The Cheraw indians

The Cheraw Indians (also known as the Saura or Saraw) were a force in what is now Marlboro County, but only for a brief period of time. 

They originally established villages near the head of the Saluda River, east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in present day Oconee/Pickens counties, where they practiced sustainable agriculture, cultivating maize, squash, and beans. 

Due to early exposure to European diseases and continuous aggressive raids by the Iroquois, the tribe relocated multiple times. By the late 17th century, they had moved north to the Dan River valley near the North Carolina/Virginia border, establishing settlements known as Upper and Lower Sauratown. 

Ongoing northern indigenous hostility forced the Cheraw back southward around 1710. They built a well-fortified village along the Great Pee Dee River in what is now Marlboro County. Their presence on both sides of the river would eventually give the town of Cheraw its name.

The Cheraw were a more warlike tribe than their neighbors, the Pedee, but the two seemed to coexist peacefully with each other.

The Cheraw fought on the side of the colonists during the Tuscarora War (1711-12), but shifted sides to fight against them in the Yamasee War (1715-1716). 

Decimated by ongoing warfare and European diseases, the dwindling independent Cheraw population sought refuge with neighboring tribes, including the Catawba and the Lumbee. The last official colonial mention of the Cheraw as a distinct political entity occurred in 1768. 

During the American Revolution, many Cheraw descendants moved near Danville, Virginia, and rallied under American General Thomas Sumter to fight as Patriots against the British. Others fought in Allston’s “Raccoon Company.”

Though historical accounts once erroneously labeled them extinct, the heritage of the Cheraw survived through assimilation into modern communities. 

Many Cheraw families migrated into the Robeson County area of North Carolina, becoming foundational ancestors of the Lumbee Tribe. 

In 2013, the Sumter Tribe of Cheraw Indians officially gained state recognition from South Carolina, keeping the culture and history of the Cheraw people alive.