I’ve heard variations on those syllables. They resemble the words “gee” and “haw”, which, as voice commands for draft animals and sled dogs, can be traced back to at least the early 1700s.
“Yee-haw” is also very similar to “Hee Haw”, the title of the 1969 TV show that presented “cornpone” humor interspersed with country music. The term “hee-haw” has long been an onomatopoetic representation of a mule or donkey’s bray.
However, it seems to me that the term is probably an institutionalization of various exclamatory syllabifications that express unbridled enthusiasm and joy, whether it be for music, a rodeo performance, or a powerful jolt of moonshine.
In that usage I think it could be American country and western culture.