The Taino - are they alive or extinct?

Although due to disease and slavery a vast majority were wiped out under the Spanish, there do seem to be some that have survived. When I was in the Dominican Republic two winters ago, demographic accounts state that a small percentage, such as 1% or less, continue to exist. Also, many of those lines were interbred with the Spanish or others. In the first century after Columbus, many Spaniards were said to have Taino wives, so we can probably assume that Taino blood is mixed up in the people's around the Caribbean.

originally posted by: halfoldman
The Taino (as far as I understand it) is now a collective name for the original inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. This would include the bigger islands of the Antiles, like Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica. In the past history books they were also called the Caribs and Arawak - a distinction based by some anthropologists on language families, but in history the friendly or submissive Indians were termed "Arawak", and the more resistant "Caribs". For decades, perhaps centuries, the Taino were described as numerous, numbering in the millions on the main islands alone. On the bigger islands they formed several states, with a high degree of civilization. The official history says that they were wiped out by the Spanish within 10 years of Columbus' arrival, and they were the first Native Americans he met. What the Spanish did to them makes for heartbreaking reading, and they also endured the first wave of smallpox and other imported diseases. Within a decade of conquest, they were so reduced in number that African slaves were imported as slave labour.
The notion of Native American survival in the Caribbean has been a somewhat romantic pursuit, and much literature focused on the "Caribs" on the Virgin Islands and Dominica.
But now it seems that survival amongst certain families is almost proven, mainly in Puerto Rico, but also in Cuba and some other places.
Nevertheless, the false notion of extinction still prohibits the surviving Taino from getting a proper reserve, land rights or recognition. Some academics remain skeptical, so I'd like to ask: are the Taino extinct or not?

www.youtube.com...
The "extinct people" dance:
www.youtube.com...
Well they certainly seem enthusiastic about things:
www.youtube.com...


[edit on 30-5-2010 by halfoldman]

The Last Tainos - documentary.

What?

There are still real Taino in the Caribbean?

Meeting the real Taino on Cuba.

Oh flip, now I have to re-write my entire thesis!

You're supposed to be extinct!

Oh the horror!

All the 4 million defenseless, peaceful people on Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica they murdered.

What a shame to history.
abagond.files.wordpress.com...

Come to see the people from heaven?

No, I think they came from hell.

I mean the conquistadors, obviously.

But I can imagine Columbus didn't like all that drumming and hopping about.

You try doing that in medieval armour!

Are the Tainos on Cuba extinct?

Yay or nay?

Taino Chief from Jamaica:

Ahoy.

Love King. And love Queen.

But also, in Jamaica there's German Town:

The "last Arawak" people in Barbados.

Both the Spanish and the English once declared the island "uninhabited".

Despite the fact a Taino bridge made of vines went over an "Indian River" for 30 years post-conquest.

But then again Australia was called "Terra Nullius", or uninhabited once too.