The Taino Of La Hispaniola

La Hispaniola is the island home to two of the Caribbean's most well known countries

, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. What is not as well known to most is who the original inhabitants of this area were. Spanish is the official language of the Dominican Republic, but that wasn't always the case. There were large groups of interrelated indigenous people inhabiting areas from South America to the easternmost parts of the Caribbean.

This so-called "New World" of the Europeans housed a strong indigenous population, that dwelled between the Caribbean islands and the Americas. It is believed that the people known as the, Taino, are descendants of another people know as the, Arawak. This belief probably stems from the fact that the language of the Taino is related to what is known as the Arawak family of languages. Prior to the arrival of Columbus, the Taino, being a sea-faring people, were known to also inhabit the Bahamas and the Lesser and Greater Antilles.

At one point, what is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti, had five Taino fiefdoms. Each fiefdom had a chief (Cacique) who would receive a tithe from the local tribe. The chief held the top role in tribal life and his honors and status allowed him a better lifestyle than most. Everything a chief owned underlined their status as ruler. Unlike leaders in many tribal communities, the Cacique could be either male or female. The society was also matrilineal, which resulted in inheritance being handed down to the oldest child (male or female) of the deceased woman (if she did not have a male sibling). Among their unusual traditions, was the practice of a newlywed couple moving into the home of the maternal uncle.

The Taino also had regional enemies before the arrival of the Spanish, with whom they would later have many conflicts. Invasions and conquest of lands by other tribes was not unknown, and the Taino were driven from South American by regional rivals, the Carib. The Carib influence was maintained from the Lesser Antilles to South America. The Carib essentially pushed the Taino to the north-eastern portion of the Caribbean where the Spanish first encountered them.

The decline of the Taino people began in the 18th century. Diseases inadvertently brought by Spanish settlers, like smallpox, decimated the Taino and many other indigenous peoples of the Americas and Caribbean. Battles with the Europeans and integration into their society, in the form of intermarriages, further reduced their numbers until they were all but gone.

It is estimated that prior to the arrival of European settlers there existed between 100,000 to 1,000,000 Taino on what is know known as the island of La Hispaniola. The estimates for Taino residing in Puerto Rico and Jamaica during this time is in the 600,000 range. An incredible 8,000,000 Taino were thought to have lived throughout the Caribbean region. Some experts believe that small communities of Taino people continue to exist in areas of the Caribbean, even though it is widely believed that the culture died out several centuries ago.

by: Robert Nickel

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