excerpt from ‘We Are The Washitaw’
“We know that Indians once roamed this territory. When the first settlers from the Barbadoes came up the Cape Fear, they were there. These settlers called them the Cape Fear Indians, Waccamaw and Saponas. The Waccamaws were a peaceful tribe, and when the whites began coming in, rather than have any unpleasantness, they are supposed to have voluntarily withdrawn and joined the Catawbas farther west, and some, at least, the Seminoles in Florida. It is said that the celebrated chief of the Seminoles, Osceola, was born on Waccamaw River, and tradition says that his father was one John Powell, a white man living there.” *1