Taínos greeted the Spaniards when the voyagers landed in the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and other islands. Unknown to them, the Arawak-speaking Taínos were doomed the moment the Europeans came ashore.
The explorers brought with them sickness to which the natives had no immunity as well as technologically advanced weapons and a superiority outlook that resulted in countless massacres. Additionally, the harsh treatment of native workers in the plantations established by the Spaniards took a heavy toll in lives. Unable to endure the colonists’ cruelty, thousands of Taínos committed suicide.
To a lesser degree, intermarriage – for the Spaniards brought no women – and forced assimilation, also contributed to the extinction of the Taínos.
Who Were the Taínos?
This particular people might have originated in South America’s Amazon Basin or the Colombian Andes mountain range.
If the Amazon region start off is accepted then it is believed that the Taínos went up the Orinoco Valley to the Lesser Antilles and moved north. If the Andes origin is taking as genuine, then the theory is that they migrated simultaneously to the West Indies and, through Venezuela and the Guianas into the Amazon Basin.
The Taínos themselves claimed that they emerged from caves in the highlands of Hispaniola.
Eventually they became the largest and dominant group in the Caribbean Basin. Their only real enemies, until the arrival of the Europeans, were the warlike Caribs who raided Taíno villages, killing and eating the men as well as taking women and children as slaves.
Lifestyle and Culture
A peaceful society with some knowledge of agriculture, the Taínos grew beans, peanuts, yucca (an edible root), squash, corn (maize) and tobacco. They supplemented their diet with fishing and hunting.
Like most other Native American cultures, the Taínos used tobacco mostly as a medicinal, ceremonial and religious tool.
They lived in villages called yucayeques and their houses – the round bohíos of the commoners and the square caneyes of the chieftains - were made of palm wood or cane with palm leaves thatched roofs. Communities were under the civil rule of a cacique while the behiques were a combination priest and witch doctor.
Furniture, tools and other artifact were made of carved wood or polished stone. Hey also created sacred figurines and were talented potters.
Their main civic/religious ceremony was the areíto. In the areíto, all villagers would dance to the rhythm of drums and sang their oral history.hat covered from the waist to the knee, but both sexes painted their bodies in vivid colors.
The Arrival of the Spaniards
On October 12, 1492 everything changed for the Taínos. Landing on the island known to the natives as Guanahaní, Columbus labeled it San Salvador (Holy Savior) and proceeded to identify the inhabitants as Indians.
The explorer and his men found the Taínos amiable, peaceful and, mostly, happy. After exploring some of the Bahamas, the north coast of Cuba and the same area in Hispaniola, Columbus took some Indians to Spain.
Late in 1493, Columbus returned to America. Now tributes were levied upon all natives over 14 years of age. If the obligations were not met, their hands were severed and left unattended so they would bleed to death.
Rebellion
The ruthless behavior of the Spanish led to rebellion early in the 16th Century. By 1511, Guarionex, Urayoán, Orocobix and other caciques led an uprising in Puerto Rico.
A chieftain from Hispaniola named Hatuey fled his homeland for Cuba with some 300 warriors. He tried to spur the Taínos of Cuba to fight the Spaniards. Hatuey was unsuccessful and burned at the stake.
Some eight years later Enriquillo, a cacique from Hispaniola, led a force of about 3,000 natives in a failed upraise.
Decline and Extinction…Maybe
The Europeans advantage in weapons technology; the epidemics they brought; the beating and killings; famines and massive suicides brought a rapid decline of the native population.
By 1530 about 90 % of the Taíno population had died. By the 1600s there were virtually no natives in Cuba and the number of natives in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola could be counted in the hundreds.
However, intermarriage may have saved the Taínos. Since scores of Spaniards took native wives – as many as 40% of unions in Hispaniola during the early 16th Century were between European men and Indian women –Taíno genomes survive in the modern world.
In Puerto Rico, between 10 % and 15 % of the population have Taíno DNA. It is believed to be higher in the Dominican Republic and lower in Cuba.
Taíno descendants have organized numerous organizations to preserve the pre-Columbian culture in the Caribbean Islands.
Sources
- Taínos
- Culture of the Ancient Taínos Rouse, Irvin. The Taínos: Rise and Decline of the People that Greeted Columbus. Yale University. New Haven, 1992
Ivan Castro - Ivan Castro, a former reporter for The Miami Herald, is a free lance writer specializing in History and Archeology.
Join the Conversation