Taíno

Taíno is a term referring to a historic Indigenous people of the Caribbean, whose culture has been continued today by their descendants and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke an Arawakan language. Granberry and Vescelius (2004) recognized two varieties of the Taino language, "Classical Taino", spoken in Puerto Rico and most of Hispaniola, and "Ciboney Taino", spoken in the Bahamas, most of Cuba, western Hispaniola, and Jamaica. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis. The Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles are sometimes also referred to as Island Arawaks. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves as Taínos, as the term was coined by the anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836.
Some anthropologists and historians have argued that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. However, many people today identify as Taíno or have Taíno descent, most notably in subsections of the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican nationalities. Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Caribbean-Indigenous mitochondrial DNA, suggesting Taíno descent through the direct female line. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down from the old Taíno peoples, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives.
Scholars have faced difficulties researching the native inhabitants of the Caribbean islands to which Columbus voyaged in 1492, since European accounts cannot be read as objective evidence of a native Caribbean social reality. The people who inhabited most of the Greater Antilles when Europeans arrived have been called Taínos, a term coined by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836. Taíno is not a universally accepted denomination—it was not the name this people called themselves originally, and there is still uncertainty about their attributes and the boundaries of the territory they occupied.
The term nitaino or nitayno, from which Taíno derived, referred to an elite social class, not to an ethnic group. No 16th-century Spanish documents use this word to refer to the tribal affiliation or ethnicity of the natives of the Greater Antilles. The word tayno or taíno, with the meaning "good" or "prudent", was mentioned twice in an account of Columbus's second voyage by his physician, Diego Álvarez Chanca, while in Guadeloupe. José R. Oliver writes that the Natives of Borinquén, who had been captured by the Caribs of Guadeloupe and who wanted to escape on Spanish ships to return home to Puerto Rico, used the term to indicate that they were the "good men", as opposed to the Caribs.
According to Peter Hulme, most translators appear to agree that the word taíno was used by Columbus's sailors, not by the islanders who greeted them, although there is room for interpretation. The sailors may have been saying the only word they knew in a native Caribbean tongue, or perhaps they were indicating to the "commoners" on the shore that they were taíno, i.e., important people, from elsewhere and thus entitled to deference. If taíno was being used here to denote ethnicity, then it was used by the Spanish sailors to indicate that they were "not Carib", and gives no evidence of self-identification by the native people.
According to José Barreiro, a direct translation of the word Taíno signified "men of the good". The Taíno people, or Taíno culture, have been classified by some authorities as belonging to the Arawak peoples. Their language is considered to have belonged to the Arawak language family, the languages of which were historically present throughout the Caribbean, and much of Central and South America.
In 1871, early ethnohistorian Daniel Garrison Brinton referred to the Taíno people as the Island Arawak, expressing their connection to the continental peoples. Since then, numerous scholars and writers have referred to the Indigenous group as Arawaks or Island Arawaks. However, contemporary scholars (such as Irving Rouse and Basil Reid) concluded that the Taíno developed a distinct language and culture from the Arawak of South America.
Taíno and Arawak have been used with numerous and contradictory meanings by writers, travelers, historians, linguists, and anthropologists. Often they were used interchangeably: Taíno was applied to the Greater Antillean natives only, but could include the Bahamian or the Leeward Islands natives, excluding the Puerto Rican and Leeward nations. Similarly, Island Taíno has been used to refer only to those living in the Windward Islands, or to the northern Caribbean inhabitants, as well as to the Indigenous population of all the Caribbean islands.
Many modern historians, linguists, and anthropologists now hold that the term Taíno should refer to all the Taíno/Arawak nations except the Caribs, who are not seen as belonging to the same people. Linguists continue to debate whether the Carib language was an Arawakan dialect or a Creole language. They also speculate that it was an independent language isolate, with an Arawakan pidgin used for communication purposes with other peoples, as in trading.
Rouse classifies all inhabitants of the Greater Antilles as Taíno (except the western tip of Cuba and small pockets of Hispaniola), as well as those of the Lucayan Archipelago and the northern Lesser Antilles. He subdivides the Taíno into three main groups: Classic Taíno, from most of Hispaniola and all of Puerto Rico; Western Taíno, or sub-Taíno, from Jamaica, most of Cuba, and the Lucayan archipelago; and Eastern Taíno, from the Virgin Islands to Montserrat.
Modern groups with Caribbean-Indigenous heritage have reclaimed the exonym Taíno as a self-descriptor, although terms such as Neo-Taino or Indio are also used.
Two schools of thought have emerged regarding the origin of the Indigenous Caribbean people.
Taíno culture as documented is believed to have developed in the Caribbean. The Taíno creation story says they emerged from caves in a sacred mountain on present-day Hispaniola. In Puerto Rico, 21st-century studies have shown that a high proportion of people have Amerindian mtDNA. Of the two major haplotypes found, one does not exist in the Taíno ancestral group, so other Native people are also among the genetic ancestors.
DNA studies changed some of the traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian Indigenous history. According to National Geographic, "studies confirm that a wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the north-eastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands, they encountered foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak-speaking peoples, supplanted the earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands."
Taíno society was divided into two classes: naborias (commoners) and nitaínos (nobles). They were governed by male and female chiefs known as caciques, who inherited their position through their mother's noble line. (This was a matrilineal kinship system, with social status passed through the female lines.) The nitaínos functioned as sub-caciques in villages, overseeing the work of naborias. Caciques were advised by priests/healers known as bohíques. Caciques enjoyed the privilege of wearing golden pendants called guanín, living in square bohíos, instead of the round ones of ordinary villagers, and sitting on wooden stools to be above the guests they received. Bohíques were extolled for their healing powers and ability to speak with deities. They were consulted and granted the Taíno permission to engage in important tasks.
The Taíno had a matrilineal system of kinship, descent, and inheritance. Spanish accounts of the rules of succession for a chief are not consistent, and the rules of succession may have changed as a result of the disruptions to Taíno society that followed the Spanish intrusion. Two early chroniclers, Bartolomé de las Casas and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, reported that a chief was succeeded by a son of a sister. Las Casas was not specific as to which son of a sister would succeed, but d'Anghiera stated that the order of succession was the oldest son of the oldest sister, then the oldest son of the next oldest sister. Post-marital residence was avunculocal, meaning a newly married couple lived in the household of the maternal uncle. He was more important in the lives of his niece's children than their biological father; the uncle introduced the boys to men's societies in his sister and his family's clan. Some Taíno practiced polygamy. Men might have multiple wives. Ramón Pané, a Catholic friar who traveled with Columbus on his second voyage and was tasked with learning the Indigenous people's language and customs, wrote in the 16th century that caciques tended to have two or three spouses and the principal ones had as many as 10, 15, or 20.
The Taíno women were skilled in agriculture, which the people depended on. The men also fished and hunted, making fishing nets and ropes from cotton and palm. Their dugout canoes (kanoa) were of various sizes and could hold from 2 to 150 people; an average-sized canoe would hold 15–20. They used bows and arrows for hunting and developed the use of poisons on their arrowheads.
Taíno women commonly wore their hair with bangs in front and longer in the back, and they occasionally wore gold jewelry, paint, and/or shells. Taíno men and unmarried women usually went naked. After marriage, women wore a small cotton apron, called a nagua.
The Taíno lived in settlements called yucayeques, which varied in size depending on the location. Those in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were the largest and those in the Bahamas were the smallest. In the center of a typical village was a central plaza, used for various social activities, such as games, festivals, religious rituals, and public ceremonies. These plazas had many shapes, including oval, rectangular, narrow, and elongated. Ceremonies where the deeds of the ancestors were celebrated, called areitos, were performed here.
Often, the general population lived in large circular buildings (bohios), constructed with wooden poles, woven straw, and palm leaves. These houses, built surrounding the central plaza, could hold 10–15 families each. The cacique and their family lived in rectangular buildings (caney) of similar construction, with wooden porches. Taíno home furnishings included cotton hammocks (hamaca), sleeping and sitting mats made of palms, wooden chairs (dujo or duho) with woven seats and platforms, and cradles for children.
The Taíno played a ceremonial ball game called batey. Opposing teams had 10 to 30 players per team and used a solid rubber ball. Normally, the teams were composed of men, but occasionally women played the game as well. The Classic Taíno played in the village's center plaza or on especially designed rectangular ball courts called batey. Games on the batey are believed to have been used for conflict resolution between communities. The most elaborate ball courts are found at chiefdom boundaries. Often, chiefs made wagers on the possible outcome of a game.
Taíno spoke an Arawakan language and used an early form of proto-writing in the form of petroglyph, as found in Taíno archeological sites in the West Indies.
Some words they used, such as barbacoa ("barbecue"), hamaca ("hammock"), kanoa ("canoe"), tabaco ("tobacco"), sabana (savanna), and juracán ("hurricane"), have been incorporated into other languages.
For warfare, the men made wooden war clubs, which they called macanas. It was about one inch thick and was similar to the coco macaque.
The Taínos decorated and applied war paint to their face to appear fierce toward their enemies. They ingested substances at religious ceremonies and invoked zemis.
The Taíno were the most culturally advanced of the Arawak group to settle in what is now Puerto Rico. Individuals and kinship groups that previously had some prestige and rank in the tribe began to occupy the hierarchical position that would give way to the cacicazgo. The Taíno founded settlements around villages and organized their chiefdoms, or cacicazgos, into a confederation.
The Taíno society, as described by the Spanish chroniclers, was composed of four social classes: the cacique, the nitaínos, the bohíques, and the naborias. According to archeological evidence, the Taíno islands were able to support a high number of people for approximately 1,500 years. Every individual living in the Taíno society had a task to do. The Taíno believed that everyone living on their islands should eat properly. They followed a very efficient nature harvesting and agricultural production system. Either people were hunting, searching for food, or doing other productive tasks.
Tribal groups settled in villages under a chieftain, known as cacique, or cacica if the ruler was a woman. Many women whom the Spaniards called cacicas were not always rulers in their own right, but were mistakenly acknowledged as such because they were the wives of caciques. Chiefs were chosen from the nitaínos and generally obtained power from their maternal line. A male ruler was more likely to be succeeded by his sister's children than his own unless their mother's lineage allowed them to succeed in their own right.
The chiefs had both temporal and spiritual functions. They were expected to ensure the welfare of the tribe and to protect it from harm from both natural and supernatural forces. They were also expected to direct and manage the food production process. The cacique's power came from the number of villages he controlled and was based on a network of alliances related to family, matrimonial, and ceremonial ties. According to an early 20th-century Smithsonian study, these alliances showed the unity of the Indigenous communities in a territory; they would band together as a defensive strategy to face external threats, such as the attacks by the Caribs on communities in Puerto Rico.
The practice of polygamy enabled the cacique to have women and create family alliances in different localities, thus extending his power. As a symbol of his status, the cacique carried a guanín of South American origin, made of an alloy of gold and copper. This symbolized the first Taíno mythical cacique Anacacuya, whose name means "star of the center", or "central spirit". In addition to the guanín, the cacique used other artifacts and adornments to serve to identify his role. Some examples are tunics of cotton and rare feathers, crowns, and masks or "guaizas" of cotton with feathers; colored stones, shells, or gold; cotton woven belts; and necklaces of snail beads or stones, with small masks of gold or other material.
Under the cacique, social organization was composed of two tiers: The nitaínos at the top and the naborias at the bottom. The nitaínos were considered the nobles of the tribes. They were made up of warriors and the family of the cacique. Advisors who assisted in operational matters such as assigning and supervising communal work, planting and harvesting crops, and keeping peace among the village's inhabitants, were selected from among the nitaínos. The naborias were the more numerous working peasants of the lower class.
The bohíques were priests who represented religious beliefs. Bohíques dealt with negotiating with angry or indifferent gods as the accepted lords of the spiritual world. The bohíques were expected to communicate with the gods, soothe them when they were angry, and intercede on the tribe's behalf. It was their duty to cure the sick, heal the wounded, and interpret the will of the gods in ways that would satisfy the expectations of the tribe. Before carrying out these functions, the bohíques performed certain cleansing and purifying rituals, such as fasting for several days and inhaling sacred tobacco snuff.
Taíno staples included vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish. Though there were no large animals native to the Caribbean, they captured and ate small animals such as hutias, other mammals, earthworms, lizards, turtles, and birds. Manatees were speared and fish were caught in nets, speared, trapped in weirs, or caught with hook and line. Wild parrots were decoyed with domesticated birds, and iguanas were taken from trees and other vegetation. The Taíno stored live animals until they were ready to be consumed: fish and turtles were stored in weirs, hutias and dogs were stored in corrals.
The Taíno people became very skilled fishermen. One method used was to hook a remora, also known as a suckerfish, to a line secured to a canoe and wait for the fish to attach itself to a larger fish or even a sea turtle. Once this happened, someone would dive into the water to retrieve the catch. Another method used by the Taínos involved shredding the stems and roots of poisonous senna plants and throwing them into nearby streams or rivers. After eating the bait, the fish would be stunned and ready for collection. These practices did not render fish inedible. The Taíno also collected mussels and oysters in exposed mangrove roots found in shallow waters. Some young boys hunted waterfowl from flocks that "darkened the sun", according to Christopher Columbus.
Taíno groups located on islands that had experienced relatively high development, such as Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, relied more on agriculture (farming and other jobs) than did groups living elsewhere. Fields for important root crops, such as the staple crop yuca, were prepared by heaping up mounds of soil, called conucos. This improved soil drainage and fertility as well as delayed erosion while allowing for the longer storage of crops in the ground. Less important crops such as corn were cultivated in clearings made using the slash-and-burn technique. Typically, conucos were three feet high, nine feet in circumference, and were arranged in rows. The primary root crop was yuca or cassava, a woody shrub cultivated for its edible and starchy tuberous root. It was planted using a coa, a kind of hoe made completely from wood. Women processed the poisonous variety of cassava by squeezing it to extract its toxic juices. Roots were then ground into flour for bread. Batata (sweet potato) was the next most important root crop.
Tobacco was grown by pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas for centuries before 1492. Christopher Columbus in his journal described how Indigenous people used tobacco by lighting dried herbs wrapped in a leaf and inhaling the smoke. Tobacco, derived from the Taino word "tabaco", was used in medicine and in religious rituals. The Taino people utilized dried tobacco leaves, which they smoked using pipes and cigars. Alternatively, they finely crushed the leaves and inhaled them through a hollow tube. The natives employed uncomplicated yet efficient tools for planting and caring for their crops. Their primary tool was a planting stick, referred to as a "coa" among the Taino, which measured around five feet in length and featured a sharp point that had been hardened through fire.
Contrary to mainland practices, corn was not ground into flour and baked into bread, but was cooked and eaten off the cob. Corn bread becomes moldy faster than cassava bread in the high humidity of the Caribbean. Corn also was used to make an alcoholic beverage known as chicha. The Taíno grew squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and pineapples. Tobacco, calabashes (bottle gourds), and cotton were grown around the houses. Other fruits and vegetables, such as palm nuts, guavas, and Zamia roots, were collected from the wild.
Taíno spirituality centered on the worship of zemis (spirits or ancestors). Major Taíno zemis included Atabey and her son, Yúcahu. Atabey was thought to be the zemi of the moon, fresh waters, and fertility. Other names for her included Atabei, Atabeyra, Atabex, and Guimazoa. The Taínos of Kiskeya (Hispaniola) called her son, "Yúcahu|Yucahú Bagua Maorocotí", which meant "White Yuca, great and powerful as the sea and the mountains". He was considered the spirit of cassava, the zemi of cassava – the Taínos' main crop – and the sea.
Guabancex was the non-nurturing aspect of the zemi Atabey who was believed to have control over natural disasters. She is identified as the goddess of hurricanes or as the zemi of storms. Guabancex had twin sons: Guataubá, a messenger who created hurricane winds, and Coatrisquie, who created floodwaters.
Iguanaboína was the goddess of good weather. She also had twin sons: Boinayel, the messenger of rain, and Marohu, the spirit of clear skies.
Minor Taíno zemis are related to the growing of cassava, the process of life, creation, and death. Baibrama was a minor zemi worshiped for his assistance in growing cassava and curing people of its poisonous juice. Boinayel and his twin brother Márohu were the zemis of rain and fair weather, respectively.
Maquetaurie Guayaba or Maketaori Guayaba was the zemi of Coaybay or Coabey, the land of the dead. Opiyelguabirán', a dog-shaped zemi, watched over the dead. Deminán Caracaracol, a male cultural hero from whom the Taíno believed themselves to be descended, was worshipped as a zemí. Macocael was a cultural hero worshipped as a zemi, who had failed to guard the mountain from which human beings arose. He was punished by being turned into stone, or a bird, a frog, or a reptile, depending on the interpretation of the myth.
Zemí was also the name the people gave to physical representations of Zemis, which could be objects or drawings. They took many forms and were made of many materials and were found in a variety of settings. The majority of zemís were crafted from wood, but stone, bone, shell, pottery, and cotton were used as well. Zemí petroglyphs were carved on rocks in streams, ball courts, and stalagmites in caves, such as the zemi carved into a stalagmite in a cave in La Patana, Cuba. Cemí pictographs were found on secular objects such as pottery, and tattoos. Yucahú, the zemi of cassava, was represented with a three-pointed zemí, which could be found in conucos to increase the yield of cassava. Wood and stone zemís have been found in caves in Hispaniola and Jamaica. Cemís are sometimes represented by toads, turtles, fish, snakes, and various abstract and human-like faces.
Some zemís were accompanied by small tables or trays, which are believed to be a receptacle for hallucinogenic snuff called cohoba, prepared from the beans of a species of Piptadenia tree. These trays have been found with ornately carved snuff tubes. Before certain ceremonies, Taínos would purify themselves, either by inducing vomiting (with a swallowing stick) or by fasting. After communal bread was served, first to the zemí, then to the cacique, and then to the common people, the people would sing the village epic to the accompaniment of maraca and other instruments.
One Taíno oral tradition explains that the Sun and Moon came out of caves. Another story tells of the first people, who once lived in caves and only came out at night because it was believed that the Sun would transform them; a sentry became a giant stone at the mouth of the cave, and others became birds or trees. The Taíno believed they were descended from the union of the cultural hero Deminán Caracaracol and a female turtle (who was born of the former's back after being afflicted with a blister). The origin of the oceans is described in the story of a huge flood that occurred when the great spirit Yaya murdered his son Yayael (who was about to murder his father). The father put his son's bones into a gourd or calabash. When the bones turned into fish, the gourd broke, an accident caused by Deminán Caracaracol, and all the water of the world came pouring out.
Taínos believed that Jupias, the souls of the dead, would go to Coaybay, the underworld, and there they rest by day. At night they would assume the form of bats and eat the guava fruit.
Columbus and the crew of his ship were the first Europeans to encounter the Taíno people, as they landed in The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. After their first interaction, Columbus described the Taínos as a physically tall, well-proportioned people, with noble and kind personalities.
In his diary, Columbus wrote:
At this time, the neighbors of the Taíno were the Guanahatabeys in the western tip of Cuba, the Island-Caribs in the Lesser Antilles from Guadeloupe to Grenada, and the Calusa and Ais nations of Florida. Guanahaní was the Taíno name for the island that Columbus renamed San Salvador (Spanish for "Holy Savior"). Columbus erroneously called the Taíno "Indians", a reference that has grown to encompass all the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. A group of about 24 Taíno people were abducted and forced to accompany Columbus on his 1494 return voyage to Spain.
On Columbus' second voyage in 1493, he began to demand tribute from the Taíno in Hispaniola. According to Kirkpatrick Sale, each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a hawks bell full of gold every three months, or when this was lacking, twenty-five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was not brought, the Spanish cut off the hands of the Taíno and left them to bleed to death These savage, cruel practices inspired many revolts by the Taíno and campaigns against the Spanish—some being successful, some not.
In 1511, Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican missionary in Hispaniola, became the first European to publicly denounce the abduction and enslavement of the Indigenous peoples of the island and the Encomienda system.
In 1511, several caciques in Puerto Rico, such as Agüeybaná II, Arasibo, Hayuya, Jumacao, Urayoán, Guarionex, and Orocobix, allied with the Carib and tried to oust the Spaniards. The revolt was suppressed by the Indio-Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León. Hatuey, a Taíno chieftain who had fled from Hispaniola to Cuba with 400 natives to unite the Cuban natives, was burned at the stake on February 2, 1512.
In Hispaniola, a Taíno chieftain named Enriquillo mobilized more than 3,000 Taíno in a successful rebellion in the 1520s. These Taíno were accorded land and a charter from the royal administration. Despite the small Spanish military presence in the region, they often used diplomatic divisions and, with help from powerful native allies, controlled most of the region. In "exchange" for a seasonal salary, and religious and language education, the Taíno were forced to work for Spanish and erroneously-labeled "Indian" landowners. This system of labor was part of the encomienda.
Taíno society was based on a matrilineal system and descent was traced through the mother. Women lived in village groups containing their children. The men lived separately. As a result, Taíno women had extensive control over their lives and their fellow villagers. The Taínos told Columbus that another Indigenous tribe, Caribs, were fierce warriors, who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing the women.
Taíno women played an important role in intercultural interaction between Spaniards and the Taíno people. When Taíno men were away fighting against intervention from other groups, women assumed the roles of primary food producers or ritual specialists. Women appeared to have participated in all levels of the Taíno political hierarchy, occupying roles as high up as being cazicas. Potentially, this meant Taíno women could make important choices for the village and could assign tasks to tribe members. There is evidence that suggests that the women who were the wealthiest among the tribe collected crafted goods that they would then use for trade or as gifts.
In contrast to the significant autonomy granted to women in Taíno society, Taíno women were taken by Spaniards as hostages to be used during negotiations. Some sources report that Taíno women became so-called commodities for Spaniards to trade, seen by some as the beginning of a period of more regular Spanish abduction and systemic rape of Taíno women.
Early population estimates of Hispaniola, thought to have likely been the most populous island inhabited by Taínos, range from 10,000 to 1,000,000 people. The maximum estimates for Jamaica and Puerto Rico are 600,000 people. A 2020 genetic analysis estimated the population to be no more than a few tens of thousands of people. Spanish priest and defender of the Taíno, Bartolomé de las Casas (who had lived in Santo Domingo), wrote in his 1561 multi-volume History of the Indies:
Researchers today doubt Las Casas' figures for the pre-contact levels of the Taíno population, considering them an exaggeration. For example, Karen Anderson Córdova estimates a maximum of 500,000 people inhabiting the island. The encomienda system forced many Taíno to work in the fields and mines in so-called exchange for Spanish protection, education, and a seasonal salary. Under the pretense of searching for gold and other materials, many Spaniards took advantage of the regions now under the control of the anaborios and Spanish encomenderos to exploit the native population by seizing their land and wealth. Historian David Stannard characterizes the encomienda as a genocidal system that "had driven many millions of native peoples in Central and South America to early and agonizing deaths." It would take some time before the Taíno revolted against their oppressors—both Native and Spanish alike—and many military campaigns before Emperor Charles V eradicated the encomienda system as a form of enslavement.
Disease played a significant role in the destruction of the Indigenous population, but forced labor was also one of the chief reasons behind the depopulation of the Taíno. The first man to introduce this forced labor among the Taínos was the leader of the European colonization of Puerto Rico, Ponce de León. Such forced labor eventually led to the Taíno rebellions, to which the Spaniards responded with violent military expeditions known as cabalgadas. The purpose of the military expeditions was to capture the Indigenous people. This violence by the Spaniards was a reason why there was a decline in the Taíno population since it forced many of them to emigrate to other islands and the mainland.
In thirty years, between 80% and 90% of the Taíno population died. Because of the increased number of people (Spanish) on the island, there was a higher demand for food. Taíno cultivation was converted to Spanish methods. In hopes of frustrating the Spanish, some Taínos refused to plant or harvest their crops. The supply of food became so low in 1495 and 1496 that some 50,000 died from famine. Historians have determined that the massive decline was due more to infectious disease outbreaks than any warfare or direct attacks. By 1507, their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. Scholars believe that epidemic disease (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) was an overwhelming cause of the population decline of the Indigenous people, and also attributed a "large number of Taíno deaths...to the continuing bondage systems" that existed. Academics, such as historian Andrés Reséndez of the University of California, Davis, assert that disease alone does not explain the destruction of Indigenous populations of Hispaniola. While the populations of Europe rebounded following the devastating population decline associated with the Black Death, there was no such rebound for the Indigenous populations of the Caribbean. He concludes that, even though the Spanish were aware of deadly diseases such as smallpox, there is no mention of them in the New World until 1519, meaning perhaps they did not spread as fast as initially believed, and that, unlike Europeans, the Indigenous populations were subjected to enslavement, exploitation, and forced labor in gold and silver mines on an enormous scale. Reséndez says that "slavery has emerged as a major killer" of the Indigenous people of the Caribbean. Anthropologist Jason Hickel estimates that the lethal forced labor in these mines killed a third of the Indigenous people there every six months.
Histories of the Caribbean traditionally describe the Taíno as extinct, due to being killed off by disease, slavery, and war with the Spaniards. Contemporary scholarship is more ambivalent, accepting that some degree of Taíno cultural heritage survives in the Caribbean, though many disagree on the extent and meaning of this. Many Caribbean people also have a degree of Indigenous descent, usually on the maternal side. Present-day peoples with Caribbean Indigenous heritage may identify as Taíno, Taíno descendants, or other localised terms, and often come from rural mestizo communities such as the jíbaro. Although Taíno was originally an exonym, contemporary descendants of the Taínos have begun to reclaim the name and publicly assert a shared Taíno Caribbean-Indigenous identity. They typically describe traditions that have been passed on in secret to evade enslavement or persecution. Groups advocating this point of view are sometimes known as Neo-Taínos—though this is not usually a term they use to describe themselves—and are also established in the Puerto Rican communities located in New Jersey and New York. A few Taíno groups are pushing not only for recognition but respect for their cultural assets.
Scholars who remain sceptical that Taíno culture survived in recognizable form point to the process of mestizaje or creolisation as evidence of the modern Taíno's actual origins. Most Taíno descendants argue that this is evidence for their continued survival, rather than evidence against it, since creolization allowed their culture and identity to persist while evolving and adapting. According to Antonio Curet, this part of the modern Taíno argument is frequently ignored by sceptical scholars, even though, as he believes, creolization itself "does not disprove the claims of indigenous survival". Curet suggests, however, that modern Taíno views about creolization may downplay the contribution of European and especially African heritage, and that this may be seen as anti-African sentiment. Other scholars, such as Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate, dispute this, suggesting that Taíno identities are part of an ongoing process of resisting a Eurocentric mestizo identity which already ignores both African and Indigenous heritage.
Despite the recorded extinction of the Taíno across the Caribbean, historian Ranald Woodaman says the survival of the Taíno is supported by "the enduring (though not unchanged) presence of Native genes, culture, knowledge and identity among the descendants of the Taíno peoples of the region". He also notes the Indigenous and African heritage of communities such as the Maroons, and how these remained distinct from the larger populations while honouring their Taíno predecessors. Taíno-derived customs and identities can be found especially among marginalised rural populations on the Caribbean islands such of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
In isolated parts of eastern Cuba (including areas near El Caney, Yateras and Baracoa), there are Indigenous communities who have maintained their Taíno identities and cultural practices into the 21st century. Reports of Indigenous communities surviving in the east of Cuba date at least as far back as the 19th century, from sources as varied as anthropologists, missionaries, military officials and tourists. Abolitionist and British consul to Cuba David Turnbull, who visited the island in the 1830s, said the inhabitants of Guanabacoa, El Caney and Jiguaní had Indigenous heritage, and recorded Spanish stories of Taíno who had migrated to "the Yucatan and the Floridas". In the 1840s, José de la Torre reportedly saw 50 "pure blooded" Taíno dancing at El Caney and researcher Miguel Rodríguez Ferrer reportedly found various Taíno families living in the footholds of the Sierra Maestra mountains. In the 1880s, author Maturin M. Ballou, a sceptic of Taíno survival, said there were reports of an Arawak-Taíno village living near the copper mines "northwest of Santiago de Cuba", and Nicolas Fort y Roldan described encountering the "almost extinct race lucaya", and their settlements in El Caney and Yateras. In the 1890s, author and photographer José de Olivares documented nomadic Indigenous Cubans whom he identified as "the last remnants of that interesting and sorely persecuted race". Most famously, Cuban national icon and poet José Martí reported the aid of "los Indios de Garrido" during the 1895 war of independence.
In the early 20th century, scientist B. E. Fernow reported "twenty-eight families" of mixed Indigenous people still living in isolated settlements in the foothills of the Sierra Maestro mountains, and archaeologist Stewart Culin noted the presence of "full-blooded" Indians near Yateras and Baracoa. The former group had apparently migrated from Santo Domingo; the latter group comprised 800 local Indigenous people, largely from three families: Gainsa, Azahares, and Rojas. Culin also met a Taíno man named José Almenares Argüello, or "Almenares", who said the town of El Caney had once been reserved only for Indians. In 1908 and 1909, explorer Sir Harry Johnston shared reports of "pure-blood" Taínos and recounted seeing mestizos who were "almost as pure breeds" in eastern Cuba, some of whom lived on former "reservations". He distinguished these from the general populace of 1.2 million Spanish Cubans who had various degrees of mixed "Amerindian-Arawak" heritage. Others such as Jesse W. Fewkes and Mark Raymond Harrington reported similar findings, including an additional settlement near Jaruco. Later, between the 1910s and 1920s, archaeologist J. A. Cosculluela discovered Indigenous families in the Zapata swamps, and apparently corroborated their lineage by visiting the local cemetery. In the 1940s, archaeologist Irving Rouse reported the existence of "pure blooded" Taíno or "Indios de las orillas" at Camagüey. Historian Pichardo Moya, in his address to the Cuban Academy of History in 1945, criticized "the widely accepted opinion" that the Indigenous Cubans were "practically exterminated". He blamed this viewpoint on nationalistic histories that overlooked evidence of "Indian" heritage. Anthropologist and geneticist Reginald Ruggles Gates also reported many "Indian descent people" and people who were "pure Indians", especially women, noting Indigenous families with the surnames Gainsa, Ramírez and Rojas. When anthropologists Manuel Rivero de la Calle and Milan Pospisil analysed Cuba's Indigenous communities, they suggested those in the east were likely of Taíno heritage, rather than from the newer Yucatecan Mayan community living in the west. There are also Indigenous communities who migrated to Cuba from Florida and other parts of the mainland, who in some cases intermarried with local Taíno communities.
Jason M. Yaremko says there are many organised communities of Amerindians currently living in Cuba, many of whom have an Arawak-Taíno identity, and that a number of these are even "pure bloods". He suggests that Euro-American views from the 18th century onward, which saw race and Indigeneity in terms of essentialism and "primordiality", insisted on "narratives of disappearance" for Indigenous peoples and imposed upon them alternate identities as "white, black, or mulatto". In his view, Eurocentric perspectives saw the decline of the Indigenous peoples—whether through extinction or dilution—as the inevitable conclusion of the "heroic saga of civilization". Subsequent attempts to promote a singular Cuban national identity which transcended race and ethnicity, he says, may have "suffocated" more complex identities for the sake of "national unity", impacting both Afro-Cubans and Amerindian Cubans. But he says this Amerindian identity has nevertheless persisted in Cuba, "whether as 'Indios' in pueblos indios, as individuals in cities and towns, or together in vibrant, if 'invisible' (until recently), rural communities like Yateras". He also suggests that, although the oral histories are "compelling", to address controversies over modern Cuban Taíno identities, this heritage could be "corroborated and reinforced by fieldwork conducted, to begin with, in documentary records contained in Cuba’s former 'Indian towns' and parishes, among other repositories in the country".
Frank Moya Pons, a Dominican historian, documented that Spanish colonists intermarried with Taíno women. Over time, some of their mixed-race descendants intermarried with Africans, creating a tripartite Creole culture. Census records from the year 1514 reveal that 40% of Spanish men on the island of Hispaniola had Taíno wives. Nevertheless, Spanish documents declared the Taíno to be extinct in the 16th century, as early as 1550.
Despite this, scholars note that contemporary rural Dominicans retain elements of Taíno culture including linguistic features, agricultural practices, food ways, medicine, fishing practices, technology, architecture, oral history, and religious views, even though such cultural traits may be considered backward in the cities. Among these rural communities, some families and individuals also identify as Taíno.
Evidence suggests that some Taíno women and African men intermarried and lived in relatively isolated Maroon communities in the interior of the islands, where they developed into a mixed-race population who were relatively independent of Spanish authorities. For instance, when the colony of Jamaica was under the rule of Spain (known then as the colony of Santiago), both Taíno men and women fled to the Bastidas Mountains (currently known as the Blue Mountains), where they intermingled with escaped enslaved Africans. They were among the ancestors of the Jamaican Maroons of the east, including those communities led by Juan de Bolas and Juan de Serras. The Maroons of Moore Town claim descent from the Taíno.
Indigenous peoples are recorded later in Puerto Rico than on many other Caribbean islands. The Puerto Rican census of 1777 listed 1,756 indios, while the 1787 census listed 2,032. It is not clear, however, exactly which groups were counted as indios at the time and how accurate the census data was—some indios may have remained hidden or lived in isolated and remote communities to avoid enslavement or worse. Puerto Rican historian Loida Figueroa has suggested that all native Puerto Ricans were considered Indian until the beginning of the 19th century, when they were subsequently labelled pardos by Governor don Toribio Montes, who struggled to fit the multiethnic non-whites into American racial categories. Oral histories collected by Juan Manuel Delgado in 1977 also support the idea that "Indians" were widespread until the 19th century.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Puerto Rico was subjected to various attempts at Americanization, including through educational institutions. This often included learning English and Spanish, and being required to wear Anglo-American clothing. Some Puerto Rican children were sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the flagship among American Indian boarding schools, including children with Taíno heritage. Despite this, there is widespread recognition that Taíno customs and culture have survived in some form in Puerto Rico, where these customs are celebrated as a part of Puerto Rico's creole identity.
At the 2010 U.S. census, 1,098 people in Puerto Rico identified as "Puerto Rican Indian", 1,410 identified as "Spanish American Indian", and 9,399 identified as "Taíno". In total, 35,856 Puerto Ricans identified as Indigenous. A consistent explanation given by modern Taíno/Boricuas for their survival is that their families lived, at least for a time, close to the mountainous interior of the island, which they call Las Indieras ("the place of the Indians"). Anthropologist Sherina Feliciano-Santos says these areas typically have an increased prevalence of Indigenous foods, customs and vocabulary than elsewhere.
People with Indigenous heritage in Puerto Rico may call themselves Boricua, after the Indigenous word for the island, as well as or instead of Taíno. Local Taíno/Boricua groups have also begun attempts to reconstruct a distinct Taíno language, called Taíney, often extrapolating from other Arawakan languages and using a modified version of the Latin alphabet.
The Guainía Taíno Tribe has been recognized as a tribe by the governor of the US Virgin Islands.
As of 2006, there were a couple of dozen activist Taíno descendant organizations from Florida to Puerto Rico and California to New York with growing memberships numbering in the thousands. These efforts are known as the Taíno restoration, a revival movement for Taíno culture that seeks to revive and reclaim Taíno heritage, as well as official recognition of the survival of the Taíno people. Historian Ranald Woodaman describes the modern Taíno movement as "a declaration of Native survival through mestizaje (genetic and cultural mixing over time), reclamation and revival".
In Puerto Rico, the history of the Taíno is being taught in schools, where children learn about the Taíno culture and identity through dance, costumes, and crafts. Martínez Cruzado, a geneticist at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez said celebrating and learning about their Taíno roots is helping Puerto Ricans feel connected.
Scholar Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel sees the development of a Neo-Taíno movement in Puerto Rico as a useful counter to the domination of the island by the United States and the Spanish legacies of island society. She also notes that "what could be seen as a useless anachronistic reinvention of a 'Boricua coqui' identity can also be conceived as a productive example of Spivak's 'strategic essentialism'". Scholar Gabriel Haslip-Viera suggests that the Taíno revival movements which emerged among marginalised Puerto Rican communities, especially from the 1980s and 1990s, are a response to US racism and Reaganism, which produced hostile political and socioeconomic conditions in the Caribbean.
In 2018, a DNA study mapped the genome of a tooth belonging to an 8th- to 10th–century "ancient Taíno" woman from the Bahamas. The research team compared the genome to 104 Puerto Ricans who participated in the 1000 Genomes Project (2008), who had 10 to 15 percent Indigenous American ancestry. The results suggested they were more "closely related to the ancient Bahamian genome" than to any other Indigenous American group.
Although most do not identify as such, DNA evidence suggests that a large proportion of the current populations of the Greater Antilles have Taíno ancestry, with 61% of Puerto Ricans, up to 30% of Dominicans, and 33% of Cubans having mitochondrial DNA of Indigenous origin. Some groups have, however, reportedly maintained Taíno or indio customs to some degree.
Sixteen autosomal studies of peoples in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora (mostly Puerto Ricans) have shown that between 10% and 20% of their DNA is Indigenous. Some individuals have slightly higher scores, and others have lower scores or no indigenous DNA at all. A recent study of a population in eastern Puerto Rico, where the majority of persons tested claimed Taíno ancestry and pedigree, showed that they had 61% mtDNA (distant maternal ancestry) from Indigenous peoples and 0% Y-chromosome DNA (distant paternal ancestry) from the Indigenous people. This suggests part of the Creole population descends from unions between Taíno women and European or African men.