The Taíno were the some of the first of the Orinoco River Tribe Nation's to meet Christopher Columbus in 1492, also the first American nation to be enslaved, tortured, and killed at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. In 2018, they are forgotten and still suffering.
The Taíno natives greeting Spanish settlers with offerings
In 1492, Christopher Columbus wrote "They will give all that they do possess for anything that is given to them, exchanging things even for bits of broken crockery.” “They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces....They do not carry arms or know them....They should be good servants.” This quote is an excellent example of just how peaceful the Taíno were to the new settlers.
The Tainos, whose color was olive-brown to copper, reminded Columbus of the people of the Canary Islands, who were neither white nor black. He noted their thick, black hair, short in front and long in back, and that it fell over muscular shoulders. On some islands, the women wore short cotton skirts after taking a permanent man but in others all the people went naked. Regardless of clothing culture, they were extremely innovative with many materials.
Taíno men cooking on a barbacoa
The jagua tree they used for dyeing cotton, the jocuma and the guama for making rope, the jucaro for underwater construction, the royal palm for buildings and specific other trees for boats, spears, digging tools, chairs, bowls, baskets and other woven mats (in this art they flourished), cotton cloth (for hammocks), large fishing nets and good hooks made of large fish bones. Inspecting deserted seashore camps, Spanish sailors found what they judged to be excellent nets and small fishing canoes stored in watertight sheds. If you have ever used a hammock, canoe, smoked tobacco, or used a barbeque, you have the Taíno to thank.
Pre-Spanish Conflict
The Taino world of 1492 was a thriving place. The Taino islands supported large populations that had existed in an environment of Carib-Taino conflict for, according to archeological evidence, one and a half millennia, although the earliest human fossil in the region is dated at 15,000 years. Tainos and Caribs may have visited violence upon one another, and there is little doubt they did not like each other, but there is little evidence to support any thesis that genocidal warfare existed in this world. A Carib war party arrived and attacked, was successful or repulsed, and the Tainos, from all accounts, returned to what they were doing before the attack. These attacks were not followed up by a sustained campaign of attrition. The Taino existence was not threatened, from these accounts, more than a modern American's existence is threatened by street crime.
The Caribs (Caniba/Canima) were the Indians from the Lesser Antilles, the ferocious ones with the infamous appetite for barbecued human flesh. They certainly created a greater impact on the European imagination than the so-called Arawaks or Tainos. The Caribbean was named after them, as was the word cannibal and, by anagram, Shakespeare's Caliban that: "Abhorred slave/Which any print of goodness wilt not take/Being capable of all ill."
Spanish Arrival
Columbus reached Cuba on his first voyage without realizing it was an island and discovered Ciboney, Guanahuatabey, and Taíno Arawak Indians. On other islands he found the Carib Indians, from whom the region takes its name. The recorded history of Puerto Rico began with the arrival of Columbus on November 19, 1493. Puerto Rico was inhabited by the aboriginal Indians named Taínos (Ayiti), who called their island Boriquén (or Boriken).
The Taíno Genocide victims
After a brief period of coexistence, relations between the newcomers and natives deteriorated. Spaniards removed men from villages to work in gold mines and colonial plantations. This kept the Taíno from planting the crops that had fed them for centuries. They began to starve; many thousands fell prey to smallpox, measles and other European diseases for which they had no immunity; some committed suicide to avoid subjugation or torture; thousands fell in fighting with the Spaniards, while untold numbers fled to remote regions beyond colonial control. In time, many Taíno women married conquistadors, combining the genes of the New World and Old World to create a new mestizo population, which took on Creole characteristics with the arrival of African slaves in the 16th century. By 1514, barely two decades after first contact, an official survey showed that 40 percent of Spanish men had taken Indian wives, nor record of any Taíno men. The unofficial number of women is undoubtedly higher.
"Extinction" of the Taíno
It is a common myth spread through many texts and scholars that the Taíno were sent into extinction within the first 50 years of the Spaniards arrival through genocide, mass suicide, starvation and European disease, however through the Native women's mestizo children, we do exist! Unlike mainland American Native tribes, the Taíno believe all people who the Taíno ancestry resides in is pure Taíno, a person with 1% is just as pure as one with 50% because we are aware of our genocide and the effect of that. No person of 100% Taíno ancestry exists today, but the culture and ancestors of this tribe are still surviving through the mestizo (mixed race) and new age Taíno continuing to learn about and practice our culture.
However, due to the recent hurricane in the region, it is nearly impossible to know how many are left in the Caribbean. As of now, there are very few relief efforts for the Taíno tribes, having extensive knowledge of the area helps those with no running water or electricity, but if a tribal member gets injured or sick, they now have no choice but to pray they will recover, or die.
We are not extinct, we are in need.
Please consider donating to the Taíno Warriors-Sea Shepards relief fund to help (fully-tax deductible): https://my.seashepherd.org/OperationTSP
Sources:
http://www.elboricua.com/history.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/what-became-of-the-taino-73824867/
http://www.fjcollazo.com/documents/TanioIndRpt.htm
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