The Names of Taíno Women Survive in the Colonial Record

 

Their names survive in the colonial record. Their legacy survives in Taíno women today.

Did You Know: Early colonial records from Borikén preserve the personal names of Taíno women whose individual identities are often overlooked in generalized histories of early Spanish colonial period. Historian Francisco Moscoso highlights a June 26, 1516 relación de cacona—a record of clothing provided as payment to Taíno people subjected to the encomienda system at the Real Hacienda de Toa. Among the women named in that document were Yayguana, Ataguas, Ata, Canaca, Caguama, and Buriquena, along with many others. Moscoso traces the record to Aurelio Tanodi’s compilation of documents from Puerto Rico’s Royal Treasury.

These women were not anonymous figures living on the margins of history. They belonged to particular communities, had families, names, identities, and lived through the violent transformation of Borikén under Spanish colonization. Other records preserve additional Taíno women by name. Gu'ahia Taíno, drawing on the work of Puerto Rican scholar Luis Hernández Aquino, also identifies three Indigenous women, Aldonza Ata, Catalina Ata, and Teresa Ata during this same time period. They too were subjected to the encomienda of Kasike Aramana.

On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Women and Girls, observed each September 5, the United Confederation of Taíno People remembers not only celebrated women leaders such as Anakaona, but also the many Taíno women whose lives remain only partially visible in the colonial record. The survival of names such as Yayguana, Ataguas, Canaca, Caguama, Buriquena, Aldonza Ata, Catalina Ata, and Teresa Ata reminds us that our ancestors were not simply categories in colonial documents—they were individual Indigenous women whose lives formed part of the continuing history of our Peoples. The United Nations established September 5 as the annual International Day of the World’s Indigenous Women and Girls to recognize the leadership, knowledge, contributions, and rights of Indigenous women and girls worldwide.

References

Francisco Moscoso. “Los cacicazgos taínos y la historia antigua de Puerto Rico.” 80grados+, July 25, 2025. Moscoso cites the 1516 Toa record and identifies the women Yayguana, Ataguas, Ata, Canaca, Caguama, and Buriquena.

Aurelio Tanodi, comp. Documentos de la Real Hacienda de Puerto Rico. Volumen I: 1510–1519. See pp. 104–107, cited by Moscoso as the source for the June 26, 1516 relación de cacona.

Luis Hernández Aquino. Diccionario de voces indígenas de Puerto Rico. 2nd ed. Río Piedras: Editorial Cultural, 1977. Moscoso includes the work in his bibliography, and Gu'ahia Taíno draws on Hernández Aquino for the colonial record of Aldonza, Catalina, and Teresa Ata.

Roberto Múkaro Agueibaná Borrero. Gu'ahia Taíno: We Speak Taíno — A Classic Taíno Dictionary and Grammar Guide, Vol. 1. United Confederation of Taíno People, 2023. 

Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean Constructed Roads and Causeways

 

Stone structures at the Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes, Ponce, Borikén. Tibes preserves plazas, stone alignments, constructed walks, and other features that demonstrate a long Indigenous tradition of shaping and organizing ceremonial landscapes. Photo: Ligocsicnarf89 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Did You Know: Archaeological sites across the Caribbean preserve evidence that Indigenous Peoples constructed roads, causeways, and other prepared pathways. At Chacuey in Kiskeia (Dominican Republic), archaeologists documented parallel stone-cobble causeways associated with a major ceremonial complex that extended toward the Río Chacuey for more than 600 meters. In Borikén (Puerto Rico), constructed roads and causeways have also been documented at Indigenous ceremonial centers, including Caguana, Tibes, and other sites.

The precise purposes of these structures remain open to interpretation. Some may have facilitated movement between important places, while others may have had ceremonial or political functions—or served several purposes at once. What the archaeological evidence makes clear is that the Indigenous landscape encountered by Europeans was not simply a collection of isolated iukaieke (yucayeque). Taíno Peoples shaped and organized the landscapes around their settlements, rivers, ceremonial centers, and other important places.

Background Sources:
Samuel M. Wilson, The Indigenous People of the Caribbean / archaeological discussion of Chacuey
Miguel Rodríguez, archaeological studies of Indigenous ceremonial centers in Borikén
Irving Rouse, The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus
Sebastián Robiou Lamarche, Taínos y Caribes: Las culturas aborígenes antillanas

Ancient DNA and Taíno Continuity

The genetic legacy of the Taíno. This analysis compares the Indigenous component identified in present-day Puerto Rican genomes with the approximately 1,000-year-old genome of a Lucayan Taíno woman from Preacher’s Cave, Eleuthera, Bahamas. The results demonstrate an element of biological continuity between precolonial Taíno ancestors and present-day Caribbean people. Source: Schroeder et al. (2018), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Figure 3. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Did You Know: Scientists recovered a complete genome from a Lucayan Taíno woman who lived approximately 1,000 years ago? Her remains were excavated at Preacher’s Cave on Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Researchers obtained the ancient DNA from a tooth directly dated to approximately 776–992 CE. Strontium-isotope analysis indicated that she had grown up locally in the Bahamas.

The genome showed that this Lucayan Taíno ancestor was most closely related to present-day Arawakan-speaking Peoples from the Amazon and Orinoco regions of northern South America. This finding supports archaeological and linguistic evidence connecting the ancestors of Taíno Peoples with Indigenous communities of South America.

Researchers also compared her genome with those of present-day Caribbean people. They found that Indigenous components within some contemporary Caribbean genomes are closely related to the ancient Lucayan Taíno genome. The study therefore documented biological continuity between precolonial Taíno ancestors and people living in the Caribbean today—contradicting the long-promoted claim that Taíno Peoples simply became extinct.

Genetic ancestry, however, is only one form of evidence. Taíno identity and belonging cannot be determined by a commercial DNA test or genetic percentage alone. Kinship, community relationships, culture, history, language, and collective self-identification remain essential elements of Indigenous peoplehood.

— © 2019 UCTP Taíno News

References

Schroeder, H., Sikora, M., Gopalakrishnan, S., et al. (2018). Origins and genetic legacies of the Caribbean Taíno. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(10), 2341–2346. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716839115

Fernandes, D. M., Sirak, K. A., Ringbauer, H., et al. (2021). A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean. Nature, 590, 103–110. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2

Dogs in the Indigenous Caribbean

Ritual burial of a dog (aon), Punta Candelero, Humacao, Puerto Rico, approximately 250 BCE–400 CE, Huecoid tradition. Collection of the Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos Dra. Josefina Camacho de la Nuez, Universidad Ana G. Méndez. Image reproduced for nonprofit educational commentary under fair use. View the original museum record.

Did You Know: Dogs lived alongside Indigenous Peoples in the Caribbean long before European colonization? Archaeologists have recovered the remains of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) from precolonial sites throughout the region. These remains have been found in refuse deposits, placed in formal burials, and fashioned into modified objects. These different contexts suggest that dogs held varied and sometimes culturally significant roles within Indigenous Caribbean communities including for the Taíno.

Researchers examined dog remains from sixteen precolonial archaeological sites using measurements and isotope analysis. Strontium and oxygen isotopes preserved in tooth enamel helped investigators distinguish locally raised dogs from dogs that had come from elsewhere. The presence of nonlocal dogs indicates that some were transported between communities—most likely aboard kanoa as people traveled and exchanged goods throughout the islands.

The study also found that these dogs consumed a considerable amount of plant-based food. This pattern is consistent with people intentionally feeding them portions of the foods prepared within their communities. The archaeological evidence therefore presents dogs not simply as wild animals living near settlements, but as companions whose lives were closely connected with Indigenous Caribbean households, travel, and cultural practices. Two Taíno terms for dogs include aon and anli.

— © 2019 UCTP Taíno News

References

Shev, G. T., Laffoon, J. E., Grouard, S., & Hofman, C. L. (2020). An isotopic and morphometric examination of island dogs (Canis familiaris): Comparing dietary and mobility patterns in the precolumbian Caribbean. Latin American Antiquity, 31(3), 632–638. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2020.58

Columbus and the Enslavement of Taíno People

Did You Know: On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus decided to take six Taíno people with him upon his return back to Spain. This act was the root of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a 1493 letter written to Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus offered his patrons "slaves as many as they shall order be shipped" in exchange for the ships and resources needed for a second voyage. When he returned to the Caribbean, in February 1495, Columbus took by force 1600 Taíno to be enslaved. 560 slaves were shipped to Spain; 200 died en route, probably of disease and or abuse. After legal proceedings, the survivors were released and ordered to be shipped home. Others of the 1600 who were enslaved by Columbus and his men were distributed among the Spanish-colonial settlers. - © 2019 UCTP Taíno News 

References 

The Diario of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America, 1492-1493. (1989). University of Oklahoma Press. 

James C. Clark of The Sentinel Staff. (2018, October 6). How Columbus created slave trade that changed world's economy. OrlandoSentinel.com. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1992-05-17-9205160196-story.html

Did You Know: A Taíno Agricultural Ceremony Was Mistaken for Desecration?

 
Did You Know: One of the earliest Spanish accounts from Kiskeia records an incident in which Taíno men took Christian religious images from a chapel and buried them in a cultivated field, declaring that the crops would now grow well and abundantly. Friar Ramón Pané, writing in the late fifteenth century, interpreted their actions through a Christian colonial worldview, describing them as an intentional desecration and mockery of the images. Yet Pané's own account preserves an important detail: the Taíno explicitly connected the burial of the images with the fertility and productivity of the cultivated field.

Seen from a Taíno cultural perspective, the incident tells a very different story. Taíno spiritual and agricultural practices were deeply interconnected, and semí (cemí) could embody spiritual powers associated with fertility, food production, and the forces sustaining life. Contemporary Taíno leaders rebuke claims of desecration. Several modern scholars have also questioned the colonial interpretation of the incident as simple "desecration." The Christian images would have been understood within an existing Taíno spiritual framework and treated as powerful sacred objects. Their potency could be placed into relationship with the cultivated earth. In other words, actions the Spanish interpreted as contempt would have represented an Indigenous attempt to understand—or even test and incorporate—the spiritual power claimed for these unfamiliar sacred images.

The consequences demonstrate how deadly such cultural misunderstandings could become under colonial rule. Pané reports that after the incident was brought to Bartolomé Colón, acting as governor in his brother Christopher's absence, proceedings were brought against those responsible and the Taíno men were publicly burned alive. Their deaths remind us why early colonial chronicles must be read critically: European writers recorded invaluable information about Taíno life, but they also interpreted what they witnessed through their own religious beliefs, political interests, and cultural assumptions. Recovering Taíno history therefore requires us not only to read what the chroniclers wrote, but also to examine the Indigenous meanings that may still be visible beneath their interpretations.

References:

Ramón Pané. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Written ca. 1498. New edition with introductory study, notes, and appendices by José Juan Arrom; translated by Susan C. Griswold. Duke University Press, 1999.

José Juan Arrom, ed. Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios: el primer tratado escrito en América. Based on the account of Fray Ramón Pané. [For the English scholarly edition: Duke University Press, 1999.]

Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo. Cave of the Jagua: The Mythological World of the Taínos. University of New Mexico Press, 1988. The National Park Service's historical documentation specifically cites Stevens-Arroyo's analysis of this episode, noting that the Taíno treated the Catholic images as cemíes and that the Spanish interpreted this as desecration.