Edisto Island

Front: This roughly 68-sq.-mi. sea island has been known as Edisto since at least the 1600s when it was occupied by the Edisto Indians. The tribe traditionally inhabited lands along the North and South Edisto rivers. They moved their main village from nearby St. Helena to this island by the 1580s. By the 1660s the village included a circular council building surrounded by smaller family houses. Reverse: The Edistos gradually ceded control of the island to English colonists after the founding of Charleston in 1670. The tribe maintained settlements here into the 1700s. Over several decades, Edisto families dispersed throughout the S.C. Lowcountry, with some joining other Native groups. Among the Edistos’ descendants are the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians.