Their settlements were generally located in the vicinity of modern-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina on the Haw River in Alamance County upstream from Cape Fear.
[4] Linguist Ives Goddard proposed that this may be the Sissipahaw's endonym, but he acknowledged that it was impossible to ascertain how Barnwell originally spelled the term due his letter surviving only as a copy.
[4] Regardless, the tribe is later referred to as the Sissipahau in 1701 by English explorer John Lawson, who had likely heard of them as living on the Haw River from his guide, Enoe Will, the chief of the Shakori.
[5][1] On January 28, 1712, during the Tuscarora War, an army of 450 Native Americans and 33 Europeans are noted to have rested at a recently abandoned Sissipahaw town on the Neuse River.
Archaeological evidence from Alamance County indicates that the Sissipahaw, much like the Shakori, lived in wigwam-like structures, farmed corn and beans, and hunted the woods for turkey, venison, and bear.