Cheraw (tribe)

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The Cheraw (pronounced /tʃərɔː/ Chuh-raw^{[citation needed]}) (variously spelled 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, Charraw, etc.) by the English colonists. Early explorer Lawson included them in the larger eastern-Siouan confederacy he called "the Esaw Nation."

They may have been 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 circa the Tuscarora War in 1712. In the early 1700's, they were living in present-day Chesterfield County in northeastern South Carolina. This region, which now encompasses present day Chesterfield, Marlboro, Darlington, and parts of Lancaster counties, was known in the 18th and 19th centuries as "The Cheraws", the "Cheraw Hills" and later the "Old Cheraws". Their main village was near the site of the town of Cheraw. Cheraw is one of the earliest inland towns in South Carolina. Cheraw, CO was named by an early settler who was a native of Cheraw. In 1738, a small pox epidemic decimated both the Cheraws and the Catawbas. The Cheraws then joined forces with Catawbas. At some point, some of the tribe may have 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 lived earlier while their warriors served the Patriot cause under General Thomas Sumter.

Modern-day descendants of the historic Cheraw tribe may possibly be found among the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina and the Sumter Band of Cheraw Indians of Sumter County, South Carolina.