Reconstruction of a Taíno village in Cuba

The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an independent sovereign English -speaking country consisting of two thousand Cays and The Greater Antilles is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas and Greater Antilles form the It is believed that the seafaring Taínos were relatives of the Arawakan people of South America. The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for Cassava flour was used to designate the Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a Their language is a member of the Maipurean linguistic family, which ranges from South America across the Caribbean. Maipurean (also Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre, Arawakan, Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting

At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno kingdoms and territories on Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti), each led by a principal Cacique (chieftain), to whom tribute was paid. Christopher Columbus (1451 &ndash May 20 1506 was an Italian Navigator, colonizer Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest and most populous Island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of The Dominican Republic ( Spanish: República Dominicana;) is a nation located in the Caribbean region and shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti ( English: ˈheɪ·tiː or haɪ·ˈjiː·tiː French Haïti a·i·ti Haitian Creole: Cacique or Cazique (female form Cacica) from the Taíno word for the Pre-Columbian tribal chiefs or leaders, of the Taino A traditional tribal chief is the leader of a Tribe, or the head of a tribal form of self-government As the hereditary head chief of Taíno tribes, the cacique was paid significant tribute. Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guani, living in square bohíos instead of the round ones the villagers inhabited, and sat on wooden stools when receiving guests. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the largest Taíno population centers may have contained around 3,000 people or more. The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain 's conquest settlement and rule over much of the Western hemisphere. The Taínos were historical neighbors and enemies of the fierce Carib tribes, another group with origins in South America who lived principally in the Lesser Antilles. Cariban languages Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people after whom the Caribbean Sea was named live in the Lesser Antilles islands The relationship between the two groups has been the subject of much study.

For much of the 15th century, the Taíno tribe was being driven to the Northeast in the Caribbean (out of what is now South America) because of raids by fierce Caribs (Many Carib women spoke Taíno because of the large number of female Taíno captives among them). Cariban languages Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people after whom the Caribbean Sea was named live in the Lesser Antilles islands ^[1]

By the 18th century, Taíno society had been devastated by introduced diseases such as smallpox, as well as other problems like intermarriages and forced assimilation into the plantation economy that Spain imposed in its Caribbean colonies, with its subsequent importation of African slave workers. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic Smallpox is an Infectious disease unique to humans caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another The first recorded smallpox outbreak in Hispaniola occurred in 1507. Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest and most populous Island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of ^[2] It is argued that there was substantial mestizaje as well as several Indian pueblos that survived into the 19th century in Cuba. Mestizo is a Spanish term that was coined during the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in Latin The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la The Spaniards who first arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola in 1492, and later in Puerto Rico, did not bring women. They took Taíno women for their wives, which resulted in mestizo children. Mestizo is a Spanish term that was coined during the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in Latin ^[3]

Terminology

The word "Taíno" comes directly from Columbus. The indigenous people he encountered in his first voyage called themselves "Taíno", meaning "good" or "noble", to differentiate themselves from Island-Caribs. ^[4] This name applied to all the Island Taínos including those in the Lesser Antilles. Locally, the Taínos referred to themselves by the name of their location. For example, those in Puerto Rico called themselves Boricua (which means people from the island of the valiant noble lords) their island was called Borike'n (Great land of the valiant noble lord) and those occupying the Bahamas called themselves Lucayo (small islands). ^[5]

Some ethnohistorians, such as Daniel Garrison Brinton, called the same culture of people "Island Arawak" from the Arawakan word for cassava flour, a staple of the race. Daniel Garrison Brinton ( May 13, 1837 - July 31, 1899) was an American Archaeologist and Ethnologist. The cassava, yuca, manioc, or mandioca ( Manihot esculenta) is a woody Shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family native From this, the language and the people were eventually called "Arawak". However, modern scholars consider this a mistake. The people who called themselves Arawak lived only in the Guianas and Trinidad and their language and culture differ from those of the Taíno. ^[6]

Going through time, different writers, travellers, historians, linguists, anthropologists, etc. , have interchangeably used these terms. Taíno has been used to mean the Greater Antillean tribes only, those plus the Bahamas tribes, those and the Leeward Islands tribes or all those excluding the Puerto Rican tribes and Leeward tribes. Island Taíno has been used to refer to those living in the Windward Islands only, those in the northern Caribbean only or those living in any of the islands. Modern historians, linguists and anthropologists now hold that the term Taíno should refer to all the Taíno/Arawak tribes except for the Caribs. The Caribs are not seen by anthropologists nor historians as being the same people although linguists are still debating whether the Carib language is an Arawakan dialect or creole language — or perhaps a distinct language, with an Arawakan pidgin often used in communication. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade

Rouse classifies all inhabitants of the Greater Antilles (except the western tip of Cuba), the Bahamian archipelago, and the northern Lesser Antilles as Taínos. The Taínos are subdivided into three main groups: Classic Taíno, from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, Western Taíno or sub-Taíno, from Jamaica, Cuba (except for the western tip) and the Bahamian archipelago, and Eastern Taíno, from the Virgin Islands to Montserrat. See also Culture of the Virgin Islands Music of the Virgin Islands Virgin Islands Creole Montserrat (ˌmɒntsəˈræt is British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles ^[7]

Origins

Two schools of thought have emerged regarding the origin of the indigenous people of the West Indies. One group contends that the ancestors of the Taínos came from the center of the Amazon Basin, subsequently moving to the Orinoco valley. ORiNOCO is the brand name that was used for a family of wireless networking solutions by Proxim (previously Lucent) From there they reached the West Indies by way of what is now Guyana and Venezuela into Trinidad, proceeding along the Lesser Antilles all the way to Cuba and the Bahamian archipelago. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Guyana (ɡaɪˈænə or /ɡiːˈɑːnə/ officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is the only Nation state Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the Trinidad ( Spanish: " Trinity " is the largest and most populous of the two major islands and Evidence that supports this theory includes the tracing of the ancestral cultures of these people to the Orinoco Valley and their languages to the Amazon Basin. ^[8]

The alternate theory, known as the circum-Caribbean theory, contends that the ancestors of the Taínos diffused from the Colombian Andes. Julian H. Steward, the theory's originator, suggested a radiation from the Andes to the West Indies and a parallel radiation into Central America and into the Guianas, Venezuela and the Amazon Basin. ^[8]

Taíno culture is believed to have developed in the West Indies.

Culture and lifestyle

Dujo, a wooden chair crafted by Taínos.

Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). These were governed by chiefs known as caciques (who were either male or female) which were advised by priests/healers known as bohiques. ^[9] Bohiques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with gods and as a result, they granted Taínos permission to engage in important tasks.

Taínos lived in a matrilineal society. Matrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors When a male heir was not present the inheritance or succession would go to the eldest child (son or daughter) of the deceased’s sister. Taínos practised a mainly agrarian lifestyle but also fished and hunted. A frequently worn hair style featured bangs in front and longer hair in back. They sometimes wore gold jewelry, paint, and/or shells. Taíno men sometimes wore short skirts. Taíno women wore a similar garment (nagua) after marriage. Some Taíno practiced polygamy. The term polygamy (a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage" is used in related ways in Social anthropology, Sociobiology, and Men, and sometimes women, might have 2 or 3 spouses, and the caciques would marry as many 30 days.

Taínos lived in villages (called yucayeques) which varied in size depending on the location; those in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico being the largest and those in the Bahamas being the smallest. In the center of a typical village was a plaza used for various social activities such as games, festivals, religious rituals, and public ceremonies. These plazas had many shapes including oval, rectangular, or narrow and elongated. Ceremonies where the deeds of the ancestors were celebrated, called areitos, were performed here. ^[10] Often, the general population lived in large circular buildings (bohio), constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. Arecaceae or Palmae (also known by the name Palmaceae, which is taxonomically invalid or commonly palm tree) the palm family is a family of Flowering These houses would surround the central plaza and could hold 10-15 families. The cacique and his family would live in rectangular buildings (caney) of similar construction, with wooden porches. Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks (hamaca), mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo) with woven seats, platforms, and cradles for children.

Caguana Ceremonial ball court (batey), outlined with monoliths.

The Taínos played a ceremonial ball game called batey. Batey was the name given to a special Plaza around which the native Caribbean Taino Indians built their settlements The game was played between opposing teams consisting of 10 to 30 players per team using a solid rubber ball. Normally, the teams were composed of only men, but occasionally women played the game as well. ^[11] The Classic Taínos played in the village's center plaza or on especially designed rectangular ball courts also called batey. Batey is believed to have been used for conflict resolution between communities; the most elaborate ball courts are found in chiefdoms' boundaries. ^[12] Often, chiefs made wagers on the possible outcome of a game. ^[13]

Taínos spoke a Maipurean language but lacked a written language. Maipurean (also Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre, Arawakan, Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan Some of the words used by them such as barbacoa ("barbecue"), hamaca ("hammock"), canoa ("canoe"), tabaco ("tobacco"), yuca ("yucca"), and Huracan ("hurricane") Tatuaje(tattoo) have been incorporated into the Spanish and English languages. The yuccas comprise the Genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennials Shrubs and Trees in the Agave family

Food and agriculture

Cassava (yuca) roots, the Taínos' main crop

The Taíno diet centered around vegetables and fruits, meat, and fish. Large animals were absent from the fauna of the West Indies, but small animals such as hutias, earthworms, lizards, turtles, birds, and other mammals were consumed. Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, poisoned, trapped in weirs, or caught with hook and line. WEIR (1430 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds and iguanas were extracted from trees and other vegetation. Taínos stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed—fish and turtles were stored in weirs, and hutias and dogs were stored in corrals. ^[14]

Taíno groups in the more developed islands, such as Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture. For important crops they used a sophisticated procedure in which they "heaped up mounds of soil", called conucos, which improved drainage, delayed erosion, and allowed for a longer storage of crops in the ground; for less important crops such as corn they used the more common and rudimentary slash and burn technique. Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of Forests or Woodlands to create fields for Agriculture or Pasture for Livestock, or Conucos were 3 feet high and 9 feet in circumference and were arranged in rows. ^[15] The primary root crop was cassava, a woody shrub cultivated for its edible starchy tuberous root. The cassava, yuca, manioc, or mandioca ( Manihot esculenta) is a woody Shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family native A shrub or Bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of Woody plant, distinguished from a Tree Starch, CAS # 9005-25-8 Chemical formula (C6H10O5n is a Polysaccharide A tuberous root is a modified lateral Root, enlarged to function as a Storage organ. It was planted using a coa, an early kind of hoe made completely out of wood. Hoes are Bladed Tools used to agitate the surface of the Soil around Plants to remove weeds pile soil around the base Women squeezed cassava to extract its poisonous juice and ground the roots into flour from which they baked bread. Batata (Sweet potato) was the Taínos' secondary crop; it was consumed as a vegetable. The sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas) is a Dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae ^[16]

Contrary to mainland practices, corn was not ground into flour and baked into bread. Instead, it was eaten off the cob. A possible explanation for this is that corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the West Indies. Taínos grew squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and pineapples. Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita native to the Mexico and Central America, also called marrows depending Bean is a common name for large plant Seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae used for human food or animal Capsicum is a Genus of Plants from the nightshade family ( Solanaceae) native to the Americas, where it was cultivated for thousands Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday Comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M Pineapple ( Ananas comosus) is the common name for an edible Tropical Plant and also its Fruit It is native to the southern part of Brazil Tobacco, calabashes (West Indian pumpkins) and cotton were grown around the houses. The calabash or African bottle gourd (not to be confused with the Calabaza) is a Vine grown for its fruit which can either be harvested young and used Other fruits and vegetables, such as palm nuts, guavas, and Zamia roots, were collected from the wild. Guava is a Genus of about 100 Species of Tropical Shrubs and small Trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. Zamia is a genus of Cycad of the family Zamiaceae containing around 50 species native to North, Central and South America. ^[17]

Technology

Taínos used cotton, hemp and palm extensively for fishing nets and ropes. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp This article is about the cultivation and uses of industrial hemp not its psychoactive cousin Cannabis (drug. Arecaceae or Palmae (also known by the name Palmaceae, which is taxonomically invalid or commonly palm tree) the palm family is a family of Flowering Their dugout canoes (Kanoa) were made in various sizes, which could hold from 2 to 150 people. A canoe is a small narrow Boat, typically human-powered though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors An average sized Kanoa would hold about 15 - 20 people. They used bows and arrows, and sometimes put various poisons on their arrowheads. For warfare, they employed the use of a wooden war club, which they called a macana, that was about one inch thick and was similar to the cocomacaque. The term macana, of Taíno origin refers to a number of different wooden weapons used by the various native cultures of Central and South America.

Religion

Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemís or cemís. Cemís were either gods, spirits, or ancestors. There were two supreme gods: Yúcahu,^[18] which means spirit of cassava, was the god of cassava (the Taínos main crop) and the sea and Atabey,^[19] mother of Yúcahu, was the goddess of fresh waters and fertility. ^[20] Other minor gods existed in Taíno religion; some of them related to the growing of cassava while others were related to the process of life, creation and death. Baibrama was a god worshiped for his assistance in growing cassava and curing people from its poisonous juice. Boinayel and his twin brother Márohu were the gods of rain and fair weather respectively. ^[21] Guabancex was the goddess of storms (hurricanes). Popular belief names Juracán as the god of storms but juracán was only the word for hurricane in the Taíno language. Guabancex had two assistants: Guataubá, a messenger who created hurricane winds, and Coatrisquie, who created floodwaters. ^[22] Maquetaurie Guayaba or Maketaori Guayaba was god of Coaybay, the land of the dead. Opiyelguabirán, a dog-shaped god, watched over the dead. Deminán Caracaracol, a male cultural hero from which the Taíno believed to descend, was worshipped as a cemí. ^[23]

Rock petroglyph overlayed with chalk in the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Center in Utuado, Puerto Rico.

Cemí was also the name of the physical representations of the gods. These representations came in many forms and materials and could be found in a variety of settings. The majority of cemís were crafted from wood but stone, bone, shell, pottery, and cotton were also used. ^[24] Cemí petroglyphs were carved on rocks in streams, ball courts, and on stalagmites in caves. Petroglyphs are Images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising pecking carving and abrading A stalagmite (from the Greek stalagma ("Σταλαγμίτης" "drop" or "drip" is a Cemí pictographs were found on secular objects such as pottery, and on tattoos. A pictogram ( also spelled pictogramme) or pictograph is a Symbol representing a Concept, object, activity place or event Yucahú, the god of cassava, was represented with a three-pointed cemí which could be found in conucos to increase the yield of cassava. Wood and stone cemís have been found in caves in Hispaniola and Jamaica. ^[25]

Cemís are sometimes represented by toads, turtles, snakes, and various abstract and human-like faces. Some of the carved Cemís include a small table or tray which is believed to be a receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba prepared from the beans of a species of Piptadenia tree. Cohoba is an old Spanish transliteration for a ceremony in which psychedelic ground seed of the cojóbana tree was smoked in twin nasal Y-shaped pipes also called Cohoba Piptadenia (Pip·ta·de·nia (pip”tə-de´ne-ə a genus of tropical shrubs and trees of the legume family. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes.

Before certain ceremonies, Taínos would purify either by inducing vomiting with a swallowing stick or by fasting. Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all Food, Drink, or both for a period of time ^[26] After the serving of communal bread, first to the Cemi, then to the cacique, and then to the common people; the village epic would be sung and accompanied by maraca and other instruments. Maraca is also a genus of Tarantula. Maracas ( sometimes called rumba Tainos also used body modification in order to express their faith. THe higher the piercing or tatoo on the body signified their closeness to their gods. Men usually wore decorative 'tatuajes' and the women wore mainly piercings.

Taíno oral tradition explains that the sun and moon come out of caves. Another story tells that people once lived in caves and only came out at night, because it was believed that the Sun would transform them. The Taíno believed to be descended from the union of Deminaán Caracaracol and a female turtle. The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood which occurred when a father murdered his son (who was about to murder the father), and then put his bones into a gourd or calabash. The calabash or African bottle gourd (not to be confused with the Calabaza) is a Vine grown for its fruit which can either be harvested young and used These bones then turned to fish and the gourd broke and all the water of the world came pouring out. Taínos believed that the souls of the dead go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day, and when night comes they assume the form of bats and eat the fruit "guayaba". Guava is a Genus of about 100 Species of Tropical Shrubs and small Trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae.

Spaniards and Taínos

Chief Agüeybana greeting Juan Ponce de León

Columbus and his crew, landing on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon. The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. At this time, the neighbors of the Taínos were the Guanahatabeys in the western tip of Cuba, and the Island-Caribs in the Lesser Antilles from Guadaloupe to Grenada. The Guanajatabey ( Guanahatabey) were indigenous inhabitants of Cuba, They numbered about 100000 and had lived on the island since at least 1000 B Guadeloupe is an island group or Archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at, with a land area of 1628 square kilometres (629  sq Grenada (grɪˈneɪdə is an Island nation that includes the southern Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. The Taínos called the island Guanahaní which Columbus renamed as San Salvador (Spanish for "Holy Savior"). It was Columbus who called the Taíno "Indians", an identification that has grown to encompass all the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. A group of Taíno people accompanied Columbus on his return voyage back to Spain. ^[27]

Early population estimates of Hispaniola, probably the most populous island inhabited by Taínos, range from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people. The maximum estimates for Jamaica and Puerto Rico, the most densely populated islands after Hispaniola, are 600,000 people. ^[28] The Dominican priest Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote (1561) in his multivolume History of the Indies: ^[29]

There were 60,000 people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( August 24 1484 &ndash July 17 1566) was a 16th century Spanish Dominican Who in future generations will believe this?

Researchers today doubt Las Casas's figures for the pre-contact levels of the Taíno population, considering them an exaggeration. For example, Anderson Córdova estimates a maximum of 500,000 people inhabiting the island. ^[30] The Taíno population estimates range all over, from a few hundred thousand up to 8,000,000. ^[31] They were not immune to Old World diseases, notably smallpox. The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans Asians and Africans in the 15th century Smallpox is an Infectious disease unique to humans caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. ^[32] Many of them were worked to death in the mines and fields, put to death in harsh put-downs of revolts or committed suicide (throwing themselves out of the cliffs or consuming manioc) to escape their cruel new masters. The cassava, yuca, manioc, or mandioca ( Manihot esculenta) is a woody Shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family native Some academics have suggested that the numbers the population had shrunk to 60,000 and by 1531 to 3,000 in Hispanola. In thirty years, between 80% and 90% of the population died. ^[33][34] Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives. A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people is an Epidemic of Infectious disease that spreads through ^[35][36][37]

On Columbus' second voyage, he began to require tribute from the Taínos in Hispanola. Each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a certain quantity of gold. In the earlier days of the conquest, if this tribute was not observed, the Taínos were either mutilated or executed. Later on, fearing a loss of labor forces, they were ordered to bring 25 lb (11 kg) of cotton. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass This also gave way to a service requirement called encomienda. The encomienda system is a Trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Under this system, Taínos were required to work for a Spanish land owner for most of the year, which left little time to tend to their own community affairs.

In 1511, several caciques in Puerto Rico, such as Agüeybaná, Urayoán, Guarionex, and Orocobix, allied with the Caribs and tried to oust the Spaniards. Agüeybaná (died 1510 and Agüeybaná II (died 1511 were brothers and the principal and most powerful Caciques ' (chiefs of the Taíno people Urayoán was a Taíno " Cacique " (Chief famous for ordering the drowning of Diego Salcedo to determine if the Spanish were gods Guarionex was a Taíno Cacique who lived on the island of Borikén (Taíno name for Puerto Rico) before the Spanish colonization of the Orocobix was the principal regional Taino Cacique (chief of the central mountain region of Puerto Rico, that was called Jatibonicu in the 1500s The revolt was pacified by the forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León. Juan Ponce de León ( IPA: /xwan'ponʒedele'on/ (1460 – July 1521 was a Spanish Conquistador. Hatuey, a Taíno chieftain who had fled Hispañola to Cuba with 400 natives in order to unite the Cuban natives, was burned at the stake on February 2, 1512. Hatuey was a Taíno Cacique (chief from the Island of Hispaniola, who was alive in the early sixteenth century Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor In Hispañola, a Taíno chieftain named Enriquillo mobilized over 3,000 remaining Taíno in a successful rebellion in the 1530s. Enriquillo was a Taíno Cacique who rebelled against the Spaniards from 1519 to 1533 These Taíno were accorded land and a charter from the royal administration.

Taíno heritage in modern times

Many people still identify themselves as descendants of the Taínos, and most notably among some Puerto Ricans, both on the island and on the United States mainland. People claiming to be Taíno descendants have been active in trying to assert a call for recognition of their tribe. A recent study conducted in Puerto Rico suggests that over 61% of the population possess Taíno mtDNA. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. ^[38] Recently, a few Taíno organizations, such as the Jatibonicù Taíno Tribal Nation of Boriken (1970), the Taíno Nation of the Antilles (1993) and the United Confederation of Taíno People(1998), have been established to put forth these claims. What some refer to as the Taíno revival movement can be seen as an integral part of the wider resurgence in Caribbean indigenous self-identification and cultural restoration. The Jatibonicu Tribal Nation of Borikén was reaffirmed in Puerto Rico on November 18th 1970, Lambda Sigma Upsilon, a Latino Fraternity, adapted the Taíno Indian as their mascot symbol in 1979.

See also

• List of Taínos
• Pomier Caves
• Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center
• Garifuna
• Arawak
• Caribs

Notes

References

• Irving Rouse (1992). The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the people who greeted Columbus. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300056966.  
• Ricardo Alegría (April 1951). "The Ball Game Played by the Aborigines of the Antilles". American Antiquity 16 (4): 348-352.  
• Guitar, Lynne. 2000. "Criollos: The Birth of a Dynamic New Indo - Afro - European People and Culture on Hispaniola. " KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology, 1(1): 1-17 http://www.kacike.org/LynneGuitar.html
• Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival. Edited by Maximilian C. Forte. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2006. http://www.centrelink.org/resurgence/index.html
• DeRLAS. Some important research contributions of Genetics to the study of Population History and Anthropology in Puerto Rico. Newark, Delaware: Delaware Review of Latin American Studies. August 15, 2000.
• The Role of Cohoba in Taíno Shamanism Constantino M. Torres in Eleusis No. Dr Constantino Manuel Torres (aka Manuel Torres) is an archaeologist and ethnobotanist specialising in the ethnobotany of Pre-columbian South 1 (1998)
• Shamanic Inebriants in South American Archaeology: Recent lnvestigations Constantino M. Torres in Eleusis No. Dr Constantino Manuel Torres (aka Manuel Torres) is an archaeologist and ethnobotanist specialising in the ethnobotany of Pre-columbian South 5 (2001)

External links

• Island Thresholds, Peabody Essex Museum’s interactive feature, showcases the work of Caribbean artists and their exploration of culture and identity.
• The Jatibonicù Taino Tribal Nation of Boriken (Puerto Rico Tribal Government website)
• United Confederation of Taíno People (International organization) http://www.uctp.org/
• Taino Diccionary, A dictionary of words of the indigenous peoples of caribbean from the encyclopedia "Clásicos de Puerto Rico, second edition, publisher, Ediciones Latinoamericanas. S. A. , 1972" compiled by Puerto Rican historian Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste of the "Real Academia de la Historia". Provided by the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation of Boriken (Puerto Rico). [[simple:Taíno