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Westo Indian women fought alongside their husbands
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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In the summer of this same year (1670) John Lederer, exploring southwest from Virginia on his own recognizance, heard of this tribe [Westo] through their neighbors and enemies, the Catawba, whom he calls Ushery. He says: "This prince [i. e., the prince of the Ushery Indians], though his dominions are large and populous, is in continual fear of the Oustack Indians on the opposite side of the lake—a people so addicted to arms that even their women come into the field and shoot arrows over their husbands' shoulders, who shield them with leathern targets. The men it seems should fight with silver-hatchets; for one of the Usheryes told me that they were of the same metal with the pomel of my sword. They are a cruel generation, and prey upon people whom they either steal or force away from the Usheryes in Periago's, to sacrifice to their idols."1 That the Westo were then at war with the Iswa (Lederer's Ushery), a branch of the Catawba, is plainly indicated in the South Carolina archives.2 (Swanton)
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