Skip to Main Content

Rethinking Columbus : Taino/Arawak Indians

How did the Native Americans maintain their dignity in the face of oppression? Was Columbus a hero or villain? Who was responsible for the genocide of the Tainos?

Level A

Hartford Web Pub.: Pre-Columbian Hispaniola - Describes the Arawak and Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola including lifesytle, housing, dress, food, and religion.

Harcourt Publishers: Taino Indian City Found - Read about a Taino Indian city discovered in the Dominican Republic. Bilingual Spanish/English.

BOOKS

  • The Tainos: The People Who Welcomed Columbus by Francine Jacobs (BNS/BCS Library Unit Cart)
  • Americans Before Columbus by Elizabeth Chesley Baity (BNS/BCS Library Cart)
  • Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles C. Mann (BNS/BCS Library Unit Cart)

Level B

Wikimedia Commons: Image of Taíno village at Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center a municipal government of Ponce

Hartford Web Pub.: Pre-Columbian Hispaniola - Describes the Arawak and Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola. Read about their lifesytle, housing, dress, food, and religion.

Library of Congress: Exploring the Early Americas, Columbus and the Tainos - An on-line exhibit displaying copies of Columbus' journals, other writings about his voyages and findings, as well as information and artifacts of the Taíno, the Native Americans Columbus encountered on San Salvador.

Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ponce - Background on Tibes, one of the most important archaeological sites in Puerto Rico or the Caribbean -- it was home to one of the oldest Taino ceremonial complexes in the islands (includes ancient ball courts). Site has history and many pictures of the site. Available in English and Spanish.

The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus by Irving Rouse 

Level C

Assembly of Arawaks at Mahaiconi, from Indian Tribes of Guiana W. H. Brett (1844).

OriginalPeople.org: Arawak Tribe of the Bahamas

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute: The Taínos of Puerto Rico: Rediscovering Borinquen - Classroom unit includes background information on the historical Tainos (culture, daily life, religion).

BBC Podcasts: Episode 65: Taino Ritual Seat 2 Jul 2010 - Wooden seat carved in the shape of an ancestor spirit by the Taino, one of the pre-European, native Caribbean peoples. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, tells the story of a beautifully carved four-legged stool which has survived the destruction of the Caribbean culture that produced it. Its long shape and wide-eyed face probably belonged to a chief, or 'cacique', of the Taino people who originated in South America and populated the whole region. (Duration: 15 mins)

National Museum of the American Indian: The New Old World: Antilles - View a series of ethnographic photographs that document aspects of life in the isolated indigenous communities of the Taino and the Carib, descendants of the Native people who inhabited Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico before Columbus.

D Level

Wikimedia Commons: The official tribal flag of the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation of Borikén (Puerto Rico)

United Confederarion of Taino People The UCTP website contains a lot of great information on the history of the Taino.

America As Seen By Its First Explorers by John Bakeless (BNS/BCS Library Unit Cart)

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann (BNS/BCS Library Unit Cart)

The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus by David Abulafia (BNS/BCS Library Unit Cart)

Primary Sources

University of Groningen: American History: King Ferdinand's Letter to the Taino-Arawak Indians: Letter King Ferdinand sent along with Columbus on his second voyage to Haiti imploring the Taino to accept Christianity and royal Spanish authority.

Cengage: Columbus' Letter to Gabriel Sanchez (1493) Columbus wrote this letter to Sanchez, the King's Treasurer, where he described the islands and tribes he encountered.