For centuries before European settlers arrived in the Point of Rocks area, indigenous populations inhabited the region. The Piscataway Nation was one of the Native American cultures to live in Point of Rocks, inhabiting an island in the Potomac River today known as Heater's Island. Forced from their homelands in modern-day Prince George's County by English settlement in the mid-17th century, the Piscataway migrated to Heater's Island around 1699, though their population was severely decreased by an outbreak of smallpox in 1704. The Piscataways remained on the island for a few more years before migrating north into Pennsylvania and New York.