The Taino Survival
In 1999, the University of Puerto Rico asked 56 volunteers with Taino Indian features to volunteer for a DNA test. Seventy percent were found to have Indo-American DNA. Later, they asked for 38 more volunteers with no known family resemblance to Taino features. Fifty-three percent had the DNA. Outside of the DNA tests, the culture of the Taino people never really disappeared and many Puerto Ricans have maintained the Taino identity over the many centuries. Most historians say they were extinct within 40 years of meeting Columbus, yet their language and customs had an immediate and persistent impact on the Puerto Rico, Cuba and other nations. Puerto Ricans affectionately call themselves Boricua, based on the Taino name for the island, Boriken. Cuba, after going through many colonial names settled on an abbreviated form of the original Cubanascnan. The Taino suffered greatly in the days of the conquest, as documented by Bartolomé de Las Casas in his work, "Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies".
Chief Torres, head of one of the organized Taino organizations was kind enough to respond to some questions about the Taino extinction myth and the persistent of the Taino nations.
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Speaking only on behalf of the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation and its Taino tribal bands located in Puerto Rico, Florida and New Jersey, and thus not speaking for the other Taino groups throughout the Caribbean and United States. I will would like to make the following statements.
RVazquez
We often hear of the Taino, Arawak and Caribs spoken within the same sentence. What relationship did these people have before Columbus?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Basically the Taino and Arawak people are one in the same. We call ourselves Tainos. Some historians and English Anthropologists have confused us with the Arawak people of South America. This may be due to the fact that we are a racial mix of southern Arawak and that our Taino dialect or language is a part of the Arawakan family group of languages. The Carib people of the lesser Antilles are related to the Tainos of the Greater Antilles. As the Carib originally came from the South America without women so they took and inter-married with our Taino women. The Carib people of South American are not directly related to us the Tainos of the circum Caribbean-Florida Diaspora.
RVazquez
When did the idea of Taino extinction first become wide-spread?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
When the Spanish made us subjects of the King of Spain, forbidding us to speak our native Taino language and converted us into their Christian faith. The colonial European forces in the Caribbean promoted the extinction of our people via the false accounts of the Spanish historians. This extinction story was started in the 1500s and became wide spread after 1799 via the propaganda that was spread to the children in the public school systems in Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean.
Please read the following http://www.taino-tribe.org/tainos.htm
RVazquez
Why do you believe it was important for those perpetuating this myth to have others believe it?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
I feel that they have perpetuated this myth to create their newly found colonies in the Americas and to justifying themselves in taking our Taino tribal homelands. To put it simply. If you do not have an indigenous people around who can legally lay claim to the land, then the legal owners become the sons of conquering ones. If the sons of Columbus recognize the Taino people as a nation, if would automatically open up a legal door via the International court for the signing of treaties and open agreements on land reform issues in the Caribbean and Florida Diaspora. I believe that they will do everything in their power to stop us and to make us look like fools in the eyes of the general public. Lets face it, I do not think that they (The Europeans) want to open up a 500 year old can of worms
RVazquez
After the United States came into Boriken in 1898, are you aware of any policies that affected the Taino identity directly?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
I would say that the United States Government along with the support of colonial Government of Puerto Rico, had started shipping Taino descendants and other non-Taino Puerto Rican people out of the country in the late 1800s as agricultural workers. This displacement of local populations from the central mountains range of Boriken would brake apart many Taino Jíbaro campesino families. They shipped them to far away places like Hawaii and to other parts of the United States of America. The Taino people had been also taken to American Indian schools in the United States, view http://www.taino-tribe.org/us-Indian-schools.htm
RVazquez
When was the last time there a cohesive Taino identity and group that identifies themselves as such? Are there parts of Puerto Rico (or other nations) where the identity has always remained cohesive and the influence can be seen?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
I would say that any place on this planet where our Taino people travel we seem to find ways of pull together as a community. I know that the Taino people in small groups have always remained cohesive as far back as the late 1500s. You still find some barrios throughout the central mountain of Puerto Rico, where our Taino culture and people are very much alive and growing. In places like Jayuya, Utuado, Orocovis, Morovis, Caguas, Ciales, Yabucoa, Yauco and Las Marias, you find pockets of Taino cultural survival. You have other parts of the Island that also maintain Taino cultural values. It was in the late 1960s that we as a Taino tribal nation reorganized and reaffirmed our presence in Puerto Rico. Due to the past population displacement from Puerto Rico to the United States you find historically the following. In the early 1970s in the State of New Jersey and later on in the State of Florida, you find organized Taino tribal bands of the Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation. In the 1991 time frame you also find a new revival of Taino culture and cohesion within the New York state area started by some local Taino people better known then as "La Asociacion Taina". Today you have many Taino groups in many parts of the United States.
RVazquez
Are there some concrete examples of how Tainos changed Puerto Rican or American culture?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Both Puerto Rican and American cultures in general have absorbed much of our past Taino culture. They eat our foods, cook on Barbecus, use our hammocks to rest on and speak words obtained from our Taino language. Its funny but, If a Puerto Rican person take a bus down town, he calls it a Guagua (bus). This is a word with its origins found in the Taino language. Please review our Taino dictionary. http://www.taino-tribe.org/tedict.html
RVazquez
How do you view the current DNA tests that show a high percentage of Indo-American blood in the Puerto Rican population and the attempts to continue to explain it away?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
I see it as a very positive approach in providing some answers to an age old which tail of an unfounded Taino extinction story. One must ask the question of who is behind this attempt to explain away the Taino DNA. I personally think that the Government of Puerto Rico and some special interest group is behind trying to debunk the Taino DNA research. I feel that they do not want to open up another can of worms. It's funny to hear this Anti-Taino special Interest group that seems to be harping and saying, "It's not Taino Indian DNA, its from the Mexican Indians" Some Indians from Mexico did migrated to Puerto Rico as sugar cane workers in the late 1800 and so did many other indigenous groups long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. I find this to be a very lame excuse by this special group in trying to justify themselves. I who am a surviving Taino Indian blood Chief can except the reality that I have many indigenous bloods within my Taino blood.
The DNA testing in Puerto Rico shows that many so-called Puerto Ricans are in reality Boricua Taino Indian people.
RVazquez
Will you're goals be changed if further DNA testing says that the DNA is from other Indigenous groups?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Why should this matters to us the Tainos? We know that we are a mix of many indigenous racial groups of the Americas. This was part of a three thousand year old pre-Colombian melting pot process that is never ending. This is what make Taino people Taino. It is clear that Indigenous people had been coming to Boriken for over three thousands years. This had taken place long before Columbus and his band of cut throats washed ashore back on a Sunday morning of the month of October 12th 1492.
RVazquez
Have you begun to build relationships with other indios in Latin America that had earlier relationships with the Taino?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Yes, we have made direct contact with other southern tribal nations and have confederated our people in a common struggle for our indigenous rights. We are working together to defend our common indigenous rights throughout the Americas. We are working with Native American Tribal Nations of North and South America, via already established NGO (Non-Government Organization) indigenous working groups from within the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
RVazquez
How have you been received by the officially recognized tribes in the United States?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
They have received us as brothers with open arms. We have signed some peace treaties and look forward to establishing formal diplomatic ties with other Federally recognized tribal nation. There is one thing that binds all Native American Indian people and that is our common indigenous blood that binds us all into a common struggle for the survival of our people. We are of many tribal nations yet we are but ONE American Indian Nation of Amikekia (Real name for the Americas in the Taino language).
RVazquez
What level of recognition, if any, do you seek from the U.S. government?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
We seek to obtain the full Federal and State recognition and mutual respect between our common Governments in Puerto Rico and in the United States.
RVazquez
If you seek recognition, what is the benefit?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
To obtain Respect and what is rightfully ours.
It strange to hear the term benefit as though we are in this for the money. I would like to personally clear up an issue being spread by a special Interest group in Puerto Rico. We are NOT about MONEY, we are about correcting history and honoring of our past Taino ancestors. We with all fairness look to simply receive part of what was taken from us by the colonials back in 1493s and to re-establish a sovereign Taino Tribal nation and our own sovereign homeland.
RVazquez
How does the Taino tribe figure into the Puerto Rico Status debate? (Have you taken a position? Has your group as a whole? Do seek internal sovereignty as other tribes are recognized?)
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Lets answer two questions with one statement. Politics in Puerto Rico is a national sport and I say that one does not sell his mother or one's homeland for all the money in the world. On the political question of sovereignty. I can say that our Taino ancestors struggled for thousands of years before Columbus and the United States to keep our homeland, the "Home of the Brave and land of the Free." Yes we are seeking sovereignty as a Taino tribal nation within our Boriken (Puerto Rico) territorial homeland.
RVazquez
How many members do you have?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
We maybe number 300, 3,000 or 30,000. At this point I can only say that we are an ethnic indigenous people that number in the thousands and that we are still growing as people are still returning back into the Taino family circle or as we Tainos say, "Our people are coming back home." We are still working on a Taino registry and census please view the following page: http://www.taino-tribe.org/reg.htm
RVazquez
What are the basic requirements to be recognized by your tribe?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
That one be of Taino American Indian blood and that one recognizes and respects our tribal nation's sovereign constitution and established tribal laws.
RVazquez
What means are available to determine if someone has Native ancestry?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Our tribal nation provide a genealogy project that provides support to its registered tribal members. We also provide some testing and documentation gathering services via the project (scientific, historical and/or genealogical).
View http://www.hartford-hwp.com/taino/docs/proj-6.html
RVazquez
Many people claim the Taino identity. Do you believe it's important for them to united under an umbrella organization or simply to continue to perpetuate Taino ideas and culture?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Yes they should all united as that will be the only way Taino will obtain the official recognition and status as a sovereign tribal nation. Many people contact us via our tribal nation web site located at http://www.taino-tribe.org or via our Tribal Enrollment information page located at http://www.taino-tribe.org/t-enroll.htm
RVazquez
Some with Taino blood also have Spanish or African blood, how do the two meet in celebrations?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
What matter to us Tainos is that you are a person of Taino Indian blood. On the issue of being Taino or of Taino blood, I can say that one can not serve three masters. This will only create disharmony and confusion. Taino means Good and Noble and that is our Taino way of life. We share a peaceful co-existence in our Taino celebration.
RVazquez
Will we find Spanish descendants who are also Taino, grateful that Columbus came to the Americas? How do they balance a Spanish source of pride with a Native source of despair? What is your view on turning Columbus Day into Día de La Raza? What will you be doing on this day?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
If they change Columbus Day to the Day of The Race. I will still be Protesting Columbus until the day I die. I will never forgive Columbus for all the pain he inflected upon me and my people via the encounter with his fellow Spaniard Hidalgo cut throats.
RVazquez
What is the biggest obstacle in overcoming the myth that you are extinct?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Re-educating people as to the cover-up and mindless creation of this Taino extinction myth. Re-Educating people: "We the Tainos are still here!"
RVazquez
Are there any other misconceptions about your group, or the Tainos in general?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Yes some people say that we claim to be full blood and that we are still running around in the bush with Pre-Colombian Taparabos (Tail-covers). This is not the case as we are mixed blood contemporary Taino people, that live a modern life style as do many Native American Indian people in the Americas.
RVazquez
Is there a promising amount of academic effort to preserve the culture, language and religion of Tainos?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
Yes, some academic professionals that are starting to help us conserve what little remains of our past Pre-Colombian culture. Our Taino way of life and its culture remains alive as long as we Tainos continue to live it and to share it with others.
RVazquez
What would you say is missing from those efforts?
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres
More of the academic educators in Puerto Rico and the United States should be promoting the realization that the Taino people have survived and that we should be respected for who we are today as a people and not keep bringing up our past Pre-Colombian history.
Muchas Gracias, Many thanks
Cacique Pedro Guanikeyu Torres, Principal Chief
El Consejo Tribal Taino de Jatibonicu
La Tribu Jatibonicu Taino de Boriken
PO Box #253
Orocovis, Puerto Rico 00720
E-Mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
La Nacion Tribal Jatibonicu Taino de Boriken
Página Jatibonicu: http://www.taino-tribe.org
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
