Catawba

Catawba people

The Catawba, also known as Issa, Essa, or Iswä but most commonly Iswa, are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, known as the Catawba Indian Nation. Their current lands are in South Carolina, on the Catawba River, near the city of Rock Hill. Their territory once extended into North Carolina, as well, and they still have legal claim to some parcels of land in that state. They were once considered one of the most powerful Southeastern tribes in the Carolina Piedmont, as well as one of the most powerful tribes in the South as a whole, with other, smaller tribes merging into the Catawba as their post-contact numbers dwindled due to the effects of colonization on the region.

Catawba language

Catawba is one of two Catawban languages of the eastern US, which together with the Siouan languages forms the Siouan–Catawban languages. The last native, fluent speaker of Catawba was Samuel Taylor Blue, who died in 1959. The Catawba people are now working to revitalize and preserve the Catawba language.

Catawba (grape)

Catawba is a red American grape variety used for wine as well as juice, jams and jellies. Grown predominantly on the East Coast of the United States, this purplish-red grape is a likely a hybrid of the native American Vitis labrusca and the Vitis vinifera cultivar Sémillon. Its exact origins are unclear but it seems to have originated somewhere on the East Coast between the Carolinas and Maryland.

Catawba

Noun

1. A member of a Native American people who inhabit the Carolinas: the Iswa.
2. A red American dessert grape variety.

Proper noun

1. The language of the Eastern Siouan family spoken in eastern United States.
2. A river in North Carolina and South Carolina, United States.