Introduction - Adventure Guide to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao - page 2

Regional History
Pre-Columbian Inhabitants
Archeologists and historians can trace the history of the
Netherlands Antilles back to the Caiquetio Indians , a sub-
group of the extensive South American Arawak tribe. Ara-
wak history is sketchy, but it is generally believed that these
early Amerindians followed migrating herds of animals from
the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains in South America, north on the
Amazon River and its tributaries into the Orinoco Valley (in modern-day
Venezuela and Colombia). From there, they made their way to the north-
ern coast and continued across the Caribbean Sea to the Antilles Islands.
Because the tribe split into several groups as it traveled, their culture
diversified, but their language remained fundamentally the same. Early
European explorers found tribes of Arawakan-speaking Lucayo, Igneri,
and Taino Indians when they landed on islands in the north and mid-
Caribbean. But, people calling themselves Arawaks were not discovered
until the late 16th century when British sailors landed on Trinidad.
Arawak Indians still live in Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and French
Guiana. However, they have become extinct in the Caribbean as a pure,
distinctive race. Most of what we know about the Arawaks comes from
research done by a friar named Ramón Pané after the Spanish settled
Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic/
Haiti). While his study focused on Taino Indians, it is likely other
Arawakan-speaking tribes had similar highly developed rituals and
sophisticated class distinctions.
Pané wrote that the Taino worshiped images called zemis , which they
carved out of wood, stone, and other natural materials. These icons, in the
form of human and animal figures, are still being uncovered on various
Caribbean Islands along with evidence of the ball courts and dance
grounds where the Indians conducted their ceremonies.
From these and other findings, archeologists theorize that the Arawaks
had a relatively elaborate system of rank and government, and the people
were divided into four classes: slaves, commoners, nobles, and chiefs. The
chiefs lived in special houses, were entitled to exclusive food and clothing,
and received deferential treatment from the other classes.
Minor chiefs ruled only their own village, but the more important chiefs
had control over entire districts or provinces. Each chieftainship was
inherited through the female line, along with a set of titles and zemis . The
ancestral idols ( zemis ) were presumed to have supernatural powers that
granted the new chief magical skills and extraordinary wisdom.
Arawak men wore a breech cloth ( nagua ) made of cotton or palm fibers,
and the women dressed in aprons made of the same materials but in vari-
ous lengths to denote their standing in the tribe. Both men and women cut
their hair short and, on ceremonial occasions, painted themselves with fig-
ures of their personal zemis .