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The 'Cheraw' (pronounced She-raw) (variously called ''Charaw'', ''Charraw'', ''Sara'', ''Saraw'', ''Saura'', ''Suali'', ''Sualy'', ''Xualla'', or ''Xuala''), were a tribe of Siouan-speaking Amerindians first encountered by Hernando De Soto in 1540. The name they called themselves is lost to history but the Cherokee called them ''ani-suwa'ii'' and the Catawba ''sara'' ("''place of tall weeds''").^[1] The Spanish and Portuguese called them Xuala (or Xualla) while other names applied to them (Saraw, Saura, Suali, Sualy, Charaw, etc.) by the English colonists. Early explorer Lawson included them in the larger eastern-Siouan confederacy he called "the Esaw Nation."
They may have originally been from northwestern South Carolina in present-day Pickens and Oconee counties before they were encountered by De Soto in present-day Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford counties in North Carolina in 1540. In 1600, they may have numbered 1,200. By 1672, they may have moved to the Stokes County region, where the Saura Mountains are. Prior to 1700, they moved to present-day Danville, Virginia.
In 1710, due to attacks by the Iroquois, they moved southeast and joined the Keyauwee tribe and were recorded in "The Journal of Barnwell" as maintaining a village on the east bank of the upper branches of the Pee Dee River (present-day Sumter County, South Carolina) circa the Tuscarora War in 1712. After the Yamasee War in 1716, they then moved to present-day Chesterfield County in northeastern South Carolina, where the town of Cheraw is named after them. Because they were still subject to attacks by the Iroquois, some removed near the Catawba between 1726 and 1739 where they maintained their own towns and distinct language, while others moved north and founded the "Charraw Settlement" along Drowning Creek, (present-day Robeson County) North Carolina.
Their last notice as a distinct tribe among the Catawba was in 1768, numbering only 50-60 individuals and later specifically identifed as the Harris and George families. During the Revolutionary War they and the Catawba removed their families to the same areas near Danville, Virginia where they had briefly inhabited circa 1690-1700 while their warriors served the Patriot cause under General Thomas Sumter.
Modern-day descendants of the historic Cheraw tribe can be found among the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina and the Sumter Band of Cheraw Indians of Sumter County, South Carolina.

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References

See also

References

1. Catawba language: other tribes


★ Cheraw Indian Tribal History

★ North Carolina Indian Tribes

★ South Carolina Indians: Cheraw

See also

★ Saura