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The earliest Amer-Indians to have settled what is now Hispaniola are believed to have come from two different directions. The first migrated from the west around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago (probably from Yucatán in current-day Mexico, possibly by way of Florida and the Bahamas). These were eventually absorbed by several new waves of immigrants who came from the south, starting 2,000 years ago or more. The latter, of Arawak descent, originated in the Amazon and made their way north through modern-day Venezuela and the Guyanas before crossing the Caribbean via dugout canoe. Around 600 to 800 AD, the Tainos, one of the Arawak groups, arrived in Hispaniola and became the dominant people there. The Tainos called the island Quisqueya (“Greatness”) or Haiti (“Rugged Mountain”).
Caribe woman sketch.
Another Arawak group, the Caribs, arrived on Hispaniola several centuries later, after populating the Lesser Antilles, the smaller islands to the east. At the time of Columbus’ arrival, the Caribs’ presence on Hispaniola was limited mostly to the area around present-day Samaná. The Caribbean took its name from the Caribs, as did the word “cannibal,” since the Caribs were once called Canibas. While it’s unproven that they actually practiced cannibalism, the Caribs were known to be much fiercer warriors than the Tainos, and had pillaged Taino villages both on neighboring islands and on Hispaniola itself.
The Tainos – whose name in Arawak dialect meant “good,” “friendly,” or “noble” – were believed to have been a largely peaceful, agrarian, family-oriented society, who survived by fishing, eating fruit, and growing such staples as yucca, corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, cassava, and tobacco on communally owned plots of land. They were organized into at least five separate tribes, each headed by a cacique, or chief. As Christopher Columbus would later write, the Tainos were a strong and handsome people, and they had the most sophisticated culture in the Caribbean, rich in artistic and religious traditions. Skilled artists, sculptors, and craftsmen, they made boats, pottery, baskets, hammocks, and gold jewelry.
While the Taino people have long since disappeared, Taino culture is still much in evidence in the Dominican Republic in a number of prime archeological sites.
Dozens of caves are decorated with pictographs and petroglyphs (rock art), which may be found along the southeastern Caribbean coast, the southwest, the far west, the north coast, and other areas of the country. By 1492, as Columbus’ ships approached from Spain, Tainos numbered anywhere from several hundred thousand to one million or more.
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