Origin of the Taino

Civilization has existed in the Caribbean for thousands of years despite the Eurocentric assumption that the "New World" was discovered in 1492. The peopling of the Caribbean is not the product of a single discovery; its history is not mirrored in the narrative of a single expedition. Rather, it has been a lengthy process of assimilation and conquest. The arrival of the Europeans was a harsh and drastic example of this process. Many different groups have migrated to and within the Caribbean. Cultures have dominated, and cultures have submitted. With each new migration the Caribbean culture evolved. The culture continues to change, even today, with recent continental gentrification. Each influx brings new characteristics, oftentimes at the expense of the rich traditions of the past. The tropical paradise for which the Caribbean is known serves only as a backdrop to the colorful tapestry of cultures, which have constructed the history of the region.

The First People to Live in the Caribbean
The first people to live on a Caribbean island were the descendents of hunters from the Yucatan Peninsula. They crossed the 125-mile wide Yucatan Passage about 6,000 years ago and established themselves first in Cuba and then in Hispaniola.

They were a Stone Age people who made their tools and weapons out of shells, bones and stone. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering, activities that the large islands of Cuba and Hispaniola were well suited for, with their fertile river valleys lush with tropical vegetation, upland forests, mangrove lagoons, and extensive coastal environment.

The First People in Vieques
The second wave of migration to the Caribbean began about 1,000 years later, by a people who we call Los Archaicos or The Ancient Ones.

The Archaicos came from what is now the nation of Venezuela and later migrated to Trinidad when that island was still attached to the South American mainland. From there they entered the chain of smaller eastern Caribbean islands we call the Lesser Antilles and worked their way northward establishing settlements from Grenada to Vieques and Puerto Rico.

The Archaicos were a coastal people. Their settlements were small and widely dispersed and they survived mainly on the resources provided by the sea. Their artifacts include barbed spearheads made of bone, ornaments made from perforated animal teeth, and tools made from stone, bones and shells.

The Second Wave of Migration
About 500 BC, a second wave of Native Americans, farmers and pottery makers, also originally from the river valleys of South America, migrated to Trinidad from where they too proceeded up the island chain arriving on Vieques around the birth of Christ.

Like the Europeans who came to the islands 2,000 years later, the farmers did not find their newly “discovered” territory to be unoccupied. And like the Europeans, the newcomers overwhelmed the pre-existing peoples they encountered, resulting in a blending of the two cultures.

The people of the eastern Caribbean lived comfortably, farming, fishing and hunting. They fabricated pottery, played ball and worshipped their gods. Additionally, they established an extensive trading network both within the Eastern Caribbean as well as with peoples as far away as the South American mainland.

(Archeological digs have uncovered gemstones and shells with drawings of animals only found in South America, an excellent example of which is the Jadeite Condor found on Vieques.)

The Emergence of the Tainos
The inhabitants of Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, Vieques and Puerto Rico, eventually came into contact with the inhabitants of Cuba and Hispaniola. The result of this contact was the emergence of a new culture, the Taino.

According to their legends, the Tainos originated in caves in a sacred mountain in Hispaniola. Modern research indicates that this myth is based in reality and that Taino culture evolved locally in eastern Hispaniola from where it spread eastward to Puerto Rico, Vieques and the Virgin Islands and westward to Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas.