Native Village with a Corral.
The Duhare tribe, predecessors of the Creek Indian tribe, lived near the Chicora people in South Carolina and Georgia. They were very different from other natives in the area.
They were Caucasian, with red or brown hair that fell to their heels, freckles, gray eyes, and a noticeably taller stature than other natives in the area. Most of the men wore mustaches, and the high leaders wore beards.
They herded domesticated deer with herd dogs, much like Europeans herded cattle. They also milked the deer and made cheese from the milk. They fattened excess male deer with corn for butchering. They built corrals for the deer, where they stayed at night but were allowed to roam during the day, accompanied by herders.
Spanish Explorers.
They raised chickens, ducks, geese, and other fowl and were skilled farmers. They also grew large quantities of Indian corn, grain, potatoes, and other New World vegetables. They owned some metal tools.
They were governed by a chief named Datha, who was gigantic and whose wife was as large as he was. Instead of horses, the king rode on the shoulders of strong young men. The chief wore brightly colored paint or tattoos. The chief and his wife lived in a stone palace.
In other aspects, such as their houses and pottery, they were similar to the American Indians.
Captain Francisco Gordillo, a Spanish explorer, and Pedro de Quejo, a Spanish slaver, first encountered them in 1521. Lucas Vasquez de Allyon had sent Gordillo northward from Hispaniola in the Caribbean to explore the American mainland. Along the way, Captain Gordillo met Pedro de Quejo, and the two became the first known Spaniards to sail along the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia coasts.
Spanish Ship.
When the two ships arrived in present-day South Carolina, the Spanish were friendly with the Duhare people but captured 70-80 natives of the Chicora as slaves.
Upon their return to the Caribbean, they reported on the Duhare people they had met, which Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, an Italian historian in the service of Spain, recorded to chronicle the explorer’s activities. He clarified that the Duhare stood at least a foot taller than the Spanish and were an advanced society compared to other natives. More documentation states that when Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon landed in modern-day South Carolina in 1526, he found the Duhare in possession of pyrotechnic devices, including sparklers and rockets. He also observed that the people divided their year into twelve moons.
Some researchers believe these people may have been of Irish origin, citing several examples beyond their appearance.
While dairy deer seems impossible, several Gaelic tribes in Ireland and Scotland domesticated dairy deer before dairy cows. Gaelic poetry has celebrated deer milk.
In Gaelic (the Celtic language of Scotland and Ireland) dictionaries, the word Duhare can be translated two ways: as “di-hAicher,” meaning “place of the Clan Hare” or “du’hEir”, meaning “place of the Irish.” The word “Datha” is a Medieval Irish Gaelic word that means “painted.”
Irish Sailors.
The Vikings, who are now known to have explored North America long before Christopher Columbus, described the Irish as able seamen who traveled long distances, as far as Iceland in the 10th Century. The Vikings also claimed that the Irish occupied an area South of the Chesapeake Bay called Hvitramamaland, meaning “Land of the White Men.
The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia and other sources mention the Irish as the first white men to come to the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus. The Encyclopedia also states that the Shawano Indians recognized a white tribe in Florida that reportedly had iron implements.
The Duhare were said to have had metal tools, even though the nearest deposits of iron and copper ores were 280 miles away from the coast. While this doesn’t necessarily point to the Irish, it does indicate European influence.
However, other researchers and historians adamantly disagree.
Ogam Petroglyph in West Virginia.
In 1983, Dr. Barry Fell, a professor emeritus at Harvard University, said he found writing on rocks in West Virginia that he described as “Christian messages in old Irish script,” but he was attacked and discredited. These petroglyphs were thought to be carved in Ogam, an Irish script used from the 6th to 8th centuries. Fell claimed that Brendan of Clonfert, one of the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland,” who made an epic journey between 512 and 530, may have reached North America centuries before Columbus. This claim is based on his translation of two rock-cut inscriptions at archaeological sites in Wyoming and Boone Counties in West Virginia, which he said narrate the story of Christ’s nativity and date to between the 6th and 8th centuries.
St. Brendan Setting Sail.
Years earlier, a 1922 Smithsonian Institution publication referenced Spanish historian Martyr’s passages on Duhare. Still, it was prefaced with contemptuous remarks that the story couldn’t be true and that the Duhare were probably a Siouan tribe.
The Spanish descriptions of Duhare culture seemed so absurd to scholars unfamiliar with Irish history that they ignored them for the next five centuries.
However, in 2006, People of One Fire, a nationwide team of Native American scholars, primarily of Creek Indian heritage, began a comprehensive research program to obtain more accurate and detailed knowledge of North America’s pre-European history.
Scottish Warrior.
As part of their research, they attempted to translate every Native American word included in colonial transcripts, particularly those of Spain. While many of those words translated easily into modern Creek, Alabama, Koasati, or Choctaw dictionaries, interestingly, none were Cherokee. The words associated with the province of Duhare defied translation until 2011.
A check with Gaelic dictionaries quickly found translations for many of the Duhare words. The researchers then began to investigate the similarity of Irish rock carvings to those in South Carolina, when one team member came across an ancient Irish lullaby entitled “Bainne nam fiadh,” which translates to “On milk of deer I was reared. On the milk of deer, I was nurtured. On milk of deer beneath the ridge of storms on crest of hill and mountain.”
The Duhare people were not the only red-haired giants in America, as other tribes have “seen” them across the continent. The Mandan tribe of North and South Dakota told early French explorers that natives in the region had fair skin, red or blonde hair, and blue or grey eyes.
The Paiute of Nevada have long spoken of red-haired giants known as the Si-Te-Cah. Legends from Midwest tribes tell of lightly pigmented, yellow- or red-haired giants living around the Great Lakes or southern Canada.
Red-haired mummies have been found in Michigan, Illinois, New York, Virginia, Arizona, and Nevada.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
European Meeting Giants.
Also See:
Legends, Ghosts, Myths & Mysteries
Native American Legends & Tales
Sources:
Consider Everything
Irish Central
Lost Worlds
Message to Eagle
Native Village
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