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The Kiawah were a constituent group of the Cusabo people, an alliance of indigenous groups in lowland regions of the coastal region of what became Charleston, South Carolina. When English colonists arrived and settled on the Ashley River, the neighboring Kiawah were friendly.
The Kiawah and the Etiwan tribe were the two principle Cusabo tribes close to the Charleston Harbor. While some other South Carolinian lowland tribes were not consistently associated with the Cusabo, the Kiawah were consistently a part of the Cusabo. The first record of Kiawah Cusabo alliance membership was in a 1707 agreement, in which the Kiawah was assuredly mentioned. However, by 1682, disease and warfare is said to have reduced Kiawah numbers to about 160. The remaining Kiawah people are organized as the Guaymari Kiawah.