The meaning of the name Saluda is unknown.

Uncertain and circumstantial evidence indicates strongly that the Saluda were a band of Shawnee, and therefore of the Algonquian stock.

The Saluda group primarily lived on the Saluda River in present-day South Carolina.

Almost all that we know regarding the Saluda is contained in a note on George Hunter's map of the Cherokee country drawn in 1730 indicating "Saluda town where a nation settled 35 years ago, removed 18 years to Conestogo, in Pensilvania."

As bands of Shawnee were moving into just that region from time to time during the period indicated, there is reason to think that this was one of them, all the more that a "Savana" creek appears on the same map flowing into Congaree River just below the Saluda settlement.

Population unknown.

The name Saluda is preserved by Saluda River in South Carolina and settlements in Saluda County, SC, Polk County, NC; and Middlesex County, VA.