Cheraw people
The Cheraw (also Charaw, Charraw, Sara, Saraw, Suali, Sualy, Xualla or Xuala ) were a Native American tribe. Their language belonged to the family of the Sioux language. They were first discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1540. The name designated by the Indians themselves, is unknown, by the Cherokee they were ani - suwa'ii and of the Catawba sara called, which means place of tall grasses. The Spanish and the Portuguese called the root Xuala or Xualla, the English used under other names Saraw, Saura, Suali, Sualy, Charaw and Charraw for the Indians this group. The explorer John Lawson arranged them to the larger network of the eastern Sioux, which he described as " Esav nation."
The encounter with De Soto found in 1540 probably held in the territory of the present county Henderson, Polk and Rutherford, North Carolina. By 1600, the tribe consisted of 1,200 people. Around the year 1672 they migrated to the area now Stokes County in the region of the Saura Mountains or Sauratown that. According to a presumably closely related to the Cheraw tribe, the Saura, were named Even before 1700 they moved on to Virginia in tonight's Danville.
1710 The Cheraw turned after attacks by the Iroquois to the southeast and joined the tribe of Keyauwee to. Their whereabouts was described by the time Tuscarora War 1712 "The Journal of Barnwell " as a village on the east bank of a tributary of the Pee Dee River. In the early 18th century, the Cheraw settled in what is now Chesterfield County in the northeast of the state of South Carolina. This region, which today includes the counties Chesterfield, Marlboro, Darlington and parts of Lancaster County, was in the 18th and 19th centuries as "The Cheraws ", which denotes " Cheraw Hills " and later as the " Old Cheraws ". Their main village was near the town of Cheraw, South Carolina and was one of the earliest settlement in the interior of the state. The Cheraw also named place in Colorado is named after a Native American settlers from the tribe of Cheraw. 1738 a smallpox epidemic decimated both the Cheraw and the Catawba, in the result, combined the two strains. Some of the tribe migrated north and founded the " Charraw Settlement " on Drowning Creek in what is now Robeson County, North Carolina.
The last mention as a separate tribe within the Catawba found in 1768, they accounted for about 50-60 people who were later identified as the families of Harris and George. During the American Revolutionary War, they returned together with the families of the Catawba back to Danville. Their warriors served under General Thomas Sumter on the side of the patriots.
Descendants of the historic Cheraw may live among the Lumbee in Robeson County, North Carolina and Sumter Band of Cheraw Indians in Sumter County, South Carolina.