I want to report some of the things I'm reading, and some of the puzzles that this book raises for me and for understanding the Taino populations of the island of Hispaniola when Columbus first visited there and in subsequent years. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1992. As some of you may remember, I was taken to task by several people, including a council of Taino people for claiming that the Taino people of the island of Hispaniola were completely wiped out by the Spanish. Actually, on Olsen's account the situation was much worse than I suggested, since I thought that only the island of Hispaniola suffered this fate.
History records few such systematic exterminations.
Several comments I wish to make here. Thirdly, this does not mean that there wasn't a single person. Lastly at this point, I want to reiterate the claims of Michel Laguerre , who supports the strong claim of genocide of the Taino people on the island of Hispaniola, that not were the actual people themselves killed off, but they left very little trace at all in the blood lines of Haiti, in the culture or customs. On Laguerre's view, they simply disappeared. This treatment of the Tainos was especially startling when one compares the treatment and outcome with the assessment of the people.