The
Indigenous people of the
a guide
Do any of these names look familiar?
No?
Or
maybe one or two do as place names if you’re from
These
are some of the names of
How about these:
Caribs
Arawaks
Yes, right?
Well, guess what?
None
of the indigenous peoples of the
“Arawaks”
were actually a group of people who lived near the
So...
what have you learned about the indigenous people of the
Did it go something like this?
"The Caribs were
Fierce,
War-like Cannibals
... And the Arawaks were peaceful and friendly."
Right?
Yeah, right!
All that is too simple to be true.
Here's something to consider:
"The very
idea of the Indian, just like the other idea of the
Meaning:
The indigenous peoples are and were more complex than the early Europeans wanted to spend time thinking about.
They formed one cultural group, even if divided into different groups across the islands and on the mainland.
To speak of Caribs and Arawaks is inaccurate.
People were labelled Arawaks when
1. they didn't resist the Europeans
2. or spoke a language that was related to that spoken by the people from the Aruaca region
People were labelled Carib when
1. they
resisted the Europeans
2. the
Europeans wanted to enslave them, Queen Isabella e.g. outlawed enslavement of
all Amerindians EXCEPT the Caribs. That is how some of the people in
Trinidad called "Caribs" of Trinidad got their name.
Fact is, we don’t really know the true names--what they called themselves—of many of the native peoples of the
Caribbean.
The first peoples met by the Europeans have been called Arawaks and are said to have been peaceful and are now extinct.
These “facts” are disputed.
1. They called themselves: Boricua, Quisqueya and belong to the family of indigenous people we now know as Taino. They lived in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic/Haiti.” They still live there and elsewhere in the Americas.
2.
The
Taino people resisted the Spaniards and fought to defend their land once it was
clear that they didn’t have peaceful intentions. Because they had farms,
permanent villages this was not as easy as the Kalina,
who were often hunter-gatherers and lived in more mountainous territories
(
3. Taino heritage is alive and well! And there are people who are identifiably of Taino racial stock. It is part of the heritage of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, as well as of Florida and parts of the mainland.
1. The Kalina who fought back successfully lived in the more mountainous areas where they could engage in guerrilla warfare and resist European occupation for a longer period of time.
2. The Kalina are no more extinct than the Taino. Some of their descendents the Garifina, who intermarried with African people, were forced out of St. Vincent and Dominica by the Europeans when they were eventually defeated. There are Garifina settlements in Belize.
Conclusion
So, unless we insist on calling the Taino peoples by a name they didn’t call themselves, there are no true Arawaks, except for the Lokono.
To speak of Taino and Kalina/Kalinago and Garifina is more accurate but still over-simplified.
Taino and Kalina were not all that different from each other. They spoke the same languages:
They traded. Some think that the Kalina language was a trade language.
They sometimes fought. And no, they did not attack and EAT each other as a regular way of life. They made war by capturing women which was probably why women and men spoke different languages.
There
were Kalina-speaking people in
Links
To the best of my knowledge these links area alive and well. Please report any dead links to me! tcardinez@hotmail.com
CXC students
See TheHistoryGroup for links you can use for your research and SBAs. Join us!
Kalina Garifuna links
"Rumor of Cannibals" by Dave D. Davis As
the title suggests, on the idea of “Carib” cannibalism.
Aspects of
Kalinago/Carib Culture (
Island Cosmology
(
see also index to other
articles by Honychurch on his website
The
Gli Gli
project. Read about the gli gli project. The site has a
few images of Kalinago craft and canoes.
The Leap at Sauteurs: the Lost Cosmology of Indigenous Grenada by
Lennox Honychurch
Taino nation links
United Confederation of Taino People
The United Confederation of Taino People links you to contemporary
indigenous representatives throughout the
Taino
extinction addressed by Richard Kearns.
Aia Na Ha`ina I Loko o Kakou (The Answers Lie Within Us) Tony Castanha’s article addressing, among other things, the idea
of Taino extinction
World Guazabara
Federation Puerto Rican Taíno
Website with information on the extinction myth and links to other Taíno sites.
Photographs of Taino rock art and Taino
ceramics from Indiana University
The
historical roots of a Nation. From the World History Archives, Taino
perspective on European conquest
General/Miscellaneous Links
"Creating the
Guanahatabey (Ciboney): the
modern genesis of an extinct culture" by William F. Keegan
Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink Undoubtedly the most organised website for
historical and current information on Caribbean Indigenous peoples.
Caribs of
Dominica also contains links to other indigenous sites
Issues in
Caribbean Amerindian Studies. Online publication of Caribbean Amerindian
Centrelink
Race and
History.com Kim Johnson’s article on Taino, Kalinago,
Lokono etc.
The retrospective
history of the Native Caribbean From the World History Archives
Ancient
History Unearthed. Article on Saladoid site at Blanchiceusse,
from the Trinidad Guardian,
Banwari Man Report on
First nations of Trinidad and
Tobago. From centrelink.org. with links to many other sites of interest.
How the Amerindians of Arima lost their land Article by Maximilian
Forte
Other links on Trinidad
and Tobago’s Indigenous Community. From
Centrelink.org.
Revising the Arena
Affair. Article by Lisa
Allen Agostini.
Santa Rosa
Community The official website.
Santa Rosa Community. The
unofficial website
Three Hundred Years of
Spanish Presence. On the origins of the indigenous
people of
Traditions of the Santa Rosa Community at Arima.
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