"Minding the Business of the Nation": Hagler as Catawba Leader

Abstract

This study builds upon the long tradition of brief Indian biographies in order to analyze the leadership of Hagler, chief of the Catawba Indians of Carolina in the mideighteenth century. Hagler's popularity among Indians and Euro-Americans alike can be traced to his skill at meeting the needs of both peoples during a time when the Catawbas' fate hung in the balance. By juggling a firm attachment to traditional native custom with a shrewd understanding of the Anglo-American colonial world, Hagler helped the Catawbas remain an identifiable native group in their ancient homeland. Much remains to be done with the essay form as a route to Indian biography, wrote Reginald Horsman in 1982, full-scale biographies of eighteenth and nineteenth century leaders will continue to present research problems.' The recent appearance of a 650-page study of the Iroquois leader Joseph Brant does nothing to contradict Horsman's claim; Brant is the exception that proves the rule, the rare Indian blessed (or cursed) with massive documentation.2 For the countless other Native Americans who escaped the intense scrutiny of literate Euro-Americans and never learned to write for themselves, the thumbnail sketch is the only means to uncover the significance of a career and the character of a life. The brief Indian biography has a long pedigree, stretching back some 150 years to the days of Samuel G. Drake.3 During the past generation scholars have demonstrated the enduring vitality of the genre by presenting sensitive sketches of many native leaders. In 1961 Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., focused on Patriot Chiefs who openly opposed European intrusion. A more recent volume of essays, edited by R. David Edmunds, suggests a growing sensitivity to the wide variety of patterns besides outright defiance to be found in the lives of leading Native Americans.4 Despite the distinguished tradition of short biographical studies and the increasing willingness to consider a broad spectrum of individual subjects, Horsman is correct to point out that much remains to be done. Scholars still devote more attention to Indian leaders in the national period than in the colonial era, more to members of large groups than small, more to straightforward narrative of a career than to detailed explication of the manner by which a person acquired and exercised authority. If the capsule biography is to achieve its potential as a tool for illuminating the Native American past, it is essential to combine an analytical approach with the literary form developed by Drake and others in order to present as full a portrait as possible of each important native.5 This study of Hagler, chief of the Catawba Nation of Carolina from 1750 to 1763, may suggest some of the possibilities of such a combination. Besides adding one more name to the body of literature on native leaders, it follows Edmunds in arguing for greater awareness of figures who favored accommodation over resistance, a response which, after all, has been common from Squanto's day to our own. At the same time, the essay's focus on a smaller, poorly MERRELL This content downloaded from 157.55.39.144 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:38:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms