Indigenous Survival Day: Forgetting Myths of Extinction

The Lucayan: The Indigenous people Christopher Columbus could not annihilate

October 14, 2019

The Lucayan did not know it was Oct. 12, 1492. They did not know that their island, in what would become the Bahamas, had been spotted by Spanish explorers led by a Genoese man named Christopher Columbus. And they did not know that in less than 30 years, their island would be empty from the coming genocide. As Columbus and his men approached, the Lucayans greeted them warmly, offering food and water, and “we understood that they had asked us if we had come from heaven,” he wrote in his journal. Then he added, “With 50 men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them.”

As the article progresses, it makes the observation that the previously dominant histories of Indigenous extinction in the Caribbean have now completely fallen apart, citing some of the latest research on the prevalence of Indigenous DNA in the contemporary Caribbean. The article takes us to the following reports:

TAÍNO: 'EXTINCT' INDIGENOUS AMERICANS NEVER ACTUALLY DISAPPEARED, ANCIENT TOOTH REVEALS
February 20, 2019

The tooth-derived genome is the first concrete genetic evidence that Taíno ancestry survives to this day. Scientists compared the ancient Bahamian genome to those of contemporary Puerto Ricans and discovered they were more closely related to the Taíno than to any other indigenous group in the Americas. This is likely to also be true of other Caribbean communities, the researchers said. 

Lead author Eske Willerslev, who has posts at both the University of Cambridge, U.K., and the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement: "It has always been clear that people in the Caribbean have Native American ancestry, but because the region has such a complex history of migration, it was difficult to prove whether this was specifically indigenous to the Caribbean, until now."

The study's other lead author, Hannes Schroeder from the University of Copenhagen, called the finding fascinating. 

"Many history books will tell you that the indigenous population of the Caribbean was all but wiped out, but people who self-identify as Taíno have always argued for continuity," he said in a statement. "Now we know they were right all along: there has been some form of genetic continuity in the Caribbean." 

Jorge Estevez, a Taíno descendent working at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, assisted the project team. "I wish my grandmother were alive today so that I could confirm to her what she already knew," he said. "It shows that the true story is one of assimilation, certainly, but not total extinction."

Study identifies traces of indigenous 'Taino' in present-day Caribbean populations
February 19, 2018

A thousand-year-old tooth has provided genetic evidence that the so-called "Taíno", the first indigenous Americans to feel the full impact of European colonisation after Columbus arrived in the New World, still have living descendants in the Caribbean today. 

Researchers were able to use the tooth of a woman found in a cave on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas to sequence the first complete ancient human genome from the Caribbean. The woman lived at some point between the 8th and 10th centuries, at least 500 years before Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas. 

The results provide unprecedented insights into the genetic makeup of the Taíno - a label commonly used to describe the indigenous people of that region. This includes the first clear evidence that there has been some degree of continuity between the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and contemporary communities living in the region today. 

Such a link had previously been suggested by other studies based on modern DNA. None of these, however, was able to draw on an ancient genome. The new research finally provides concrete proof that indigenous ancestry in the region has survived to the present day.

Origins and genetic legacies of the Caribbean Taino
March 6, 2018

The Caribbean was one of the last parts of the Americas to be settled by humans, but how and when the islands were first occupied remains a matter of debate. Ancient DNA can help answering these questions, but the work has been hampered by poor DNA preservation. We report the genome sequence of a 1,000-year-old Lucayan Taino individual recovered from the site of Preacher’s Cave in the Bahamas. We sequenced her genome to 12.4-fold coverage and show that she is genetically most closely related to present-day Arawakan speakers from northern South America, suggesting that the ancestors of the Lucayans originated there. Further, we find no evidence for recent inbreeding or isolation in the ancient genome, suggesting that the Lucayans had a relatively large effective population size. Finally, we show that the native American components in some present-day Caribbean genomes are closely related to the ancient Taino, demonstrating an element of continuity between precontact populations and present-day Latino populations in the Caribbean.

Rick Kearns: Indigenous roots inform author's latest work

[Apologies for this long overdue post. As with Jorge Estevez's piece below, both articles will be republished in Issues in Caribbean Amerindian Studies]

*reproduced with the permission of the author*

Indigenous roots inform author's latest work
by: Rick Kearns

Indian Country Today May 02, 2007

An interview with novelist Tina Casanova

OLD SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - In 2004, a DNA study of a sample of present-day Puerto Ricans found that nearly 70 percent had indigenous mitochondrial DNA. The results would force historians and others to re-examine Puerto Rican history and, eventually, Puerto Rican identity. A new fictional narrative examines this indigenous legacy.

Novelist Tina Casanova's ''The Last Sounding of the Conch'' traces a Puerto Rican family 20 generations back to their Taino roots in the context of a modern mystery. In Old San Juan, at the Center for Advanced Caribbean Studies of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, she spoke with Rick Kearns about her research into the indigenous history of the island and of her own family.

Rick Kearns: Ms. Casanova, how did you come across the theme of your latest novel?

Tina Casanova: My background is in historical novels. In them I am recreating our histories in a fictionalized form. They are basically not novels, but fictionalized history. What I was missing was the reconstruction of our indigenous heritage that I didn't want to touch because it's such a difficult subject. These ideas were in conflict with me because I was raised as indigenous. Nevertheless, I heard in school that Indians hadn't existed for some time [in Puerto Rico]. But then, I was born in a bohio [a traditional Taino dwelling] made of straw, I slept in a hammock, I ate yucca, malanga, nyame and calabasa. My mother made casaba bread for breakfast. I played with archaeological pieces that my father found when he was planting bushes on the farm. He dug up a stone hatchet and he said, ''Here is a stone of sunlight'' [a Taino phrase coming from the idea of stones coming out of sunrays]. I played with all those things but I had no awareness of my mother being indigenous. I had no awareness that I was Indian, because they had been ''destroyed.'' That's why it was a little hard for me to work on this theme.

Rick Kearns: Tell me about the story in this most recent work.

Casanova: ''The Last Sounding of the Conch'' is the novel in which I try to recreate what I have just been talking about: taking real historical facts as a foundation. I create a society that conforms to the historical data and I travel through it by following 20 generations.

Rick Kearns: How was it that the indigenous came to be the Boricua that you encounter in the 21st century here in Puerto Rico in Borinquen, and where does the title come from?

Casanova: I set the novel in Chimborazo, which is a place that does exist. It sits between [the towns of] Florida, Ciales and Manati. It is in the calcareous zone because that's where the Enchanted River runs. It is the longest, most completely explored subterranean river in the world. I recreate a mythic, magical place, because it has all these elements, the mountain, the calcareous zone; it has a drain that goes into the Enchanted River. It is the ideal site, with so many caves, for a culture to hide itself and wait, and to wait for a victory. So it is that they can live there or that they could leave and be absorbed. What happens is that they survived. ''The Last Sounding of The Conch'' then is the following.

Chief Aracibo - which is for whom the town of Arecibo is named - decides that the Spaniard is not God, but it wasn't he who [first] decided this. That was found out 15 years beforehand in Hispaniola, now Dominican Republic and Haiti, because it was there that some of the first Spaniards died in Fort Nativity and then [the indigenous] knew immediately that the Spaniard was not God. That was a myth that had to be broken.

It had been 15 years that the Spaniards had been dying like flies, first from the diseases and second from when the Indians started attacking them. Then Aracibo decides, in 1508, ''We know for what they have come, we will declare guasabara,'' which is to declare war. He has a cemi [ancestor statue] of gold that the greedy Spaniards wants. Aracibo says the war will start, but first he engages a medicine man to take the cemi to the Chimborazo Mountain and hide it. Then, when they have won the war - when they have killed off all the Spaniards - he would sound the conch again and the cemi Yucahu, his god, will return again to Arecibo. The conch never sounded that last time. They did not win it in the way one wins a conventional battle; but there are many ways to win ...

And now, when we find out from this study that we have 60 percent indigenous DNA in our blood ... well, then I believe we have won. It is a triumph.

Remember that the Spaniard stole our history from us on top of stealing our gold, because they wrote the history that was convenient to their purposes.

Rick Kearns: Why did they say the indigenous were exterminated?

Casanova: For many reasons, but for me there are two very important ones. One was religious; the other, economic. First, they had decided that the Indians - the indigenous - were people. The blacks, no. The black man had no soul, according to the Catholic Church, so he was not a person. For the Christian, he was not a person.

Rick Kearns: That concept of the indigenous as a human being, did that come from las Casas? [Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish priest sent to the Antilles who was the first European to assert that ''Indians'' were human.]

Casanova: Yes. Remember that we had the Catholic kings who were closely linked to Rome. Rome named them as such by a series of deceitful maneuvers that were not very clear. They were beginning to unify Spain and they were beginning to win lands for the crown. The last thing the Catholic kings wanted was a scandal because here they were massacring Indians and it was because of that that they sent this friar, Bartolome de las Casas, whose integrity was also questionable as he had black and Indian slaves. He had a black slave given to him as part of his property. While history did not note this in any written form - there were records of de las Casas' slaves elsewhere - the chronicles say he came here and he did protect the Indians because, by then, the Indians were people to the Catholic Church. Whatever they did with the black African slave was not a problem because they were not people; they were even considered a little less than an animal. Because of this we have, all through the generations, blood on our hands.

That's how we have a clear view of that scene; when I go to the chronicles I read them with a very critical perspective ... with a perspective that is very, very selective, looking for the history behind the history. I say that I am recovering our history from the erasures of that official history.

Rick Kearns is a freelance writer of Boricua heritage who focuses on indigenous issues in Latin America.

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Chasing the Ana

Taiguey to ALL our people,

This is to keep you informed as to the progress of Taino Almestica and voyage partner Derrick Mayoleth’s attempt to circumnavigate via Kayak the beautiful island of Boriken.

For those of you who may not know him, Taino has been involved with our restoration efforts for many, many years. He resides in New York, but his roots on the island are extensive. One of his goals is to bring attention to our existence as a people. Taino is a member of Guabancex Wind and Rain Society. Our organization is dedicated to learning, researching, and disseminating information on our material culture, folklore, language, etc to everyone. Most important, to our own Caribbean people on the islands, in the USA and wherever they may be spread, across the four directions.

Bo Matum
Jorge Baracutei Estevez

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
driving on the rooftop

Thanks to Carrie Medina of Kayak Scuba we had a great time on the beach at Punta Salinas in Levittown. I had my first chance to look at how my Alaw Bach survived the trip and sad to see a small bit of damage to the gelcoat in the tail section. The boys at American Airlines must have dropped somthing pretty heavy on it. Luckily it did not break through the glass and I could make a quick repair. With that done Taino and I took our kayaks out for their first dip in the warm Atlantic waters. Playing in up for the cameras and occasionally catching glimpses of the coastline disappearing into the distant west. We brought our kayaks up to the beach and prepared for the blessing. With a small candles and ritual smoke Uatibili Baez, the Spiritual leader of Movimiento Indigina Jibaro Boriqua, (movijibo.org) gathered us into a circle. Our hands reached out to one another's hands. Carrie, her children, Jose, Nydia, Taino, Yvonne and myself stood quietly on the warm sand as he passed around inside the circle performing a ritual blessing passed down through generations. When the blessing was complete you could sense everyone in the circle let go of a breath as if their engeries were pushing the blessing along.Later we gathered at Carrie & Jose's home in Levittown where we can bunk down for the night. Taino and I took a few moments to look over our battle plans for the first few days and discussed an interesting weather forecast that may force our first couple days short. But we're chomping at the bit to get moving.In a night of fun, good food, and laughter, Carrie took a few moments to paint her son's initials on my kayak. We paused just for a moment to take it in, before moving on to the party at hand. Taino had an early night and I am getting ready to sleep myself. But something unique. I'm setting up my tent on the rooftop of their house. Tonight I will sleep on a rooftop, under a bright full moon, litttle clouds and starts in Levittown, Puerto Rico. Tomarrow the sea calls. . .* sorry no pictures this evening. The bloody computer I'm on won't read discs. LOL! But hey, I'm happy for the connection!


Chasing the Ana:
Levittown Puerto Rico, August 1, 2007, 10:00 am, Team Post - Day One A slightly delayed launching of ''Chasing the Ana Puerto Rico 2007''

Officially took off as a communications radio announces afternoon predicted thunderstorms, and a small craft advisory with swells 5 to 7 feet. The launch, originally scheduled for 6 am, was delayed due to an inability to access the put-in until after 8:30am.''Great way to start an expedition'' said Derrick Mayoleth, as paddling partner Taino Almestica waits in calm waters of a protected bay for Mayoleth to secure his gear and get in the water.Almestica and Mayoleth met face to face for the first time just the day before at the home of José Quiñonez of http://www.kayakscuba.com/ where they went over ocean charts, discussed possibilities and shared a beer in anticipation of the next 28 days of sun and water.Ground support crew Nydia Kien of Wisconsin, Yvonne R. Le Guillou of Guayama, PR, Carrie Medina, and José Medina of San Sebastián, PR arranged for lodging, food, transportation, interpretation, last minute gear, and a blessing ceremony by Uatibili Baez of http://www.movijibo.org/ the day before.When asked why he was taking on such an expedition, Almestica said, ‘’ I am not doing this for self recognition, but for the Taino people… the younger people who will be watching this. I want them to say, ‘I saw his circumnavigation of our homeland, and I know my ancestors paddled these same seas, and I think I can do it faster or better’.’’ Almestica said, ‘’I want to inspire the Taino youth to reclaim their ancestral culture.’’ This expedition was originally planned by Mayoleth who has the hope of ‘’Bridging the cultural gaps between Puerto Rico and the USA.’’ From the words of ground support crew member Carrie Medina, ‘’It is doing just that, even before the launch day, as peoples from 3 differing cultures (Indio, Puerto Rico and midwest USA) and 2 countries are coming together developing bonds of friendship, enhanced by our differences.’’

Chasing The Ana Team Blog Day Two
Foto by Nydia Kein, ground support team Manati, Puerto Rico, August 2, 20079pm, Team Post - Day Two.

Almestica & Mayoleth have made it to the shores of the small city of Manati and are camping in front of the ancient burial grounds on Playa Esperanza. Mayoleth is a bit sunburned, but the men are doing well. 2 days of paddling in 5-7 foot swells has positioned them a bit short of the hope of reaching Arecibo by today, but the afternoon of the 3rd should find them at the mouth of Rio Grande de Arecibo. ''It's been windy and cold at night, so at least we haven't had a problem with mosquitos,'' said Almestica. To see a map of the possible and actual landing places follow this link. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-_ZY.bRQycqSbUZInAGokcEs4xLS6pPA-?cq=1