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Tucked away in a remote corner of Allendale County is the Yamassee Indian Reservation, a place where rural solace and Indigenous tradition meet. But the Yamassee’s presence in Allendale extends beyond the reservation; many residents of the towns of Allendale and Fairfax have Yamassee ancestry, as well as in many neighboring counties in the Lowcountry.
Due to their complexion, the Yamassee are frequently mistaken as being of African ancestry. This conflation has been at the center of post-colonial Yamassee history; after Spanish conquistadors and European imperialism arrived at their shores, the Yamassee spent centuries caught between the forces of colonial land theft and chattel slavery. Since the creation of Allendale County in 1919, the governments of Allendale County have struggled to establish a trusting relationship with the reservation.
Yet, on the weekend of May 3–5, the Allendale Town Council’s community development committee and the Yamassee Tribe collaborated to host the Yamassee Green Corn festival, an Indigenous ceremony that celebrates the beginning of corn season. During the weekend, Allendale’s streets were filled with children, locals and visitors from throughout the Lowcountry region. The celebration offered a glimpse into the reservation’s vision for greater collaboration between the reservation and the local government.
The People-Sentinel spoke with Yamassee Indian Tribe Chief Se’Khu Gentle about the reservation’s relationship with Allendale County leaders, the role the reservation can play in moving Allendale forward and Allendale’s relationship with the natural world.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Elijah de Castro: How would you describe the historical relationship between the reservation and Allendale’s local government?
Chief Gentle: There’s been a misunderstanding, but more so a lack of understanding of tribal rights. The lack of understanding is because we look Black and because of how we are identified. Once the local government understood those dynamics — and that we are protected by federal law — then the relationship changed. But then it became “well, what do they want?” We had to shift focus as a tribe because we understood that who we are was coming off as threatening to Allendale and the surrounding counties. So we just blended in. We started opening up businesses, we joined first responders and firefighters and EMTs. We wanted the community to realize that we aren't the bad guys here, we don’t want to take land from you. Once we were able to connect with the community and start helping the community in areas like food, bills, businesses and other assistance, the community understood that we're here to help. Once that happened, then the leadership here understood the dynamics of the tribe. They’ve never understood the advantage of working with a local tribe. We’re not opposed to people being here, we’re just saying work with us so that we can work with you to make this a better area. We need to come together and stop being fearful of what we’re going to lose, because this land has already been colonized. We need to start figuring out how we can work with Native people, with Indigenous people, so we can take these counties to another level and start moving forward.
Elijah: I think people both in government and in the general population form an idea in their head of who Indigenous people are and what their communities want or want to change. Until conversations like these happen, how do those ideas hold us back?
Chief Gentle: We have a vested interest in the county and the towns as a whole. People are scared to have those conversations because they don't want to insult Indigenous people. They don’t know what to say, what not to say, or what’s insulting. If you're truly who you say you are as an Indigenous person, you’re concerned about everyone around you. Yes, we have the ability to self govern, we have sovereignty here. But we also realize our people have to go into town to go to the store, our people have to go into the town to get gas. So what happens in the community affects us. We can focus wholeheartedly on us and getting grants here and lifting our land and reservation up. But at the same time, if we're not concerned about the economic aspects or the security aspects of the community where our people still reside we're doing ourselves a disservice.
Elijah: Right, and we could name all of the issues that Allendale faces, but there’s also been an interior struggle that the community has experienced. There’s a lot of people in Allendale who are trying to better the community, but there’s also a lot of people who don't believe that lifting the community up is even possible. How can we address that, and what is the tribe's role in that?
Chief Gentle: We’re disconnected and we’re looking at a bigger picture when we haven’t even dealt with the basics. The basics are always the future generations. Tribes believe that everything that we fought for was for seven generations before us and seven generations after us. That’s how tribes think. I’m thinking about respecting my ancestors seven generations back and what they did, and thinking about my seven generations here, my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren and what I’m doing to provide for them. If we thought that way, we could be providing teenagers with jobs working with the youth, so that children are still able to grow up being children. Our children can’t be children.
Elijah: I wrote about this recently in an article, but there have been conversations in local government about getting Allendale a state park. Even though this is a rural area, there’s very little places for young people to really get outside and experience the natural world.
Chief Gentle: The state park is a great idea, but let’s add Native history there. Let’s create a mock village so people and especially the children can learn more about the first people and how they lived. From the park we can build more on things and places our children can go and do. We need to think about the impact we have, not just on the economy but on the ecological system. As a tribe, we wholeheartedly respect the environment and everything that we have here. We live off the land, we grow, we worry about medicinal items. These are the cultural practices that we've maintained for a reason. If we don't change, and we don't understand that change is needed, the Earth will show us. Nature will show us. If people here in the counties have a vested interest in the county and if they truly love the area they were raised in and grew up with, they need to be willing to make sacrifices. My tribe did. We made the ultimate sacrifice. All this land that people are claiming, this is our land. We don’t mind people being on it. But what are you going to do with it?
Elijah: I think it’s hard to make sacrifices when you’ve grown used to thinking and living in a certain way. How can you and others within your community help Allendale break past that?
Chief Gentle: People have to be willing to come to us and ask us “How can we help?” Anything we do almost comes off as an immediate threat to people, because it automatically comes off as “The Indians are doing XYZ, what do they want in return?” We can't get what you already have. We're not trying to take anything from you. People are scared to ask us and people are scared to cooperate with us. That's what hinders us. We’re saying, “The doors are open for us to have a conversation.” Ask us: “How can we collaborate with you on something that can be progressively helpful for the area?” If anyone has had to learn progression and how to adapt, it'd be tribes.
Elijah de Castro is a Report for America corps member who writes about rural communities like Allendale and Barnwell counties for The People-Sentinel. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Elijah writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today.
