Cheraw

Indigenous tribal group of southeastern North America

The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura, Their first European and African contact was with the Hernando De Soto Expedition in 1540. The early 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.

Originally known as the "Saraw", they became known by the name of one of their villages, Cheraw. They are also known as the Charáh, Charrows, Charra, Charaws, Charraws, Chara, 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. of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) from the north (whose empire by then extended along the colonial frontier northward, with hunting grounds in the Ohio River valley and the St. Lawrence River valley), the Cheraw moved southeast and joined the Keyauwee Indians tribe. The Saura Indian villages, one known as Lower Sauratown and the other, Upper Sauratown, were at that time abandoned. Lower Sauratown was situated below the present town of Eden, near the mouth of Town Creek in northeastern Rockingham County, North Carolina, while Upper Sauratown was located in Stokes County, N. C.

The Saura nation 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. 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 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. When the Council of Virginia offered tribes protection in 1732, the Cheraw asked to join the Saponis. The remnants of the tribes combined. The tribe was mostly destroyed before the middle of the 18th century and European encroachment on their old territory. They were last noted as a distinct tribe among the Catawba in 1768. 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. were classified as "free people of color" in local records. Today the state recognized Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina, and the Sumter Tribe of Cheraw Indians Sumter County, South Carolina, claim descent from the Cheraw.

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.