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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 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. The DeSoto Expedition traveled through the Xuala province in 1540. James Mooney identified this as Cheraw territory. Cheraw (Saura, Xualae) were reported in various parts of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. In 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 near the site of present-day Cheraw, close to the North Carolina border. Cheraw was one of the earliest inland towns which European Americans established in South Carolina. Scholars have conflicting theories about the tribe, its history, and its relation to other tribes.

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