The Taínos Were Pre-Columbian Inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the Northern Lesser Antilles

1 The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is believed that the seafaring Taínos were relatives of the Arawakan people of South America. Their language is a member of the Maipurean linguistic family, which ranges from South America across the Caribbean. Their inevitable destruction may be one of the saddest events in history. The history behind them is not shrouded in mystery, but it is covered in controversy about who the Taino are, and what their population numbers were. Their lifestyle was healthy, and what is known about the Tainos showed they worked few hours and enjoyed much leisure time. There are heated debates about how many Tainos actually inhabited the Greater Antilles; however there are few debates on why their numbers decreased so rapidly. Although they lived a peaceful life before Columbus arrived, everything changed thereafter and their population fell dramatically. The change to the Tainos was so dramatic because they were a peaceful, healthy, strong, happy tribe, that was still developing, but Columbus had brought with him torture, depression, harsh work conditions, starvation, and disease, and their numbers fell quickly. The population dispute has become a big problem to decipher exactly how hard the population of the Tainos fell. Early population estimates of the Tainos on Hispaniola (Dominican Republic & Haiti), range from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people.1 The maximum estimates for Jamaica and Puerto Rico, the most densely populated islands after Hispaniola, are 600,000 people. The Dominican priest Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote (1561) in his multivolume History of the Indies: “There were 60,000 people living on this 1 Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest 1492-1650, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 278. 2 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. Who in future generations will believe this?”2 Although we understand the tragedies that befell the Tainos, again, the numbers of them are greatly disputed. Some scholars, such as David Henige and Peter Ewald, believe that Bartolomé de las Casas exaggerated the Indian population decline in an effort to persuade King Carlos to intervene, and that encomenderos also exaggerated it, in order to receive permission to import more African slaves.3 Henige also believes that the scholars that theorize the numbers of the Tainos could have reached 8 million do not have a lot of evidence to back that up. Moreover, censuses of the time did not account for the number of Indians who fled into remote communities, where they often joined with runaway Africans, called cimarrones, producing zambos. There were also confusing issues with racial categorization, as mestizos who were culturally Spanish were counted as Spaniards. Henige would claim that it would have been very hard for people such as De Las Casas to know how many people lived on these islands. This is a main point of controversy for many scholars. How could some believe there are up to 8 million, while others believe 500,000? Both sides provide strong evidence to their claims. The scholars which claim 8 million can do so on the grounds that the conocus easily could have fed 8 million and their archeological evidence suggests that there were many conocus being used, and would have only been constructed if they were in fact used. Other scholars, such as Henige, point out that the Tainos usually had many conocus but that they worked a low amount of the time, 2 Bartolome De Las Casas, History of the Indies, (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), 35. 3 David Henige, Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Debate (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1998), 133-135. 3 and planted just enough food to keep themselves full and healthy, but is in no indication of their numbers. To fully understand the plight of the Tainos, it is important to note the history of the Greater Antilles, the larger islands in the Caribbean so that a background of the Tainos can be established, including where they originated and who they were. This will consist of the island of Puerto Rico, the Island of Cuba, and the Island of Hispaniola, which consists of Haiti and the Dominican Republic One island that the Tainos inhabited was Puerto Rico. The history of the archipelago of Puerto Rico before the arrival of Christopher Columbus is not well known. What is known today comes from archaeological findings and early Spanish accounts. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Inigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, 293 years after the first Spaniards arrived on the island.4 According to archeological studies, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen. Between AD 120 and 400 the Igneri arrived from the South American Orinoco region. Between the 4th and 10th centuries, the Arcaicos and Igneri co-existed (and perhaps clashed) on the island. Between the 7th and 11th centuries the Taíno culture developed on the island and by approximately 1000 AD had become dominant.5 This lasted until Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico during his second voyage on November 19, 1493. The Tainos called the island "Borikén" or, in Spanish, "Borinquen".6 Columbus named the 4 Leslie Bethell, The Cambridge History of Latin America, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 197. 5 Morgan D. Machlan, “Archeology and the Ethno-Tyrannies,” American Anthropologists 92 (1990): 615. 6 Karen Cordova, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico: Indian Acculteration and Heterogeneity, The Public 4 island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Later the island took the name of Puerto Rico (Spanish for "Rich Port") while the capital was named San Juan. In 1508, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León became the island's first governor. To the West of Puerto Rico is the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island Hispaniola is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries, Saint Martin being the other. The Dominican Republic is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas: Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the nowadays capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. The Tainos called the island Kiskeya or Quisqueya, meaning "mother of the earth", as well as Haiti or Aytí, and Bohio.7 Columbus landed at Môle Saint-Nicolas, in northwest present-day Haiti, on December 5, 1492, during his first voyage. He claimed the island for Spain and named it La Española. Eighteen days later his flagship the Santa María ran aground near the present site of Cap-Haitien. When Columbus returned to Spain, he was forced to leave thirty-nine men, who built a fort named La Navidad (Christmas, or The Nativity). He then sailed east, exploring the northern coast of what is now the Dominican Republic, after which he returned home. After returning to Hispaniola, Columbus discovered all of his men had died. He quickly grew paranoid and distrustful of the Tainos, and later on punished and blamed them for what had happened. He sailed back to America three more times, and was buried in Santo Domingo upon his death in 1506. Historian 23 (2001): 33. 7 Ibid., 35. 5 The Taíno population on Hispaniola was divided through a system of established cacicazgos (chiefdoms), named Marien, Maguana, Higuey, Magua and Xaragua, which could be further subdivided. The cacicazgos (later called caciques in French) were tributary kingdoms, with payment consisting of food grown by the Taíno. Taino cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the nation, which have become national symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions. Modern-day Léogane, a town in the southwest, is at the epicenter of what was the chiefdom of Xaragua.8 Following the destruction of La Navidad by the Amerindians, Columbus moved to the eastern side of the island and established La Isabela.9 One of the earliest leaders to fight off Spanish conquest was Queen Anacaona, a Taíno princess from Xaragua who married Chief Caonabo, a Taíno king (cacique) from Maguana. The two resisted European rule but to no avail. She was captured by the Spanish and executed in front of her people. To this day, Anacaona is revered in Haiti as one of the country's first founders, preceding the likes of founding fathers such as Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The earliest inhabitants of Cuba were the Guanajatabey people, who migrated to the island from the forests of the South American mainland as long ago as 5300 BCE.10 The Guanajatabeyes, who numbered about 100,000, were hunters, gatherers, and farmers. They were to cultivate cohiba (tobacco), a crop upon which the island's economy would one day depend. Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar later observed that the Guanajatabeyes were "without houses or towns and eating only the meat they are able to 8 Constantino M. Torres, “The Island of 'Ayti' or Haiti in the 15th Century,” The Western Quarterly 32 (2001): 330. 9 Alred W. Crosby, Transformation: Hispaniola Island, (Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2003), 248-250. 10 William F. Keegan, “Indigenous in the Carribean,” The Western Historical Quarterly 30 (1999): 138. 6 find in the forests as well as turtles and fish."11 Though the Guanajatabeyes are now considered to be a distinct population, early anthropologists and historians mistakenly believed that they were the Ciboney people who occupied areas throughout the Antilles islands of the Caribbean.12 More recently, researchers have speculated that the Guanajatabeyes may have migrated from the south of the United States, evidenced by similarities of artifacts found in both regions.13 These facts make estimating the Taino population even more difficult.

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