This post was written on the territory of the Taíno, the Indigenous peoples that Columbus encountered when he landed in the region in 1492. The Taíno have stewarded the islands of the Greater Antilles, now colonially named: Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, and are descended from the Arawaks who live on the mainland of northern Abya Yala (South America) in countries now known as: Guyana, Venezuela, and Colombia. This highly mobile group have given the English language words like: canoe (canoa), hurricane (hurakán), tobacco (tabako), maize (mahis), iguana (iwana), barbecue (barabicu), and hammock (hamacas). As Curet (2010) explains, the Taíno are often contrasted with a rival tribe in the Lesser Antilles: the Kalinago or Caribes, for which the Caribbean is named.
It has been a common belief that Indigenous people in the Caribbean islands either became extinct because of colonial wars and European disease, or were fully assimilated into the population; however, this is untrue. While their numbers are certainly lower than before contact, Indigenous peoples are still very much alive in the Caribbean. For example, the Garifuna are mixed Kalinago-Taíno/West African people living in regions like St. Vincent and Honduras. The Taíno people number 2,000 in the 3 million population of Jamaica, and are currently advocating that their rights and culture be constitutionally protected.
