The old inhabitants

By the thirteenth century there lived Curonians in littoral and skalvians in Panemune. In Minija and Tenenis lowlands stretched Lamata land where lived mixed Skalvians and Curonian. After the thirteenth century there increased number of colonists from Western European countries and then got up from the current Latvian Curonians settled in the Gulf coast. The Nemunas River Delta has developed a unique group of Lithuanians which from other parts of Lithuania Minor was somewhat different in their own dialect, customs, buildings and lifestyle. Most of the inhabitants of this land were a "water culture" people. Most of the region population engaged in fishing. Over the centuries local fishermen formed a distinctive way of life, customs, tools, and methods of fishing, houses and buildings. The old fishermen's houses were located on a loose, close to the water. In the eighteenth century by lord decree fishermen villages were reprogrammed, correctly stating the farmhouses and buildings on the coast.

Lush flooded meadows of the Nemunas River Delta have long attracted pastoralists. Pastoralists’ farms and entire villages (Rupkalviai, Southern were created on the small Girininkaiups that sometimes rescued them from the flood water. But not always, for example, during the great flood in 1888 Šyškrantės flooding in the village killed two people, destroyed 11 houses (55 more damage) and 115 outbuildings. Wealthier saved their homesteads by making mounds. After the great flood in 1888 with help of public pour local residents made safety mounds from the to Rusne Šyškrantės school.

In the nineteenth century the Nemunas Delta has become a very densely populated region. In Rupkalvių, Aukštumalės, Berštų, Medžioklės wetlands outskirts there began to settle colonies. There, the settlers arriving for the small amount of money could rent 13 hectares of swamp land. Settlers dug and dried peat and transported them for sale to surrounding cities. Žalgiris village, formerly known as colony, still to this day Bismarckis inhabited.