The original population of Taino, or Arawaks, was mostly deported by the Spanish to work in the mines of Hispaniola, where they died out by 1550.

Genetic specimens of natives of Cuba show that, in late pre-Columbian times, the island was home to agriculturalists of Taino ethnicity, but a relict population of the original hunter-gatherers remained in western Cuba in the form of the Ciboney people.

The Taino developed the hammock ( the name derives from the Taíno term hamaca ) which was first encountered by the Spaniards on the island they subsequently named Hispaniola.

While only the Carib remain among the original Antillean populations of Ciboney, Taino, and Carib, the Orinoco Arawak tribes, who served as the root of all the before-mentioned groups of island people, have also survived on mainland South America.

This study, under the Taino genome project started in 1999 through a grant from the National Science Foundation, tested mitochondrial DNA throughout the island, identifying that-10 percent of Puerto Ricans today are of Amerindian descent.

( The Taino word for " island ", cairi, became cayo in Spanish and " cay " in English " key " in American English.

As some of the African imports to the island came from Portuguese posts in West African where a Portuguese lingua franca was already in usage some of these words too were absorbed into creole as well as lexical items from the native Taino Indians of the island.

Diseases inadvertently brought by the Spanish previously unknown to the native inhabitants wiped out the vast majority of the Taino Indians on the island ; the colonizers thus began importing massive numbers of African slaves to replace the natives.

Indigenous Taino had been living in the area for approximately a millennium before this, but this was the first European habitation on the south of the island.

The Taíno chief Mabodamaca, one of the most important chieftains of the Island of Boriken ( Taino name for the island of Puerto Rico ) during the 18th century, ruled the region of the ' Guajataca ' ( Taíno name for the northwestern region of Puerto Rico ) where Isabela was originally founded.

He designated as Taino, the ancient language of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Located in the center of the island, about an hour and a half from San Juan, in a region of archaeological value where the Taino Indians inhabited, first inhabitants of Puerto Rico.

Haitian Vodou ( also known as Voodoo in the United States ) is a syncretic mixture of Roman Catholic rituals introduced during the French colonial period, African beliefs, with roots in the Yoruba, Kongo and Dahomey mythology, and folkloric influence from the indigenous Taino Amerindians that once populated the island.

The area that Hayuya dominated is considered to be the " birth place " of the Taino culture in the island.

However, the Spaniards in the island did not respect the treaty and continued to enslave and destroy many of the Taino villages.

They largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated the Taino who were resident on the island at the time.

It is derived from the Taino name for the island of Hispaniola, Quisqueya.

The bay and surrounding area was originally inhabited by the Taino people.

His father was reportedly named Taino.

Later explorers found many varieties under an assortment of local names, but the name which stayed was the indigenous Taino name of ' batata '.

Lucayan society was based on descent through the mother's line, which was typical of Taino culture as a whole.

Maize was a recent introduction to the Greater Antilles when the Spanish arrived, and was only a minor component of the Taino and, presumably, Lucayan diets.

Some think it comes from an indigenous word that means " valley " but it's also plausible that Coamo derives its name from Coamex ( or Coamey ), who was a celebrated local cacique ( or " chieftain " in the Taino language ).

The Spanish word was in turn borrowed from the Taino word zabana.

It was created from the words, " Yamaye ," as " Xaymaca. The Taino word means " many springs.

Corozal's local Taino Indian Cacique ( Chief ) was named Orocobix and his tribe was known as the Jatibonicu Taino.

Morovis's local Taino Indian Cacique ( Chief ) was named Orocobix and his tribe was locally known as the Jatibonicu Taino.

They were led by the cacique Orocobix and his group of Taino was known as the Jatibonicu.

Yukiyu was also the Taino name for the region where " El Yunque " resides within.

These maroons some of whom intermarried with the Taino creating a new race of children called ' marabout ', passed down their aspects of Taino culture unto other Haitians today.

Two of these games, one called Areyto, which included religious ceremonies, as well as another game similar to soccer, were played in the batéy ( an arena-like field flanked by huge standing stones depicting images of the Taino religion ).

The name " Lucayan " is an Anglicization of the Spanish Lucayos, derived in turn from the Taino Lukku-Cairi ( which the people used for themselves ), meaning " people of the islands ".

In 552, the Byzantine general Narses briefly restored Italy to the empire by defeating the Ostrogoth king Baduila in what is now known as the Battle of Taginae, the exact site of which is not known, but thought by most scholars to be a few kilometers from the town, in the plain to the west at a place called Taino.

Batéy was the name given to a special plaza around which the native Caribbean Taino Indians built their settlements.

Hayuya ( born c. 1470s ) was the Taino Cacique ( Chief ) who governed the area in Puerto Rico which now bears his name ( which is now spelled " Jayuya ").

The " National Indigenous Festival " ( Festival Nacional Indígena ) which honors the memory of Hayuya and the Taino heritage is celebrated annually on November 24 in the town of Jayuya.

Arasibo ( born c. 1480s ) was a Taino Cacique in Puerto Rico who governed the area which is now named after him ( now spelled Arecibo ).

Cohoba is an old Taino Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which psychedelic ground seed of the cojóbana tree was snufed in twin nasal Y-shaped pipe also called Cohoba.

This was after discovering that the fort of La Navidad, which he had constructed during his first trip, had been totally destroyed by the native Taino people.

Throughout Mexico, from pre-Mexican times to the present, barbacoa ( the name derives from the Caribbean indigenous Taino barabicu ) was the original Mexican barbecue, using the many and varied moles ( from Nahuatl molli ) and salsa de molcajete, which were the first barbecue sauces.

Additionally Reyes acted in and co-produced ( with her husband ) Taino, a short film which was screened at the 1999 New York International Latino Film Festival and at the 2001 Los Angeles Latino Film Festival.