They raised crops for food and used the river as a trade route with other tribes. A unique tradition of the early Pee Dee was the creation of sacred burial mounds. Some of these mounds can still be found along the Pee Dee River.

The Pee Dee welcomed the English colonists when they began arriving in Charleston in about 1670. Diseases brought by the Europeans killed great numbers of the Pee Dee, yet they traded deer skins and formed alliances with the new colonists. During the Revolutionary War, the Pee Dee helped the colonists fight for independence from Britain.

Most members of the Pee Dee Indian Nation now live near the South Carolina towns of Cheraw and McColl. They continue to show a dedication to their land and the people near it. During Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew, the Pee Dee helped people with food and supplies.

In 1711, South Carolina’s English colonists enlisted the Pee Dee to fight in the Tuscarora War, and they fought alongside the colonists in the Yemassee War of 1715-1716, after which the defeated Yemassee returned to Spanish Florida. When settlers began appearing in what is now Marlboro, Marion, and Dillon Counties of South Carolina around 1730s , they were able to live with the Pee Dee with very little trouble.

Archaeologists and historians say the Pee Dee became extinct by 1808, but the oral stories passed down by the tribe’s elders tell a very different story. Between 1730 and 1800, all of the smaller tribes like the Pee Dee were almost destroyed by disease and attacks by larger tribes, and by white farmers who wanted their farmland. The Pee Dee had no defense under the law, because South Carolina had already changed their status from Indian to Mulatto, Croatan, or free persons of color.