# Cheraw

The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura, were a Siouan-speaking tribe of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, in the Piedmont area of North Carolina near the Sauratown Mountains, east of Pilot Mountain and north of the Yadkin River. They lived in villages near the Catawba River.
Their first European and African contact was with the Hernando De Soto Expedition at the site of Joara in 1540. The early English explorer John Lawson included them in the larger eastern-Siouan confederacy, which he called "the Esaw Nation."
After attacks in the late 17th century and early 18th century, they moved to the southeast around the Pee Dee River, where the Cheraw name became more widely used. They became extinct as a tribe, although some descendants survived as remnant peoples.

## Name

Originally known as the Sara, they became known by the name of one of their villages, Cheraw, after the Yamasee War of 1715–17. They are also known as the Charáh, Charrows, Charra, Charaws, Charraws, Chara, Joara, Juada, Sara, Saraw, Saura, Suali, Sualy, Xualla, Xualae, and Xuala. Xuala and Xualla were Spanish and Portuguese spellings of their name.
The name they called themselves is lost to history, but the Cherokee called them Ani-Suwa'li.

## Language

The Cheraw are thought to have spoken a Siouan language, but this is unattested and therefore unclassifiable.

## Territory

The DeSoto Expedition traveled through the Xuala province in 1540. James Mooney identified this as Cheraw territory.
Their site Joara was in western North Carolina. They were later recorded as living east of present-day Asheville, North Carolina. In 1670, German explorer John Lederer encountered the Cheraw further east, possibly along the Yadkin River in central North Carolina.
In 1700, the Cheraw lived along the River Dan at the Virginia border.
By the early 18th century, the Cheraw lived 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 later in the 18th and 19th centuries as "The Cheraws", the "Cheraw Hills", and later the "Old Cheraws." Their main village was on the opposite bank of the Pee Dee River of present-day Cheraw, South Carolina, close to the North Carolina border. Cheraw was one of the earliest inland towns which European Americans established in South Carolina.

## History
### 16th century

Few historical references to the Cheraw exist. Spanish explorer De Soto likely passed through Cheraw towns, especially Joara located in present-day western North Carolina in 1540. In 1567, the Juan Pardo Expedition visited a Cherah town. Their villages were adjacent to those of the Pedee and Catawba peoples. In 1567, the Juan Pardo Expedition visited a Cherah town.

### 17th century

In 1600 CE, they may have numbered 1,000. In 1670, they left their homes near present-day Asheville to settle on the lower Yadkin River, then the Dan River in Rockingham County. By 1672, they may have moved to the Stokes County region, near the Saura Mountains.
In 1670, John Lederer, departing from Fort Henry in Virginia Colony, explored deep into North Carolina and described a large town he called "Sara", in the mountains that "receive from the Spaniards the name of Suala". He wrote that the Natives here mined cinnabar to make purple facepaint, and had cakes of salt.
James Needham and Gabriel Archer also explored the entire area from Fort Henry in 1671, and described this town as "Sarrah."

### 18th century

In 1700, they settled Upper Saura Village and Lower Saura Village along the River Dan.
In 1710, due to attacks by the Seneca of the Haudenosaunee from the north, the Cheraw moved southeast and joined the Keyauwee Indians tribe.
The Cheraw 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. Some Cheraw fought with colonizers in the Tuscarora War.
In 1712, John Barnwell led a force of 400 to 500 troops against the Tuscarora in North Carolina. Almost all his forces were Indians, organized into four companies, based in part on tribal and cultural factors. The 1st and 2nd companies were made up of Indians with strong ties to South Carolina. The 3rd company was of "northern Indians" who lived farther from Charles Town and whose allegiance was not as strong. They included the Catawba, Waxaw, Wateree, and Congaree, among others.
The 4th company was of northern Indians who lived even farther away and whose allegiance was still weaker. Among this group were the Saraw, Saxapahaw, Pedee, Cape Fear, Hoopengs, and others. This 4th company was noted for high levels of desertion.
Historian Alan Gallay has speculated that the Saura and Saxapahaw people deserted Barnwell's army because their villages were likely to be attacked by the Tuscarora in vengeance for assisting colonizers in the war. Gallay described the approximate location of the Saura homeland as "about 60 miles upriver from the Peedees", whose home is described as "on the Peedee River about 80 miles west of the coast". This puts the Saura in the general vicinity of the upper Dan and Yadkin rivers.
In 1715, Cheraw warriors joined other Southeastern tribes in the Yamasee War to fight against European enslavement of Indians, mistreatment, and encroachment on their territory. On July 18, 1715, a Cheraw delegation represented the Catawban tribes in Williamsburg, Virginia and negotiated peace. They were out of the war by October 1715.
In 1728, William Byrd conducted an expedition to survey the North Carolina and Virginia boundary, and reported finding two Saura villages on the Dan River, known as Lower Saura Town and Upper Saura Town. The towns had been abandoned by the time of Byrd's visit. He noted in his writing that the Saura had been attacked and nearly destroyed by the Seneca 30 years before, who had been raiding peoples on the frontier from their home in present-day New York. The Saura were known to have moved south to the Pee Dee River area.
Haudenosaunee people were still attacking the region by 1726. In 1726 and 1736, the Cheraw moved into Catawba settlements on the Catawba River.
When the Council of Virginia offered tribes protection in 1732, the Cheraw asked to join the Saponis. The Cheraw were recorded living with the Catawba by 1739 and still maintaining a distinct dialect through 1743. In 1738, a smallpox epidemic decimated both the Cheraw and the Catawba. In 1755, the Cheraw were persuaded by colonizer James Glen to join the Waccamaw, Pedee, and Catawba, led by King Haigler. The remnants of the tribes combined. The tribe was nearly destroyed before the middle of the 18th century and European encroachment on their old territory.
In 1759 a part of Cheraw warriors, led by King Johnny, attached Fort Du Quesne.
The last historical mention of the Cheraw was in 1769, while they lived among the Catawba. They merged into the Catawba over time, and ethnographer John Reed Swanton wrote that "a part are undoubtedly represented among the Siouan Indians of Lumber River. During the Revolutionary War, they and the Catawba removed their families to the same areas near Danville, Virginia, where they had lived earlier. Their warriors served the Patriot cause under General Thomas Sumter.

## Population

In 1715, 510 Cheraw were recorded; however, ethnographer James Mooney believed this estimate was too high and including Keyauwee people. In 1768, 50 to 60 surviving Cheraw people lived among the Catawba.

## Descendants

In 1835, Cheraw descendants, who had been absorbed into the Catawba tribe, were classified as "free people of color" in local records.
The Catawba Indian Nation is now a federally recognized tribe in South Carolina.
Today, two state-recognized tribes, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina of Robeson County, North Carolina, and the Sumter Tribe of Cheraw Indians in Sumter County, South Carolina, claim descent from the Cheraw.

## Namesakes

Cheraw, South Carolina, is named for the tribe. Cheraw, Colorado was named by an early settler who was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, and migrated west. Cheraw, Mississippi was named by a contingent of passported Cheraw to Bogue Chitto Neshoba District of Choctaw land in 1810 from Dimery Settlement. Chief of Churrah, Thomas Parker, was the recipient of the re-reserve land at Honey Island Swamp on the Little PeDee and he willed that land to his nephew, John Parker.
Located in Walnut Cove, North Carolina, South Stokes High School's team mascot name honors the Native American Indian Saura tribe.
The Sauratown Mountains, located in the region the tribe inhabited, are named for the Saura.