Walk Easy — Chief Harold “Buster” Hatcher, in His Own Words

What this is

Gathered, not written

Every word in this book that is not in italics was written by Chief Harold “Buster” Hatcher. Nothing has been corrected. His spelling, his punctuation and his typing stand exactly as he left them — fixing them would have made the words a little less his.

The italic lines are his son's. There are as few of them as could be managed; they give a date or set a scene and then get out of the way.

Everything in it, he wrote

The memoir he typed for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, published in 2021 with the Project's own note that no changes were made to correct misspellings or typos
An undated, unfinished childhood memoir the family calls “busters memory”
Thirty years of “My Brothers and Sisters” letters to his people
His essays — on South Carolina's Indians, on federal recognition, on Columbus, on the sacred fire, on what a pauwau is
His letters — to a congressman, a senator, the Department of Justice, the ACLU
His frequently asked questions, written to answer schoolchildren
His resignation of 29 June 2026

In his own words

“There was no bathroom or indoor plumbing… I do remember a well in the back yard with a wooden wall around it to keep people from falling into it. I also remember the water was cloudy but that is what we used for cooking, washing and drinking.”
“busters memory” — the childhood memoir

“There is no word in Waccamaw for ‘hunt’. Our word means the same thing as ‘making meat’.”
Answering questions from schoolchildren

“We have no name for our religion because it is a part of life and we practice it in every endevor… We revere the earth and all of its inhabitants including those with two legs, four legs, and those who fly above the face of the earth.”
Answering questions from schoolchildren

“I have never lied to you, and never stabbed anyone in the back… Thank you for allowing me to serve. I did my best for you.”
His resignation, 29 June 2026 — signed “Chief Retired”

For teachers and librarians

In the classroom

Chief Harold “Buster” Hatcher founded the Waccamaw Indian People of Conway, South Carolina, and led them for more than thirty years.

Schoolchildren wrote to him with questions and he answered them in writing — how his people hunted and farmed, what they believe, where they lived, and who they are now. Those answers are in this book, in his own words and his own spelling.

ReadersAges 10 and up
Grades5–12
Source typePrimary — his own writing

Download the teaching guide (PDF) Three pages, US Letter, prints clean in colour or greyscale. Standards note, what the book covers, six discussion questions. Free to copy for classroom use.

South Carolina's standards have a gap in them. The eighth-grade social studies standards require the culture of the Eastern Woodlands tribal group and name the Catawba, the Cherokee and the Yemassee. The Waccamaw — a state-recognised South Carolina tribe, with a founding chief who wrote his own account and is still alive to be asked about it — are not on that list.

What the book covers

Subsistence“Making meat” rather than hunting; what was harvested, and the rule that all of the animal be used
AgricultureThe three sisters — corn, beans and squash planted together — and the difference between the communal garden and the family one
BeliefWhy he says the Waccamaw have no name for their religion, in his own careful correction of what people assume
GeographyThe Waccamaw River from Lake Waccamaw to Winyah Bay as “the man highways for our ancestors”
ContinuityThe tribe as it is now — the pauwau, the grounds, and the letters he wrote his people
Civil rightsA segregated school, a state that said there were no Indians in it, and what it took to be counted

Questions worth asking a class

He writes that there is no Waccamaw word for “hunt” — the word means “making meat.” What can a language tell you about the people who speak it?
Corn, beans and squash were planted together because each one helped the others. What does that suggest about how the Waccamaw understood farming?
The village kept a communal garden for “the women who were without sons and/or a husband, the disabled, and the sickly,” as well as family gardens. How does a community decide what it owes its members?
He was told by his own state that there were no Indians in South Carolina. What does it take for a people to be recognised — and who gets to decide?
He spent thirty years answering “who are you, and how do you know.” Why do you think he was asked that question so many times?
His spelling and typing were left exactly as he wrote them, uncorrected. Why might that matter to the people who made this book?

Walk Easy is the one for a classroom. A fuller biography for adult readers, Chief, is in preparation — read about that one here.

Class sets and school visits. The Waccamaw Indian People already run School Day at the pauwau — heritage taught hands-on, built for classrooms, with its own guidance for teachers and schools. Registration and details are there, and a class set of the book can be asked for at the same place.

Gathered, not written

In the classroom

Chief

November 2026