Cusabo
The Cusabo were a group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston and south to the Savannah River, at the time of European colonization. English colonists often referred to them as one of the Settlement Indians of South Carolina, tribes who "settled" among the colonists.
Tribal territory of the Cusabo during the 17th century highlighted | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as tribes | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| South Carolina, United States | |
| Languages | |
| Cusabo language | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Unclear, perhaps Muskogean or Arawakan speakers |
Five of the groups were recorded by the settlers as having spoken a common language, although one distinctly different from the major language families known nearby, such as Algonquian, Iroquoian, Muskogean, and Siouan. With the English settling on their land at Charleston beginning in the 17th century, the Cusabo developed a chafing relationship with the colony that persisted through the early 18th century. After the Yamasee War of 1715, also known as the Gullah Wars, surviving tribal members migrated to join the Muscogee or Catawba.