Cheraw (tribe)

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The Cheraw (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 and subsequently disappeared after 1768. The name they called themselves is lost to history but the Cherokee called them ani-suwa'ii and by the Catawba as sara ("place of tall weeds"). 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.

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 and Sauratown 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. 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, they became incorporated with the Catawba between 1726 and 1739. Their last notice was in 1768, still with the Catawba, and numbering only 50-60.