, measles, and typhus. With the settlers came many battles and the deaths of more than eighty percent of the accepted number of one million Southern Indians. Those who were not killed or forced to leave to the north or the west took themselves into the swamps and remained hidden, or at least silent, for several hundred years. In one of the last recorded Chicoran activities, Chief Eno Jemmy Warrior and many of his warriors met at Cherawtown with the Catawbas in 1743 during an attempt by the government to force all remaining Indians to move to the Catawba community.
The Chicora Indians, like many other Native American tribes, have deep gaps in their recorded histories. These gaps make their history none-the-less real and none-the-less important. Suffering death and destruction by European imperialists, the Chicoras met the same fate as millions of other native peoples in North America. The history of the Chicora Indian includes the forced assimilation of tribal members into white communities, even though white people rarely were concerned about Indian matters. According to a character in a novel by Linda Hogan, "Indians were a shadow people, living almost invisibly on the fringes."
In the low country of South Carolina, more than twenty years ago in 1975, one Indian man walked out of the shadows of Horry County and claimed his Indian heritage, never again to be called "white" to satisfy a government that refused to acknowledge his race. He struggled for three years before getting his identity as Native American recorded on official documents.
Growing up in Horry County, Gene Martin spent his childhood and his young adult life knowing he was not white and not black. He was Indian, but no one said so aloud, at least not where whites were listening. After moving to the city of Conway, he and the members of his family lived in a run down section that seperated the blacks and whites. In Conway neither race accepted them, although their written identity was white. The whispering slurs were there always, reminding him he wasn't white but Indian.
When Gene Martin publicly proclaimed his identity as Chicora, an Original People, declaring his heritage to the white world around him, things began to change. His parents, both of whom are Indian and over seventy, had told him of the more than two hundred years of Indianness in his family, a family who had always lived in the low country of South Carolina. He had been told stories that connected his family to their Native American origins. These connections made his election as Chief of the Chicora Tribe of South Carolina a natural occurrence in the reclamation of the oldest, and at one time the largest, tribe in South Carolina. Chief Gene Martin, also known as Chief Igmu Tanka Sutanaji, was duly elected by his people and the South Eastern Regional Tribal Council of Indian Chiefs.
Because of the traditional ways of the Chicora the Pipe carried by Chief Sutanaji means that he is always a traditional Chief of the Chicora until such time as that mantle of leadership is passed on by Chief Gene Martin or decided by a council of the consensus of the elders of his people. Since his election as chief, Gene Martin has worked to record the number of tribal members. This number has grown from 80 to well over 600, with Tribal members living in Horry, Georgetown, Williamsburg, and Marion counties.
When asked about his work, Chief Martin has said, "I want to continue seeking recognition for my people. I want to restore the identity of my people and our culture, to help our people have pride in being Native Americans, rather than to be ashamed as some are. That's what I want. I've dedicated my life to this, working for the Chicora people."
Chief Martin now works many hours a week to reclaim the Indianness of his people who have for too many years living under the burdening cloak of silence. Because of this resurgence of interest in Native Americans and the rewriting of their history, especially as it relates to the misnomered "discovery" of America by Columbus, native and non-native peoples are speaking the truth about American history. All people are beginning to understand that Indians are not "savages" who used to live in America but are people who have always been here.
Chief Martin has pursued the reestablishment of his tribe, often single-handedly funding the organization's activities. The tribal council meets monthly to plan for the future of the people. The tribe has received a charter from the State of South Carolina and has received proclamations from many local city or town councils acknowledging Chicora Tribal Week in November. The tribe now has 501(c)3 status as a non-profit organization. Thanks to Senator Yancey McGill and his historical lawyers, both houses of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina voted unanimously to acknowledge the Chicora Tribe and declared April 20th as Chicora Indian Day forever in South Carolina.
The tribe recently received a one-year federal grant from ANA to set up an office in andrews for the purpose of continuing to research its history and the genealogy of tribal members. the reclamation of a tribe whose ancestors were at one time the native people in North and South Carolina is an exciting linking of past, present and future.
Gaps in the historical link to present day tribal members are acknowledged; however, the government accepts that tribal members whose ancestors can be traced to 1850 can reasonably claim to be indigenous. The success of the present tribal efforts will result in the preservation of this reclaimed tribe for the "seven generations yet unborn." Of such is history made.
Sources
1. Carrier, Tim. "Those who Remain," SC ETV, 1993.
2. Crediford, Gene Joseph. Those Who Remain, Booklet funded by SC Committee for the Humanities, 1992.
3. Forbes, Jack. "For the People," SC ETV, 1993.
4. Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit, Ivy Books, 1990.
5. Quattlebaum, Paul. The Land Called Chicora. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 1956.
6. Wood, Peter. "When Old Worlds Meet." Southern Exposure, Vol. 20, Number 1, Spring, 1992.
If you have additional information to add to tribal historical accounts, or to add to this Internet site, write to us at:
Email: sutanaji@embarqmail.com
Only part of this page has been copied from the booklet "The Reclamation of a Native Tribe", by Patricia Tanner Candal, Ed.D., with the sole addition of the picture of Chief Igmu Tanka Sutanaji and these notes. We hope that you have found it to be of interest, and if you have any information that will help to further record the history of this tribe please send it by email mail to the address listed above.
Note: This site was stolen three seperate times and this page is not what the original was. I do apologize to my dear friend Dr. Patricia Candal because without her the "Reclamation of a Native Tribe" would not exist. I also want to thank her for all the time and energy she gave so willingly.
Gene Martin, Traditional Chief
