Several Korana clans for one reason or another were settled along the Gariep (Orange River) by the mid-sixties of the nineteenth century.
At the ford O’Mame, later called Olijvenhouts Drift out of which grew the town of Upington, was the settlement of Klaas Lukas and his Kat people.
Some way downstream, at Keimoes, meaning Eye which can see Far, lived the Boekvolk, the Book People, under the kapteins Gert Perkat and Klaas Pampier, while a few miles further on was the home of a small band of the Smalwange - Narrow Cheeks - under Gert Ruiters.
Along a mostly dry tributary was the territory of Piet Rooi with the Hartebeest people, named after this river.
At a ford called t’Kakamas, which means either Place of the Angry Cow or, questionably, Place of Red Clay, were the headquarters of Cupido Pofadder, also of the Narrow Cheeks, while lower down, at Aukoerebies, the Karoshebbers had settled, ruled by chief Paul.
Further downstream still was the undisputed domain of the Snijersvolk, the Cutting People, a lawless clan renowned for their proficiency in cutting ivory and disembowelling live adversaries.
Upstream from O’Mame, at Kheis on the western border of Griqualand West, lived the Bovenstanders, three clans under Jan, Willem (or Swartbooi as he was also called), and Jacob Bovenstander. They used to be numerous, but were decimated by an outbreak of smallpox.
Neighbours to both the Bovenstanders and the Kat people were the Springbokke under Klaas Springbok. Initially they were the biggest clan, but many deserted to Griqualand West when yet another feud turned into full-scale war.