Description
The Saxapahaw or Haw were a Native American tribe of North Carolina. They are also variously recorded as Sauxpa or Sissipahaus. Their settlements were generally located in the vicinity of modern-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina on the Haw River in Alamance County upstream from Cape Fear. They are possibly first recorded by the Spaniard Vendera in the 16th century as the Sauxpa in South Carolina. Their last mention in history is that the tribe joined the Yamasee against the English colonists in the Yamasee War of 1715. Some scholars speculate that they may have been a branch of the Shakori due to being so closely associated with that tribe but others disagree with this assumption.
Language
Siouan-speaking
Culture
They made their wigwams and other structures out of interwoven saplings and sticks; these were covered in mud as opposed to the bark typically used by other nearby tribes. They were described as being similar to traditional dwellings of the Quapaw from Arkansas. In the center of the village, men often played a slinging stone game, probably similar to the chunkey played by tribes further south and west. Also farmed corn and beans, and hunted the woods for turkey, venison, and bear.