Gretchen May
Extension Educator 4-H Youth and Family Development
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Cooperative Extension
Copyright/Access Information
Canoe . . . Barbecue . . . Hammock . . . Tobacco . . .
These are all common words in our everyday lives. Do you know
that they are
Arawakan in origin? Do you know who the Arawaks were? Have you
ever heard
of the Tainos? These groups of people were very important in the
history of
the "New World" yet are not often mentioned in traditional
history books.
Learning about them will help you and the children in your care
gain a more
balanced view about the European settlement of the Western Hemisphere.
In
reading *Encounter* to the children, you will have ample opportunity
to
talk about how they would feel if they were the children in the
book.
The Tainos were native people living on the Caribbean Islands
when
Christopher Columbus arrived. Their ancestors were the Arawaks
who migrated
northward along the islands from South America. The Arawaks, a
peaceful
people who fished, hunted and farmed, were noted for their white-on-red
pottery. Their northward migration ended on what are now the islands
of
Puerto Rico and Haiti, where they were confronted by the Caribs,
a fierce,
cannibalistic people. About the same time, Columbus landed and
changed the
fate of the natives forever. The Tainos had never seen white men
or ships
with sails before. They believed the explorers to be gods and
welcomed
them. This proved to be disastrous.
The exploration and settlement of the islands continued for a
few hundred
years. The Spaniards wanted to convert the natives to Catholicism
and to
find treasure on the islands. Within fifty years of Columbus'
arrival, the
Tainos had been virtually wiped out by disease, murder, and enslavement.
(Some fifteen hundred Caribs, including only a few pure-blooded,
survive
today on a reservation on the island of Dominica.) When the work
force of natives dwindled, the Spaniards stole slaves from Africa
and
brought them to the islands to work the mines. The blending together
of all
these cultures and peoples - Spaniards, Arawakan, Taino, Carib,
and African
- resulted in the populations that inhabit the islands today.
For youngsters: *Encounter*, by Jane Yolen; Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich
Publishers: New York; 1992.
For older children and adults: *The Tainos*, by Francine Jacobs;
G.P.
Putnam's Sons Publisher: New York; 1992.
FORMAT AVAILABLE:: Available only on the
Internet
DOCUMENT REVIEW::
Level 2 - University of Massachusetts Cooperative
Extension System
DOCUMENT SIZE:: 7K or 2 pages
ENTRY DATE:: October 1995
UPDATED:: May 1998
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