HOA Management IN Indian Land, SC

As of 2018, per the U.S. Census, the Indian Land estimated population is 17,742 (This is not the Indian Land zip code population). The male population totals 8,531 and the female population totals 9,211. The median age of the entire population is 41. The median age for men is 41 and 42 for women.

The population density is 559 people per square mile. The estimated total housing is 7,852 units. The estimated total occupied housing is 7,256 units. The median home value is $230,000. The median household income is $60,169. 

Indian Land’s two primary roads are U.S. Route 521 and S.C. Highway 160. Both run through Indian Land and U.S. Route 521 is where the majority of the area’s businesses and retail are located.

The Catawba Indians are believed to have inhabited the lands along the Catawba River for at least the last 6,000 years. There are Catawba Indian artifacts dating back thousands of years, however, there is not much-written documentation of the Catawbas. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto is believed to be the first European to encounter the Catawbas in 1540 and he documented his contact. The next European contact is believed to be Spanish explorer Juan Pardo in 1567. Pardo’s encounter was documented in Vandera’s narratives of Pardo’s expedition in which the Catawba are referred to as Ysa Issa (Iswa). In 1670, German explorer John Lederer in his expedition from Virginia to West of Carolina encountered the Catawba Indians. This encounter is documented in his book from the expedition, expedition, The Discoveries of John Lederer, In three several Marches from Virginia, To the West of Carolina, And other parts of the Continent: Begun in March 1669, and ended in September 1670.  Lederer referred to the Catawbas as the Ushery. 

It is believed that the Catawbas inhabited the Piedmont regions of the Carolinas up into Virginia. The Catawbas were primarily an agrarian-based tribe that fished and hunted to supplement their diet. Early Catawba communities were within villages surrounded by palisades constructed of logs and tree branches. Within the palisades there was a large council house with a large open area for village gatherings. Small hut-like structures with rounded tops inside the palisades served as individual family dwellings. Sweat lodges being a large part of their culture, the Catawbas typically constructed a stone circular sweat lodge in the palisades. 

European settlers migrated to the Piedmont of South Carolina and what would become Indian Land during the mid-18th century. The settlers and the Catawbas had a peaceful relationship based on mutual trade with one another. This good relationship led to the Catawbas protecting the settlers from other tribes who were hostile to the settlers’ presence. 

While the Catawbas had a many thousands of years historical presence in the entire Piedmont region of the Carolinas, they have a unique relatively recent history with Lancaster County and what eventually became Indian Land. During the French and Indian War (1754-1763) the Catawba Indians allied with the British. In recognition of this, England’s King George III granted the Catawba Indians 144,000 acres in the 1763 Treaty of Augusta.  Today this 144,000 acres would have included Rock Hill, South Carolina and most of the eastern part of present-day York County and much of the northern portion of Lancaster County (also called the Panhandle). The Catawba Indians already thought of these 144,000 acres as their land long before King George III’s treaty grant. 

Nonetheless, the Treaty of Augusta did not prevent European settlers from laying claims to the Catawba’s land. Compounding this issue, the Catawbas began leasing land between 30 and 1,000 acres to settlers. Thomas and Elizabeth Spratt were reportedly the first European settlers to lease land on the reservation around present-day Fort Mill, South Carolina. Many of the Spratt’s descendants still live in that area. John Spratt was a United States congressman representing the 5th South Carolina congressional district from 1983 to 2011. The 5th South Carolina congressional district includes the original 144,000-acre reservation.

Scots-Irish settlers began arriving in the Lancaster and Indian Land area in the 1750s and 1760s. English settlers began arriving shortly thereafter. These English settlers are reportedly where the name for Lancaster County originated. Immigrants from Lancaster, Lancashire, England pushed for the county to be named in honor of the House of Lancaster.

Determining the origin of the Indian Land name is a bit of an enigma. The Indian Land name reportedly originated around the time of the arrival of the early European settlers. The name was supposedly derived because of the large population of Native American tribes living in the area. These Indians were reportedly Catawba and Waxhaw Indians. It is theorized that the Waxhaw were a branch of the Catawba, rather than a completely separate tribe. The Waxhaw Indians, while never reported to be as large a tribe as compared to the Catawba or Cherokee, are now extinct. 

The origin of the name “Indian Land” and it’s being populated with Waxhaw Indians requires further investigation. This is because the “Indian Land” name could have only originated from settlers at some point. After all, Indians are not likely to refer to their own area as Indian Land. Settlers did not begin to heavily populate the Lancaster County area until the 1750s. Historians believe the Waxhaw Indians were reduced in number because of the Yamasee War (1715-1717) and disbanded or were absorbed into the Yamasee tribe at the end of the war. The Waxhaw Indians as a tribe were extinct after 1717. Therefore, some parts of this story do not align. In newspapers you only begin seeing the name “Indian Land” concerning Lancaster and York Counties in the 1820s. 

Agriculture was the economic driver in the Indian Land area for most of the 19th century, as it was in the 18th century. Beginning in the early 19th-century, cotton was the primary cash crop. A cash crop is a crop grown not for consumption by the farmer, but for sale. A prominent grist mill in Indian Land was the Allen Morrow grist mill, built around 1840. The mill stood on the banks of Six Mile Creek and it ground corn and sawed logs into lumber.

Cotton remained the main agriculture cultivation product for Indian Land up until the 1940s. Cotton was soon replaced with other crops and raising cattle. Indian Land had maintained its rural culture until relatively recently. The growth of Charlotte and the urban sprawl began affecting development in Indian Land in the 1990s. 

The Indian Land zip code had an estimated population of 26,251 in 2017. This population number was almost double the 2010 U.S. Census figure. On March 27, 2018 there was a referendum on incorporating Indian Land. The referendum was overwhelmingly rejected by the population with around 87% voting against incorporation. If Indian Land were to be incorporated, it would be the largest municipality in Lancaster County. It would be the second-largest if incorporated behind Rock Hill in the three counties of Lancaster, York, and Chester. 

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