Native Americans on Cumberland Island

The Native American population has been around on Cumberland Island for an estimated time of about 13,000 years, and they were the original settlers in the area. The first Native Americans on the island most likely did not settle permanently, but used it for fishing and hunting to provide for their families. The arrival of Europeans in the Americas began around 800 years ago; and by the mid-1500s they made it to Cumberland Island.

With their arrival they discovered a group of Native Americans who spoke a Timucuan dialect and called themselves the Tacatacuru. They lived in small villages interspersed throughout the island, and lived off shellfish and fishing, as well as growing and hunting on the island itself. Their main settlement was located around the spot that Dungeness was built all those years later. The Native American community on the island impacted the local ecology, since many larger predators and animals were either killed off or pushed off the island. They also established a network of trails and farmland that would be used by the Europeans who came after them.