While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Cheraw. An important tribe, very
probably of Siouan stock, formerly ranging in central Carolina, east of
the Blue ridge, from about the present Danville, Va., southward to the
neighborhood of Cheraw, S. C., which takes its name from them. In numbers
they may have stood next to the
Tuscarora among the North Carolina tribes, but are less prominent in
history by reason of their almost complete destruction before the white
settlements had reached their territory. They are mentioned first in the
De Soto narrative for 1540, under the name Xuala, a corruption of Suali,
the name by which they are traditionally known to the
Cherokee, who remember them as
having anciently lived beyond the Blue ridge from Asheville. In the
earlier Carolina and Virginia records they are commonly known as Saraw,
and at a later period as Cheraw. We first hear of "Xuala province" in
1540, apparently in the mountain country southward from Asheville. In
1672, Lederer, from Indian information, located them in the same general
region, or possibly somewhat farther north east, " where the mountains
bend to the west," and says that this portion of the main ridge was called
" Sualy mountain " from the tribe. This agrees with Cherokee tradition.
Some years later, but previous to 1700, they settled on Dan river near the
south line of Virginia, where the marks of their fields were found
extending for several miles along the river by Byrd, in 1728, when running
the dividing line between the 2 colonies. There seem to have been 2
villages, as on a map of 1760 we find this place designated as "Lower
Saura Town," while about 30 miles above, on the south side of the Dan and
between it and Town fork, is another place marked "Upper Saura Town." They
are also alluded to by J. F. D. Smyth (Tour in LT. S., 1784), who says the
upper town was insignificant. About the year1710, being harassed by the
Iroquois, they abandoned their home on the Dan and moving south east
joined the Keyauwee. The colonists of North Carolina being dissatisfied at
the proximity of these and other tribes, Gov. Eden declared war against
the Cheraw, and applied to Virginia for assistance. This Gov. Spotswood
refused, as he believed the people of Carolina were the aggressors;
nevertheless the war was carried on against them and their allies by the
Carolinas until the defeat and expulsion of the Yamasi in 1716. During
this period complaint was made against the Cheraw, who were declared to be
responsible for most of the mischief done north of Santee river, and of
endeavoring to draw into their alliance the smaller coast tribes. It was a
asserted by the Carolinians that arms were supplied them from Virginia. At
the Close of the Yamasi war the Cheraw were dwelling on the upper Pedee
near the line between the Carolinas, where their name is perpetuated in
the town of Cheraw, S. C. Their number in 1715, according to Rivers, was
510, but this estimate probably included the Keyauwee. Being still subject
to attack by the Iroquois, they finally-between 1726 and 1739 became
incorporated with the Catawba, with
whom at an earlier date they had been at enmity. They are mentioned as
with the Catawba but speaking their own distinct dialect as late as 1743
(Adair). In 1759 a party of 45 "Charraws," some of whom were under their
chief, "King Johnny," joined the English in the expedition against Ft Du
Quesne. The last notice of them is in 1768, when their remnant, reduced by
war and disease to 50 or 60, were still living with the Catawba.
