Description
Shakori is a native name but its significance unknown, though perhaps the same as Sugari, "stingy or spoiled people," or "of the river whose-water-cannot-be drunk." The Shakori belonged to the Siouan linguistic family, their closest connections being evidently with the southern division of the Siouan tribes of the East. Colonel John Barnwell identified them with the Sissipahaw. The Shakori were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. They were thought to be a Siouan people, closely allied with other nearby tribes such as the Eno and the Sissipahaw. As their name is also recorded as Shaccoree, they can be confused with the Sugaree, but the latter are Catawba people.
Language
Siouan
Culture
Although little is known about the Shakori, at the time of contact, they were not noted as being noticeably different from the surrounding tribes. 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.