Chief Anthony Davidson-Edisto

Partial Transcript: I’m Chief Anthony Davidson. I was the Chief of the Edisto people. In 2007 I became chief, and I resigned in 2010.

Partial Transcript: The Edisto people used to stay around Hollywood, South Carolina, the Kiawah area, in that area. My granddaddy and them found fresh water—
My granddaddy and them found the fresh water, and they went up Edisto River, and they came into Dorchester County, saw a place that they could plant a garden, fish, raise kids, so they moved in there. I asked him when I was grown, I said, “Why you didn’t stay to the beach area? The money would have been a lot better for the land.” Well, they didn’t like the saltwater, so they come in.
But when they come in, he was a sharecropper, my grandfather. So he raised nine children, twenty-three grands, and forty great-grands, okay. And he planted and he cropped. They harvest—they kill hogs and fed their family. They had the only country store in the community. So if you didn’t have money and you came to my grandparents, they would see that you had something to eat when you left or whatnot. You could pay them later. They’d run a tab on you.
Most of my people played off Indian style because if you said you were Indian, you couldn’t get a job. You couldn’t go to school. You was treated real bad. But at nine years old, people from Hollister, North Carolina, came down and joined my—Chief Robert Davidson, which was my uncle—come in and they started dancing and doing crafts, and I got into it. And I kept doing crafts—drumming and singing and dancing, keeping the culture going. I’m bringing my grandchildren up as that now.

I do a lot of crafts, like this fan I made. Made the handle. It’s out of cedar. I make walking sticks. I make moccasins. Anything that you think about that you would throw away, I’ll make something out of it. I eat some oysters—stand back, baby. I eat some oysters a while back, and the oysters cost like forty-eight dollars a bushel, and it bothered me after I eat ‘em all because it was very expensive. I said, “There’s something I’ve got to do with these shells to make my money back.” Well, they look like abalone shell, so I sanded it down, cleaned it up, and made a nice little heart, made a necklace out of it. I can get forty-five dollars for the necklace. I got my money back off of one shell for the oysters, okay, and the rest is profit.

But I can make all kinds of crafts, but I’ve got to feel it. The creator has got to bring it in my heart for me to feel it. Then I can go to the shed and make it. Just like I said, I make all kinds of crafts. If I make my first walking staff or my first fan, I have to make it—when I’m making it, somebody will come to me when I’m making it, and I’ll give them my first. Then I’ll start making and selling. But until then, I’ve got to feel it, and I’ve got to give it before I can sell it.

Partial Transcript: They went up to the 1400s. We didn’t have to go but a hundred years of literature to get state recognized, but we could go up to the 1400s. And it’s sad to say that all the way back to that data that you can show, just about, you still can’t get federal recognized. Why is it—and maybe somebody out there in the world will hear this—why is it that the nationality of the Indian people has to be proved, as much as they do to be proved an Indian? When you can look at me and tell me that I’m not white, I’m not black, I’m not Mexican, Puerto Rican, so it’s got to be Indian there—American Indian there. Because of land claims, because of money the government owed, that’s what it’s all about. They don’t want to acknowledge you, who you are, so you have to lay around and bring your grandkids up knowing they’ll never be called Native American or American Indian, because of the laws that was handed down, and different ones. BIA—Bureau of Indian Affairs should be our—help me. Seems likes they against us. There are Indian people sitting on the board turning Indian people down when they know that they’re Indian people.

I don’t understand it. We’re just as good as anybody else in this world. I try to treat people good because I want to be treated good, you know? There’s a lot to learn from one another. The creator above sent us here that all races could live and share and enjoy one another, but we got it wrong.

Partial Transcript: My people loved to hang around the river. They could fish. They could wash. They had water to drink. Berries grew around the area. Squirrels, rabbits hung around because they had to have some water, so it was a good hunt there. They liked to hang around the river side. We like to plant tomatoes, collards, cucumbers. My people—the Edisto people—when they cut they collards, they cut it real thin. It’s a certain way they do it. They don’t do it like some people—you pull them and pull them. No. We’ll ball them up and we’ll cut them. It looks like coleslaw, real thin. And then they’ll fry it up and cook it up good. Some steam it. We fry it with grease, a little bit of grease, a little bit of water, a little bit of fatback, and it’s good to go. Best collard greens you’ll ever eat. Fish, we love to eat fish, deer meat, things like that. I prefer rabbit than I would a steak. It’s just the way that you prepare it. Some people will cook something, don’t put the right season to it, it’s not going to taste good.

I still deal with book skin. I mess with book skin. People throw away hides. I’ll gather them and take them to the house. I make knife sheaves and different things like little hand drums. Don’t throw it away. Don’t throw it away.

Partial Transcript: That’s exactly right. I mean, why you go out here to hunt for the sport of it? You’re not eating the meat. You throw away the antlers. You throw away the hide. You throw away the toes. People be like, “What are you going to do with the toes?” Toes makes bells to go around your ankle when you dance the plays for you. Everything that’s on that animal, you can use—everything. And our people used to use it. They would take the guts and they would put it out in the soil and that was their fertilizer. Some parts, they would get the sinew to sew with. You know, some of the bones and sewing needles, different things like that. You didn’t throw away nothing. And I’m like that today. My wife said, “Why you keeping that?” I might use it tomorrow. Why throw it away?

Partial Transcript: We can. We can. We put it in jars or put it in the freezer. You know, I take a tomato and put it in hot water, and the hull will shrink up and you peel the hull off of it, put it in a plastic bag, sew it up, and put it in—and I don’t have to go buy canned tomatoes. There’s my tomato right out in the freezer, fresh and good. Yeah. There’s green beans, anything. I just put up sixty dollars’ worth of boiled peanuts. I put them in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer. When I want peanuts, take them out and warm them up. I got boiled peanuts. Green boiled peanuts not dried boiled peanuts. (laughs) But people don’t do that these days. My grandma, she didn’t throw away nothing neither, and if she had milk she just got from the cow, she’d put it in a jar and shake it till it turned to butter. On her leg, she’d turn it to butter. Cottage cheese, things like that, she made. You would sort of clabber milk away. She would take it all, put it in a jar, and make cottage cheese out of it. I don’t like cottage cheese, but some people do.

Partial Transcript: Herbs is good. That’s—the creator sent herbs here. If you notice—I told somebody that the other day—notice a dog. If he’s sick, feeling bad, he’ll go out there and find a piece of grass that will make him sick, and he’ll eat that, and he’ll throw up and get rid of it. Well, there’s herbs out there for every one of our problems—cancer. The Lord Jesus took thirty-nine stripes on his back for every disease that ever could pop up. It was healing there. But we have to believe. If you don’t believe and have faith in it, it’s not going to work. Your atheists don’t believe in the creator, don’t believe in God, but let them get sick, about to die. Who you going to call on? You’re going to call on God then.

Partial Transcript: Well, like sage, we use sage for ceremonies. Tobacco we use for ceremonies. Cedar—you see all the cedar trees out there? It’s good medicine. Cedar is good medicine. You can take some of the berries that’s purple on the cedar tree and put it in a jar and let them soak and strain it and then drink so much and it will bring your blood sugar back down to normal. Okay, some people don’t know that, but everything out there is sent for a reason. We can take some of the roots and some of the leaves and take our meat and cure it and season it. The smoke will go in and season the meat and cure it right. But you’ve got to know what you’re doing with it. You just can’t go out and throw something together. You have to know.

We used to have a root that we put around our neck would help you teethe your teeth. Your teeth would teethe. Some people don’t believe things like that. Raisins—new raisins not the dark raisins—the green-looking new raisins, you can take the raisins and put them in a Mason jar, get you a bottle of gin, fill it up, close the jar, wait for seven days, go back and strain the gin off the raisins. You’re not doing this to get drunk. Strain it off the raisins, go back and eat six raisins a day. It will cure your arthritis in your hands, the bumps, remove it.

Partial Transcript: Back in the old days, is what you’re getting at, we had long huts. People say teepees. When they come on the reservation now, the first thing they look for is teepees. It’s no teepee, you all. This is a reservation. Well, we’ve got brick houses now. We’ve got mobile homes and stuff like modern times, but if we was to build something, we would build a long hut, a lean-to. That’s the way people in the south did it, and in the east. People out west had teepees. But we was always by the river.

Partial Transcript: Oh yes. I don’t know where they came from to get around Kiawah or Hollywood, South Carolina, where they come from then, because a lot of it was—a lot of our records and data was dead—my grandfather was telling me—so far back. That was it. I don’t know if they come over saltwater somewhere with canoes and come on the land. The Kiawah Indians was there. We had Creek. We had the Edisto. You had some Seminoles. You had some Cherokee. You had different tribes. We’ve got mounds all around South Carolina right now today. But I just wish we could have got along together at Plymouth Rock. We wouldn’t be in the shape we’re in now.

Partial Transcript: It was just—just like I said; we believed the river give us so much back. If our woman was fixin’ to have a baby, we didn’t have a doctor. She would walk down to the edge of the river and walk into the river, and the water would press against her belly and help press the baby out. And it was easier for her to have a baby. So we utilized the water for—even for a doctor. But it give us life. It give us fish. It give us something to drink, a place to stay. The river meant a lot to the Indian people. Actually, it means a lot to everybody in this world today. Without water, we would be ruined. It gives a lot back.

When I was teaching Sunday school, I carried the class down there, and I said, “We’re going down to the river, and I want to let you all know that this river’s not dead; it’s alive.” And we did a study on it. I told them, “See how it’s moving? It’s alive. And then it gives life. Anything that gives life has got to be living.” They go like, “It’s just laying. It’s dead.” I said, “It’s not laying there; it’s moving, and it’s giving life.” So water means a lot to us.

Partial Transcript: Oh, I really love to protect nature. Just like I said, if you don’t need it, don’t mess with it. Leave it alone. Some people do things with eagles, deer, alligators. Like I said, if you don’t need it, don’t mess with it. To me, the eagle feather is so highly honored to have. It’s a sacred bird. It’s a ceremonial feather. So I wouldn’t kill the bird. I wouldn’t buy it. But if I found it on the side of the road, I’d stop and gather it and use it because that’s my religion. That’s my culture. I should be able to do that. But the game wardens and the federal building that says if you’re not federally recognized you need to leave it alone. Well, what happened to the rest of my life, my ceremony, my pieces? If I find it, I’m sorry, I’m carrying it, and I’m going to use it. You’re going to have to feed, lock me up, whatever you do, but that’s me, and I should not have to hide my culture in a closet and come to the game warden display—he’s got stuffed eagles and real eagles, and I can’t even carry a feather. Something is wrong with that. Something is wrong with that. Every day they’re always changing the law. We can only get so many fish. We can only kill so many birds. We can only do this. We can only do that. Who sent this—who sent these animals, the game warden? No. Our creator did. If you take one bird out, nine times out of ten the creator done sent six more in. Okay?

Partial Transcript: Well, all of this is in God’s plan.
All the animals were sent here for a reason. They all—even a buzzard. Say, what are buzzards good for? Well, they eats the carcasses out of the road so we won’t catch diseases and things. Okay, a turtle, say, what good is a turtle? He’s slow. He just moves. I use a turtle when I go to school demonstrations.
Yeah, some people want to know what good is a turtle, because he’s slow and just hangs around and whatnot. Well, he gives me—it’s good meat. Turtles have got good meat to it. But I use a turtle when I go do school demonstrations. They won’t let you—shh. Hey. They won’t let you talk about God in school. Because of the turtle, I can bring him in. Every turtle, if you flip him over, on the belly, you look, there’s a cross of Jesus on there. If you count around the corners, you’ve got six on one side and six on the other—twelve disciples. You’ve got the bible and the podium on it. The turtle’s slow, but he shows he carries the gospel of Christ. And I can bring that in because of that turtle. But we need all these. Back in the olden days we had to walk, walk, walk, walk. We found out horses was made to ride, so we started riding horses. So they were sent for a reason. Mosquitoes is aggravating. They were sent here for a reason. I ain’t never found out what yet, but they’re here for a reason. Gnats, flies—we got to have them. I don’t think if we needed them here the creator wouldn’t have sent them. I really don’t. I believe everything to do he’s got a plan for. That’s how I believe it. Even learning to love one another is in his plan.

Partial Transcript: Some do. Some messes with a few turtles. A lot of my people done away with the arts and crafts and the Indian stuff because they wasn’t treated good. They couldn’t go to school. They couldn’t get a job. They couldn’t take care of their family. So they moved in that category that if you want to call me white, I’ll be white. If you want to call me black, I’ll be black, just to take care of my family. And that’s the way they live. They quit doing their culture. They still—a lot of them probably won’t even eat an animal now unless it’s out of the grocery store now. But where’s the best meat at? Where is the purest, best meat you’ll find? Is it in Buy-Lows? No, it’s in these woods that nature takes care of. God takes care of it. Good, lean—a deer, no fat, healthy for you.

Partial Transcript: A lot of them do. See, a lot of people have the Indian names, like I am Spirit Hawk. My grandson is Little Hawk. My son is Running Bear. My father-in-law was Hug a Bear. We do different clans from different animals. We catch into that. Now see, if I pass a hawk, I’m going to stop. If he’s on the side of the road, if he’s dead, I’m going to stop, and I’m going to gather the parts. And I’m going to take them home, and I’m going to use them. Not to dishonor the game warden, what he says, but honor that bird. I’m carrying that bird for a reason. This turkey fan, I’ve made a couple of them already. But they’re hunting the turkeys, and they throw the stuff away. Why throw it away? Why not make something out of it to honor that bird? And when I dance, I got a nice fan.

Partial Transcript: Well, I never got into studying different animals and different parts of the turtle. Just like I said, I found that out—a Cherokee guy, Mr. Richard Crow, told me that story probably twenty years ago about the turtle, and I kept it because it come from the elder. If I find out something, a turtle is a messenger. Like, how you mean a messenger? Well, take a turtle that you found on the side of the road, fixin’ to get run over, and you go stop, take time, and move him out of the road. Instead of writing a letter and dropping it in a bottle, write something on the turtle and the date that you wrote it. Turn him lose. See where he goes at. Leave a number on it. They can contact you, say, “Well, I found your turtle.” “Well, I was in South Carolina.” “Well, he’s in Tennessee.” See what I mean? We can use these things and find out more about each animal, what they were sent here for.

Buffalo was a good part of our eating meat because he was so big. There were so many of them. I use buffalo today—leg quarters for—


Leg quarters for knives. I use the hides, the horns. I use all kinds of things. You can take a horn and make a horn out of it, where you can blow. Animals are special.

Partial Transcript: Well, not just the Edisto but one another. We can learn from one another to preserve this land, to start off with. Quit littering and destroying it. Instead of throwing down one piece of paper, pick up two. It’s not our land to do that to. It’s the next generation that we will leave it to. Let’s leave it clean. Our grandkids gotta have something to live off and enjoy, but if we destroy it, it won’t be there. Preserving food, learning how to sew, learning how to do things, showing one another love and attention, we all could come together and learn from one another. You see churches; they get different ones and different groups and do different things. Are they really teaching what they’re supposed to be teaching—how to love one another? How to go out there and hunt a deer, skin a deer, preserve food to feed a family. Is it best to feed a family or teach a family how to feed itself? Okay, I look like that these kids—my grandkids—I look to teach them everything I know, because one day, when this world gets really down and out, like it’s just about now, we gotta know how to hunt a squirrel and hunt a rabbit and fix it. That rich man out there that’s got plenty of money, he’s going to count on us to feed him because he ain’t going to know how to do it. So it’s up to us to learn these things and send them down to our grandchildren so when their children get up they’ll know, but we stop it. You think the oil wells are going to feed us? You think the big bank is going to feed us? No. If you don’t know how to cook it, you don’t know how to get it—

Partial Transcript: To survive, so we can survive. If we lose our history and our culture and everything, we’re not going to survive. We’re going to die right out to a plastic credit card. 0:25:30.8 (audio skips) The government that has somebody shouldn’t be in office. I won’t say nothing else. But we can learn from one another, and how to learn is sit down with an old person or elder, as I call it, and listen at how he came up and how he survived. And you can learn from him. They’re not trying to tell you how to live and what to do with your life. They’ve just been there already, and they don’t want you to make the same mistake they did. So not only preserving the land but preserving one another.

Partial Transcript: If I was going to leave anything to my grandchildren and my tribe and my community it would be that, whatever you do, to love everybody as yourself as God loves the church and show people that you care, help people. That would be the legacy.