Editing Columbus County, North Carolina (section)

===Early history===
The area comprising Columbus County was originally inhabited by the [[Waccamaw]] people. Historically, the "eastern Siouans" had territories extending through the area of Columbus County prior to any European exploration or settlement in the 16th century.

English colonial settlement in what was known as Carolina did not increase until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Following epidemics of new [[infectious disease]]s, to which indigenous peoples were exposed in trading and other contact, the Waccamaw and other Native Americans often suffered disruption and fatalities when caught between larger tribes and colonists in the  [[Tuscarora War|Tuscarora]] and [[Yamasee War|Yamasee]] wars. Afterward most of the [[Tuscarora people]] migrated north, joining other [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian-speaking]] peoples of the Five Nations of the [[Iroquois Confederacy]] in New York State by 1722. At that point the leaders declared their migration ended and the tribe officially relocated to that area.

The Waccamaw Siouan ancestors retreated for safety to an area of Green Swamp near [[Lake Waccamaw]].<ref>William S. Powell, ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 1170.</ref> Throughout the 19th century, the Waccamaw Siouan were seldom mentioned in the historical record. If descendants intermarried with whites and/or African Americans, their children were assumed to lose their Indian status, although they were often reared in Indian culture. Since North Carolina was a slave society, whites classified anyone with visible African features as slaves and blacks first.