Mask Master Presents

The Taino History and US National Park Service archaeological findings of the

Cinnamon Bay archaeological dig in the

US National Park on St. John, USVI.

                           The Taino History       

(Furnished by TALK Taino Ancestral Legacy Keepers-NY office)

Who are the Tainos?  The U.S. Government says they are extinct, but they

are not.  Most likely you know them as Latinos, a Spanish speaking

person of Latin American (the Spanish speaking part of the Americas,

south of the U.S.) descent.  Not all, but many modern day Tainos are

unaware of their lineage.  To understand how that could happen you must

know the story from the beginning.

Approximately 1,500 years ago, the Arawak people of South America began

migrating northward along the many scattered islands located

between South and North America, an area we now refer to as the

Caribbean.  For a thousand years their population grew and the people

lived in harmony.  The people covered all the islands of the Caribbean, the major

ones as they are now known:  Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola as well

as all the smaller ones: the Bahamas, Bimini, Jamaica etc.

Certain

groups of island people identified themselves as Lokono, Lucayan, Carib,

Ciboney, Arawak, but most islands were primarily inhabited by people who

called themselves Taino, which stood for "the good people" in their

language.  The different groups intermarried extensively to strengthen

ties amongst themselves.

Theirs was a beautiful culture.  They were aware of a Divine presence

whom they called Yocahu, and to worship and give thanks was a major

part of their lives. They had a social order that provided the leaders

and guidelines by which they all lived.  They hunted, fished, cultivated

crops and ate the abundant fruits provided by nature.  They were clever and

ingenious and had everything they needed to survive. They had beautiful

ceremonies that were held at various times, birth, death, marriage,

harvest, naming and coming of age to name a few.  They had special

reverence for the Earth Mother (Atabey) and had respect for all living things

knowing that all living things are connected.  There was little need for

clothing due to the tropic heat, but upon reaching puberty both males and females

would wear a small woven loincloth.  Puberty was also the time at which

they were considered old enough to be married. The population estimates

for the Taino people at the height of their culture are as high as

8,000,000.  That was in 1492....

In 1492, the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, was loaned 3 small,

old ships from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain for a

questionable voyage across the sea in which he hoped to reach India or

China.  Although Marco Polo had sailed around the world 300 years

earlier, and the Norsemen 500 years earlier, there were few sailors

willing to sail into the unknown, so the King and Queen released some

prisoners early to accompany Columbus on the voyage. On October 12, 1492

after two months at sea Columbus and crew finally spotted land.

Upon reaching the land, Columbus fell to his knees, thanked God for a

safe voyage and planted a flag in the ground, claiming the land for

Spain - as the Tainos who had lived there for 1,000 years watched from behind trees

and bushes.

The Taino had never before seen white men, clothed people, people with

beards or ships like that ~ they thought these people must be from

heaven.  So the Taino came out to greet them, as was their custom, and

bring the travelers, who surely must be tired and hungry, food, drink

and gifts.  Such strong swimmers were the Taino that some of them swam right

out to the boats some 3 miles offshore.

The very first night Columbus wrote in his journal, that these islands

were very heavily populated by a handsome, strong, well-built and

peaceful people who had only simple weapons and that with as few as 50 of his

men, and their weapons he could take over. Much is said about Columbus'

desire to convert the "savages" to Christianity, but very little is said

about his quest for gold, although Columbus mentions gold in his journal

70 times in his first 2 weeks in the islands.  The very first day, Columbus

"took" several Native boys aboard his ship to show him where the gold was.

Columbus spent the next two months looking for gold.  Just when he was

about to return to Spain, on Christmas Eve his ship the Santa Maria ran

aground and sank.  The Taino people helped him to retrieve every

salvageable item.  A problem arose in that now all the sailors who had

accompanied Columbus could not fit on the two remaining (and smaller)

ships.  So a fort was built using the salvaged wood from the Santa Maria

and 39 men were left behind at a fort Columbus called La Navidad.

Shortly thereafter, Columbus set sail for Spain, taking some of the

Natives and birds, food and plants to show the King and Queen.

Columbus was received in a manner never before seen and his stories of

the "New World" were listened to with awe.  King Ferdinand and Queen

Isabella immediately gave Columbus 17 large ships, livestock & supplies

to return to their newly acquired lands and colonize them.  This time

there was no shortage of men willing to sign up for the ocean voyage, 1,200

men eagerly signed up for the voyage and the chance to get rich quick on

the gold to be found in the New World.

Upon arrival at La Navidad in the second voyage,  Columbus found the

fort burned to the ground and all 39 of the men he had left behind had

been killed.  It seems the sailors left behind had "misbehaved" as our

history books tell it, but their "misbehaving" was in the form of rape

of the local  women and children and theft of anything they saw that they wanted.

One of the local leaders, or Kasikes as they were called, named Caonabo

had met with the other leaders and all but one agreed that men who

were gods would never have behaved in the manner the Spanish had, and

they decided the Spaniards had to go, and so they eliminated the

Spaniards and the threat they posed to their people.

Columbus vowed to find Caonabo and retaliate.  From that point on, life

as the Taino knew it ended.  Columbus forced all of them over the age of

14 to work in the gold mines searching for gold for the Spaniards.  Those

who refused were killed.  Those who did not make their quota of gold had

their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death.  Taino women were

given to Spaniards to do with whatever they wished.  The fields,

unattended, failed to yield enough food for the Taino, and the Spaniards

whose supplies had run out.  All were hungry.  Many Taino starved to

death, others were worked to death.  They were beaten, tortured, raped,

enslaved & murdered.  Columbus found Caonabo, they tricked him in

order to capture him, he was put on a ship that was sent to Spain and

was never heard from again.

When the time came for Columbus to return to Spain, he did not have

nearly enough gold to pay for his expedition, so he had his men round up

1,000 of the very biggest and strongest Taino.  They found they could

only fit 500 of them in the stinking holds of the ships, so Columbus

took those 500 aboard to be sold at the slave market in Seville to raise

money to repay the King and Queen, and he gave the other 500 Taino to

Spanish colonists.  Over 250 of the Taino died en route to Spain, and their

bodies were tossed overboard.

When Columbus returned for the third time, not much had changed, there

was still little gold.  The colonists brutally forced the Taino to look

for it, the food shortages were so severe that the Spaniards fed Taino babies to

their dogs and the mood among the Taino was one of complete and

utter helplessness and desperation.  Some took their own lives to escape

the brutalities and indignities. The colonists, failing to get rich

quick as they had hoped, threatened to revolt against Columbus.  Word got back to

the King and Queen of the situation and Columbus was sent back to

Spain in chains to stand trial for his "mismanagement" of the islands.

He was stripped of his titles and all claims to the lands he had

"discovered" (to those who had lived in the islands and thought they had discovered

them, he would always be known as an "invader").

He lived to make a 4th voyage to the islands.  The people there, once

proud and strong, were reduced from an estimated 8 million to 60

thousand in 10 years' time. Those that remained ran up high in the densely forrested

hills and mountains and hid.

But, they survived.  Many later married Spaniards, others married the

African slaves that Columbus' ships later brought in were brought to

replace the decimated Taino work force.  You can see the existence of all three

races in the faces of many modern day Caribbean peoples - but they all

fall under the category of "Latino". If you look at maps, many areas

still retain their original indigenous names.  If you listen to the

language, you will still hear many indigenous words used.  And although the Caribbean has

be explored and exploited again and again by the many greedy

adventurers who have passed through, many of the customs practiced by

the Taino are still in use and a big part of the culture throughout the

Caribbean today.

What is the logic behind the government giving a man credit for

discovering lands that were already densely populated, and honoring that

same man whose actions had the devastating consequenses of slavery and death

to so many people, with one of our 8 federal holidays (i.e. holy day)?

Or, is there any logic at all there?

And, why are the Taino people, who do still exist in spite of what you

may be told, denied legal federal recognition?

And, why are Native Americans, who have given so much to the formation

of this country, still not honored with a federal holiday of their own?

Please do more than think about this... do something about this.....

let's all work together to end the insult and injustice to the people

who have truly paid the highest possible price for the land in which we all live today.

    

Cinnamon Bay Archaeological Dig

  (St. John, USVI) West Indies

"Appears To Be Major Taíno Indian Find"

by Tom Oat

After years of digging in the sandy ground of Cinnamon Bay and

studying the limited record of the pre-historic Taíno Indians,

National Park Service archaeologist Ken Wild thinks he has identified

what has been excavated.

"I can now say with some scientific certainty that is was the lord's

or king's temple or church," said the U.S. National Park Service

archaeologist. "This is the place."

"I'm sticking my head way out, but I have to call it as I see it,"

said Wild. "You don't say that without some pretty strong evidence."

Important Religious Site? As far as the scientific evidence is

concerned the artifacts uncovered thus far appear to be from an

important religious or social site which documents the growth of the

Taíno culture, according to the scientist. "We've never dug anything

like this before," Wild said of the site where carbon dating has

shown offerings were made over hundreds of years. "If we have we did

not know it."

"It looks like we're digging in this temple where the chief kept his

Cemis - which are his dead ancestors" - and where the chief required

people to make offerings to his ancestors' spirits, according to

Wild's analysis. "This sacred spot was sacred for 500 years," Wild

said. "We can see these people evolve. They did change."

"Seven years ago, I saw some things," Wild said of his efforts to

identify the site he was digging. "We saw artifacts that were classic

Taíno, but no one had proved they had been here." "And the styles

are completely separated," he added. "A change occurs. There are

distinct breaks in style that represent changes in beliefs." "There

was a story there to be told," Wild said. "There was something to be

saved that seemed to be important."

What it was a Taíno Indian Cacique Caney or chief's temple,

according to Wild? From the unopened gastropods (shellfish) uncovered

in distinct piles to the accompanying pottery shards, the evidence

mounted. "We've been discovering broken pots piled up," Wild

said. "We put them together and found a hole punched in the bottom

which suggests funeral use."

Tiny archaeological fragments of bone, teeth and shells matched

the "golden eyes," beads, and other decorative objects matched rare

Cemis in the major Taíno collections in Europe, according to

Wild. "The chief's Cemis are sitting here," Wild said of the layout

of the artifacts found in the dig so far. "What the

heck does this stuff mean?"

Columbus said only the chief wears a headdress," Wild said of the

best-known historical record of the Taíno. Several items found in

the dig were evidence of a chief's headdress, he added. And, Columbus

said the Taíno made offering once a year, according to Wild. "That

temporally changes the artifacts," the

Archaeologist said. "They could come and make offerings and within a

week it would be covered up by blowing sand."

"There's some pretty strong evidence of events separated in time" at

the Cinnamon site, Wild said. "That explains the sudden shifts in

style." While in other regions the offerings to the gods or ancestors

would be food and grains, on St. John the offerings were shellfish

and fish. "When we found a pile of unopened shells, that told us a

lot," Wild said. "What else can it be?"

"It's also a story about evolution," the archaeologist added. "We dug

at Trunk Bay and found thousands of pot shards, but only three

objects with any decoration." "We go forward 100 years to Cinnamon

and at the very bottom (layer) I found a decorated plate with a hole

punched in the bottom of it," he said. "Somehow there's an

evolutionary process, making an ancestral cult," Wild reasoned. "If

you make your ancestors Gods, the people look to you to communicate

with 'other 'world."

The site documents the Taíno development from a communal egalitarian

society to an elite society like the Mayans or Aztecs, Wild

said. "This puts that development in time," he said. "1,000 years

ago, these people decided it was a sacred place and for the next 500

years they used it."

Please note that there are many archeological digs active at this time on many of the  the West Indies Islands.

This one has changed their history.

Home

Masks

Taino dictionary

Home

Masks

Taino dictionary

Home

Taino Dictionary