Shakori

The Shakori were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. They are thought to be Catawban speakers^[1], closely allied with other nearby nations such as the Eno and the Sissipahaw. As their name is also recorded as Shaccoree, they may be the same as the Sugaree.

Yardley in 1654 wrote about a Tuscarora guide's accounts of the Cacores people from Haynoke who, although smaller in number, were able to evade the Tuscarora. Their villages were located around what is now Hillsborough, North Carolina along the banks of the Eno and Shocco rivers.^[2]

Little is known about the Shakori, at the time of contact. 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.

Although their origins are uncertain, the Shakori were among the Catawban-speaking nations found in the Piedmont area of numerous southern states. They are believed to have joined against the English colonists in the Yamasee War. It is likely that by this time, they were already confederated or merged with remnants of other tribes, especially the Catawba.^[1] On February 27, 1714, the Virginia colony reached an agreement. Descendants with partial Shakori ancestry are likely among the Catawba and other regional groups, but the Shakori are extinct as a tribe.