National Heritage Day in Turks and Caicos – October 12, 2026

History of National Heritage Day in Turks and Caicos

The Turks and Caicos were first inhabited by Taíno and Lucayan people, who were thought to have migrated from Hispaniola. These original inhabitants engaged in seafaring, salt raking, and farming, which are still practiced by Turks and Caicos Islanders today. The name of the country was derived from these early settlers. ‘Turks’ refers to the indigenous Turk’s ‘head cactus,’ and ‘Caicos’ is from the Lucayan term ‘caya hico,’ meaning ‘strings of islands.’ The Taíno and Lucayan people remained the sole occupants of the islands for 700 years.

A few years after Christopher Columbus made landfall on the islands in 1492, the population of the indigenous people drastically dwindled, and the islands were left unpopulated for 30 years. These were attributed to the ill effects of colonization, including newly introduced diseases and the Spanish enslavement of the indigenous people. In 1678, people from Bermuda came to the islands and started a solar-evaporated salt industry. Salt was a precious commodity at the time as it was the primary means of preserving food. Later, in 1681, the Bermudian salt collectors built the first permanent settlement on Grand Turk Island. Between the early- and mid-18th century, the islands changed hands between the French, Spanish, and British.

In 1766, Turks and Caicos became part of the Bahamas colony but was given to Jamaica in 1873. After Jamaica’s independence from Britain in 1962, Turks and Caicos fell back under the administration of the Bahamas and became a crown colony. In 1973, the Bahamas gained independence, and Turks and Caicos became administered by a British governor at Grand Turk. However, on August 30, 1976, the islands adopted their first constitution, which has since been celebrated as Constitution Day. The country’s government is headed by a premier and ruled by the British Queen.