I am a descendant of the Taino people, one of the first people from the Americas to have had contact with European peoples. I am also an educator, so naturally, I teach about the culture of my Ancestors. :) The following lesson about the history and culture of the Taino is the first of many in a series called the Taino Cultural Workshops of which I will periodically post on Steemit. Thank you for reading!

Who Are The Taino? part 1

The Taino People are the Indigenous People of the Greater Antilles- their territory spanned from as far west as Florida (Bimini) to as far east as Puerto Rico (Boriken) . There are other Indigenous peoples who lived on nearby islands including the Kalinago (Carib), the Garifuna, and the Lucayans to name a few.

Map of the Caribbean with places marked with original Taino Arawak names

The origins of the Taino are still up to debate, some say they come up from South America by of the Oricono river; others theorize that they may have come from the Andes; and finally, there are some who believe that the Taino may have multiple origins.

The Taino were a matrilineal people who developed a complex social system and were expert agriculturalists.

Families would often work on their crops with the rest of their community

Villages, or yukayekes, dotted throughout the Caribbean, each having their own government of elders and usually a casike or chief as the head. All yukayekes had several large houses, or bohios in which large groups of families would stay, but since many of the community would be extended family, people would move freely from bohio to bohio.