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Please check back for more information about the Native Americans that lived on Spring Island
First Inhabitants
Native Americans inhabited Spring Island at least 8000 years ago. Archeological sites among its woods, creeks and river/marsh edges have yielded many artifacts, mostly from the Woodland period (500 B.C. to 1000 A.D). Tools, pottery shards, projectile points, beautiful grinding stones and deer horn needles offer clues into daily life, demonstrating skilled craftsmanship and sophisticated design sense. An important burial site lies below the 17th green.
Food and Hunting
Spring Island's estuarial ecosystem offered plentiful and diverse food supplies to Native Americans. Chroniclers noted the wellness of people living in the Port Royal region. Their diet included shellfish, fish, acorn and hickory nuts, grapes and other wild fruits and vegetables. Indians hunted deer, wild turkeys, raccoons and alligators.
The hunting and fishing abilities of Indians were renowned. In c. 1575, Fontenada wrote that Indians, "are great anglers and at no time lack fresh fish." Matthews, in 1680, observed their fishing with, "netts, hooks, weirs, and by shooting them with arrows."
Old Settlements and Colonial Disruption
Prior to European invasion, each tribe constituted a Nation with a king as its leader—its size being measured in number of bowmen. Warriors raided, took captives and occasionally killed members of rival nations. Early Europeans described Indian laws and social customs as ethical.
Local tribal groups included the Witcheaugh, Escamacu and Wimbee. These relatively small tribes spoke different languages. Few words from Port Royal Sound's original population are preserved for posterity; most Native American place names are from the Yamassee language.
European colonization of the southeastern seaboard brought diseases, disrupted Native American settlement patterns. This destabilized inter-tribal relationships causing refugees to flee into neighboring territories. By some accounts, populations declined to 1/7th their original numbers within 200 years of Spain's first settling Florida.
Yamassee War
Spring Island lay on a fault line between Spanish and British interests. Yamassee refugees from Florida and Georgia were first documented arriving into the Carolinas in 1684. Their tribe had already absorbed Guale (St Augustine) and Tamo (Oconee River) tribes-people. By the early 1700's a "reserve" of ten Yamasee towns had formed, three in the Low Country, including Chechessee (Ichisi) and Ocute. Numerous abuses by European traders were perpetrated on the Yamassee. Indian trader John Cochran was infamous for mistreating indigenous peoples. April 15th 1715, the Yamassee revolted, massacring over a hundred settlers, looting plantations, burning settlements, including the town of Beaufort. The Yamassee War continued through 1717.