'I'm Not Extinct' - Jamaican Taino Proudly Declares Ancestry

[Mosiah]

'I Am Not Extinct' - Jamaican Taino Proudly Declares Ancestry
Published: Saturday | July 5, 2014
Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

CHARLES TOWN, Portland:

WHEN ERICA Dennis of south St Elizabeth was in class at Hampton School in the said parish, a teacher told the students the Tainos in Jamaica were dead. There she was being told that she, a Jamaican Taino, was extinct.

But she said because at the time, students could not talk back to teachers, she kept quiet. Yet, she said she and another Taino girl resisted by calling themselves the 'Taino Girls'. In her own family, consisting of a Taino mother and an African father, there were eight children.

In the lot, five of them look distinctly Taino and one of her sisters embraces her Taino heritage. And an older brother has always believed he was Taino. But the siblings, who were born in England, are not interested in their Taino identity.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead5.html

[Historian]

I Respect This Woman!

[B]WHEN ERICA Dennis of south St Elizabeth was in class at Hampton School in the said parish, a teacher told the students the Tainos in Jamaica were dead. There she was being told that she, a Jamaican Taino, was extinct.

Thanks for posting this very interesting news feature, Mo.

It’s difficult, I am sure, not to genuinely admire Dr. Erica (Dennis) Neeganagwedgin both for her academic achievements and her obvious pride in her ancestry! Even at a young age this intense pride was evident, as seen in the “Taino Girls” name she and her peer applied to themselves.

Can you imagine the emotional turmoil she must have felt inside when at Hampton she heard the teacher regurgitating the popular misconception about the fate of the Arawak Indians, and not being able to correct her/him?

Essentially, the Tainos and the Lucayans (the two groups of Arawaks) as a race have largely become extinct, but obviously there are small numbers of individuals remaining today, and quite likely not only in Jamaica. But the question remains: even where there are Tainos, have their “purity” been tainted by intermarriage and relationships with other races? For example, while her mother was Arawak, the father seemed to have been a black man.

This is an interesting human-interest story, and I’m happy the Gleaner published it. Unlike the more aggressive Caribs, whose proud descendants have long been identified in Dominica, the Arawaks (who lived in the islands settled by the Spaniards) were thought to have become completely extinct centuries ago.

[Islandman]

VERY interesting article. I wish her much success in recapturing some of the lost history of the indigenous Jamaican people.

[Assasin]

good article. A pleasure to read.

[Gamma]

Fantastic!!!

[HL]

" It nuh good fi live inna white-man country too lang....."

--Mutabaruka

So i was wondering about the term Taino...and it's the same a Arawaks.

Is Arawaks an obsloete term?

I came across the term Taino ~ 3 years ago when I visited a museum in Discovery bay, St Ann.

[Assasin]

Long time, You not up wid the times. LOL.

[Historian]

Answers to Your Question

"[I]So i was wondering about the term Taino...and it's the same a Arawaks.

Is Arawaks an obsloete term?

I came across the term Taino ~ 3 years ago when I visited a museum in Discovery bay, St Ann.

TDowl, as I mentioned in my comment above, the Arawaks were essentially of two types: the Tainos of Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica, and the Lucayans of the Bahamas. As I also noted above, the Tainos died out because of the coming of the Spanish.

In the case of the Lucayans, although the Spaniards never occupied the Bahamas (Columbus spent only about two weeks there, as there was no signs of gold), once they (the Spaniards) settled in Cuba and Hispaniola, they began making slave raids on the Bahamas, hence the fate of the Lucayans.

Both the Tainos and the Lucayans died from a variety of reasons, including overwork, European-borne diseases, etc.

I hope my synopsis here helps.

[Tilla]

I read somewhere where it is said that Arawak was a subgroup of the Tianos.

[Mosiah]

I wonder what it will be 20 years from now?

When I was in primary school, the word "Taino" did not exist. It was all about Arawaks.

In my discussions with the anthropologist through the jungles of Guyana, he found it interesting that Jamaica's indigenous peoples were known as Arawaks, as that is the name of currently used for some native peoples of Guyana (and maybe Brazil).

He asked me if there were any living Arawaks/Tainos in Jamaica and, of course, I said no. I did say, however, that some people I have met claimed to have Arawak blood, but no one takes them serious.

I need to send him this new information.

[Historian]

It Is The Other Way Around

I read somewhere where it is said that Arawak was a subgroup of the Tianos.

No, Tilla, it’s the other way around: the Tainos were a sub-group of the Arawak Indians (the main sub-group) with the Lucayans being the other. There was also another much earlier set of Arawaks known as the Ciboneys, but they had become almost extinct by the 1490s and the arrival of the Spaniards.

In the case of the Ciboneys, their demise was largely due to aggression from the more powerful Tainos. Interestingly, the Tainos had started to suffer a similar fate at the hands of the very aggressive Carib Indians.

Trust me, the Amerindians of the Americas provide fascinating study!

[Historian]

For Mo....

When you were in primary school those classifications of Arawak Indians existed, Mo!! There is absolutely nothing new about the words “Tainos”, “Lucayans” and “Ciboneys” and you can rest assured that they will remain in history books for centuries to come!

Your primary school teacher(s) probably saw no need to go into details about the Amerindians of the Greater Antilles, because those names have been used by historians long, long before you and I were born!

[Assasin]

In Primary school, they taught about the Arawak and the Caribs. The Caribs were thought to be aggressive and even canibals. Can't remember "Tainos" then. Similar thing in lower forms of high school.

[Tilla]

You are correct Historian. I revisited the paper where I was reading up on the Arawaks and Tianos.

HISTORY OF THE TAINO INDIANS

[TDowl]

Historian, I believe Puerto Rico has the strongest Tainos presence - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno

The Ciboney/Siboney were from Vera Cruz, Mexico, somewhere I have a photo of a woman in St Bess, that is suppose to be last known Taino in Jamaica.

What became of those people from Suriname, they were located in St Bess, place known as the Suriname Quarter?