Native American

This week we'll be talking with Dr. Kevin Kokomoor of Coastal Carolina University about his new book, The Cherokee War of 1776: Native Destruction at the Dawn of American Independence (2026, John Hopkins University Press).Americans remember 1776 as the year liberty was declared, the moment they cast off tyranny and proclaimed the self-evident truths of equality and freedom. But that same summer, as patriots celebrated their defiant new nation, American armies launched another campaign—this one aimed at destroying the Cherokee nation.In The Cherokee War of 1776, Kevin Kokomoor recasts America's founding moment by tracing the importance of westward ambition and settler violence to the origins of the Revolutionary War. And he uncovers the rarely acknowledged war waged by the emerging United States against the Cherokee people just days after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Far from a spontaneous frontier skirmish, this war was a coordinated, state-backed campaign with a clear aim: seize Indigenous land and crush Native resistance.

“C” is for Commission of Indian Trade. In 1707 the Commons House of Assembly created the Board of Indian Commissioners to regulate the traffic between Indian traders and such nations as the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas.

“C” is for Commission of Indian Trade. In 1707 the Commons House of Assembly created the Board of Indian Commissioners to regulate the traffic between Indian traders and such nations as the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas.

“C” is for Cofitachiqui. Cofitachiqui is the name of a sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Native American chiefdom as well as one of the principal towns of that chiefdom.

“C” is for Cofitachiqui. Cofitachiqui is the name of a sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Native American chiefdom as well as one of the principal towns of that chiefdom.

This week we’ll be talking with Dr. Kathleen DuVal about native Americans in Colonial South Carolina.Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as Kathleen will tell us, North American civilization did not come to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well-armed.Much of our discussion today is based on Kathleen DuVal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.

"C” is for Chicora, Francisco de. Indian captive. Born in the early sixteenth century, the man Spaniards baptized as “Francisco” was a native of the present-day South Carolina coast.

"C” is for Chicora, Francisco de. Indian captive. Born in the early sixteenth century, the man Spaniards baptized as “Francisco” was a native of the present-day South Carolina coast.

Our next guest and her husband are filmmakers who recently relocated to our state’s Lowcountry. Their documentary about a Native American youth art project and its role in revitalizing their language and culture has won multiple awards across the country, most recently the Susan A. K. Shaffer Humanitarian Award at the Beaufort International Film Festival. Mike Switzer interviews Heather Steinberger, producer of Waniyetu Wowapi: Winter Count.

Our next guest and her husband are filmmakers who recently relocated to our state’s Lowcountry. Their documentary about a Native American youth art project and its role in revitalizing their language and culture has won multiple awards across the country, most recently the Susan A. K. Shaffer Humanitarian Award at the Beaufort International Film Festival. Mike Switzer interviews Heather Steinberger, producer of Waniyetu Wowapi: Winter Count.