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Master Potter Catherine Sanders Canty was born on February 11, 1917 to Idle and Arzada Sanders, and lived most of her life on the reservation. Catherine was a hard worker, an artist, and a collector of many things. She married Billy Canty in 1931, and they started a family two years later. She worked at the J. P. Stevens Cotton Mill for 36 years, and only dedicated herself to up pottery in in her retirement. Recognized as a Master Potter of the Catawba Nation, she delighted in sharing her knowledge of Catawba pottery with school children, and also enjoyed volunteering at the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project. She was known for her specialty effigy, the frog. 

Descriptions linked to this authority record are cultural heritage artifacts traditional to the Catawba people. While no specific creator(s) are known, the artifacts are Catawba in origin and the Catawba Indian Nation asserts any and all applicable intellectual property rights to the heritage items in question.

In April of 2020, the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project (CCPP), was incorporated into the Catawba Indian Nation Government as the Cultural Services Division (CSD). The Mission of the CSD is to collect, protect, preserve, and promote the material and cultural heritage of the Catawba Indian Nation. CSD departments include the Tribal historical Preservation Office, the Catawba Cultural Center, the Catawba Community Library, and the Catawba Nation Archives.

The Catawba Indian Nation is the only federally recognized native tribe in the state of South Carolina. First receiving federal recognition in 1941, the tribe's federal status was rescinded under the Catawba Indian Tribe Division of Assets Act (1959) as part of the US government's termination policy (1953-1968). In 1973, the Catawba Nation Tribal government was reformed and petitioned to regain federal recognition. Over the next 20 years the Catawba engaged in a legal battle with the governments of both the United States and the State of South Carolina to regain federal recognition and settle outstanding land claims resulting from the illegal Treaty of Nation Ford (1840). After a long fight which included several cases heard before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Catawba regained recognition through an act of Congress via the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina land Claims Settlement Act of 1993, regaining its status as a sovereign, self-governing nation.

The Catawba Indian Nation Cultural Services Division is a division of the Catawba Indian Nation government, formed in April 2020, when the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project (1993-2020) was incorporated into tribal government. Departments of the Cultural Services Division include: the Catawba Cultural Center, Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO), Tribal Programs, Public Programs, Community Library, and the Catawba Nation Archives.

During the late 1980s, Early Fred Sanders and Dr. Wenonah George Haire formed the Catawba Cultural Task Force to begin collecting, preserving, and perpetuating the history and culture of the Catawba people. In 1990, this project was organized into the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project (CCPP), housed in the former Catawba Indian School building, which was donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and subsequently moved from it's original location behind the LDS Church on Reservation Road, to its current location at 1536 Tom Steven Road. When the Catawba Indian Nation (CIN) regained Federal recognition in 1993, the Executive Committee of the CIN formalized the CCPP as the entity officially responsible for the collection, preservation, promotion, and education of and about the history, culture, arts, and language of the Catawba to both tribal members and the general public. The CCPP operated as an independent, non-profit organization until 2020, when it became a division of the tribal government.