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Taino Reading 1

The Taíno people were the largest indigenous group living in the Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas. They had organized villages led by caciques and lived in bohíos, growing crops like yuca, corn, and beans. The Taíno carved wood and petroglyphs, played games like baseball, and left many words that are still used today like barbecue, hammock, hurricane, tobacco, canoe.

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Mehdi Naoume
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214 views4 pages

Taino Reading 1

The Taíno people were the largest indigenous group living in the Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas. They had organized villages led by caciques and lived in bohíos, growing crops like yuca, corn, and beans. The Taíno carved wood and petroglyphs, played games like baseball, and left many words that are still used today like barbecue, hammock, hurricane, tobacco, canoe.

Uploaded by

Mehdi Naoume
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Reading #1: The Taíno people of Boriken

America (which is North, Central and South America) has had people living in it for more than
10,000 years. In fact, millions of people lived in the Americas. They had farms with many
different kinds of plants, fruit, and vegetables. They spoke many different languages. They had
interesting and diverse cultures.

There were different groups of indigenous people who lived in the islands of the Caribbean. The
largest group of people living in these islands were the Taínos. They lived in the islands that are
now Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahama Islands.

The Taíno name for Puerto Rico was Boriken. This is why Puerto Rico is now also called
Borinquen by Puerto Rican people, and why many Puerto Ricans call themselves Boricua. Many
Puerto Rican towns still have the original Taíno name (Caguas, Cayey, Humacao, Guayama and
others).
Taínos in Boriken did not like to fight. They had a very organized society. Taíno villages had
leaders who were called caciques. Taíno houses were made of straw and were called bohíos. The
bohios were clustered together in groups in small villages called “yucayeques”.

The Taínos liked to carve wood and make hammocks from cotton. The hammocks were used for
sleeping at night.

The Taínos played a ball game that is similar to baseball in a small area like this, called a batey:
Taínos painted their bodies with bright colors. Both girls and boys wore gold jewelry. They sang
and danced at ceremonies called “areytos”.

Taínos farmed and hunted small animals. They also ate a lot of fish, especially the people who
lived near the ocean. One of the most important foods they grew was yuca (cassava or manioc).
They cooked yuca and also made bread out of it. They also grew corn, squash, beans and sweet
potato.

The Taíno carved symbols on rocks. These are called "petroglyphs." Here are some examples of
Taíno petroglyphs:
There are many words from the Taíno language that we still use today in Spanish and even in
English! Here are some examples:

Taíno word English word

barbacoa Barbecue

hamaca Hammock

huracan Hurricane

tabaco Tobacco

canoa Canoe

This activity is from, “Teaching about the Taínos, Columbus, and Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a Middle School
English Language Learners Classroom,” a lesson By Alicia Lopez, M.Ed. It will be in the upcoming new edition of
Caribbean Connections: Puerto Rico, published by Teaching for Change (https://www.teachingforchange.org).

Adapted from:
• http://www.elboricua.com/BKTainos_LessonPlan.html
• Chapter 1 of A Young People’s History by Howard Zinn

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